One activity that your child should do each day is writing. And, as I have been hearing from parents, the children are having trouble spelling. Here are a few things to remember:
— Many children are just learning to spell words correctly. To start, they learn to say the word slowly and write down the sounds they hear. First sound, middle sound, ending sound. As their sound skills improve, the words they write get closer and closer to the correct ‘dictionary’ version.
Help them to write down what they hear, congratulate them for the sounds they write correctly and then show them the ‘dictionary spelling’.
— For words that they use often in their writing (such as because, there, school ) it is helpful for them to have the correct version to copy (especially since English has so many spelling exceptions!) Each child also has some favourite words they write over and over (dinosaurs, unicorns and rainbows are popular as well as family member names and favourite places) In the classroom words are posted on a ‘word wall’ and they each have personal word lists to use.
I thought it would be helpful for your child to have their own spelling dictionary to use at home. If you have a printer, please feel free to print this one out. It has commonly used words as well as space to add their own. (If you don’t have a printer perhaps you can staple several pieces of paper together and help your child make their own dictionary).
Let me know how it goes!