Teaching Spelling at Home

first 100 keywords            second 100 keywords

As many children are absent from school and we face a time of uncertainty, many parents are asking for work at home. As a result, I have attached lists of keywords to this post and ideas on how to teach spelling at home. The lists attached are:

  1. The first 100 keywords (suitable for children who are starting to read/write)
  2. The second 100 keywords (for developing/ more confident readers/writers)

Please do not try and teach all the words to your child. Most children need to practice spelling and reading words many times to remember them! Here are some ideas of how to make spelling fun at home:

  • Make flashcards of no more than 3-4 spellings at a time, practise reading and spelling them until your child has learnt them. Don’t worry if it takes a bit of time- this is perfectly normal. 
  • Add 1-2 new flashcards to the pile when your child has grasped the first few. Don’t forget to keep going back to the previous words.
  • Hide the cards around the house and play find the spelling!
  • Write the words in a tray of sand, shaving foam, washing up liquid. This is messy but fun!
  • Write the words as big as you can and as small as you can.
  • Use rainbow writing to practise your words – each letter can be written in a different colour.
  • Make collages of the words with cut out letters.
  • Write a ‘silly’ sentence with the words!

If your child is a confident reader and speller and knows the words on the lists try the following ideas:

  • Challenge them to find 2-5 new words a day in the dictionary/online. They can use the ideas above to learn to spell and read the words. 
  • Ask them to make ‘collections’ of words e.g. to describe size (tiny, minute, enormous, gigantic, looming), colours (scarlet, ebony, turquoise), movement (stagger, flounce, scamper). Again, use the ideas above to learn, read and spell these new words.

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