Learning to spell can seem an impossible task to children and probably the least fun of all their learning challenges. These spelling tips and tricks can help make learning how to spell fun and much simpler for your kids:
1. Encourage your child to use the Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check technique. Get them to look at the word and say it out aloud, cover the word, then write it and finally check to see if it is correct.
2. Break down the long list of spellings they are learning. Try to help them learn one or two new words a day rather than the whole list in one go.
3. Try different methods of learning words. Make a puzzle by writing a word on paper and cutting the letters apart. Mix the letters and have your children spell the word by putting the letters in order.
4. Frequently, there will be one part of a word that trips up your child each time. Look at the word together and highlight the part that they find particularly tricky. Can they think of an easy way to remember it?
5. Put the words into sentences, or think of sentences together. This puts the word into context. It also gets them to apply the spelling within writing rather than a ‘list of words.’
6. Use visual approaches to give spellings a fun twist — Think bubble writing and rainbow words.
7. Apply multi-sensory approaches such as spelling out the words with finger paints, stamping them in playdough or writing them in a tray of sand. This is guaranteed to motivate your kids to learn.
8. Let your child play teacher. Let them teach you the words. Sound the words out to them and make the odd intentional mistake to see if they can correct you. These fun verbal and social games are a brilliant way to help your child to learn their spellings.
9. Play word games like Boggle or Scrabble to support learning new words whilst providing a great opportunity for you to have some family fun.
Pobble Education Ltd,
Rosehay,
Tremorvah Wood Lane,
Truro, TR1 1PZ,
Cornwall, UK