Welcome back to my mini blog post series on spellings. In this second post I’m going to be sharing some ideas on how to improve the spelling skills of your child.

Breaking words down into syllables: For example: to-ge-ther (you can even clap as you chant or say each syllable) Making this into a  game will be fun and your child will be learning without realising it.

Drawing a picture to match the word: Ask your child to draw a picture of each word, writing the word below and then you can cut these up and use them to make picture reading cards.

Wordsearch: Create a word search puzzle with the words your child has to learn. Looking for the word will help them remember the correct spelling.

Word games: Make up silly ways to remember spelling of words such as You HEAR with your EAR.

Stories: Children are more likely to remember and recognise words if they are writing and reading them. Encourage your child to write a story using their list of spelling words.

Highlighting: Using highlighters or coloured pens to highlight tricky parts of words such as those parts which sound different to the way they are spelled. For example, you could highlight gh in the word rough.

Rearranging letters/sorting letters to make words: This is a fun way to learn. Mixing up the letters of a word and asking your child to write the word out correctly.

Playing games: Playing games such as scrabble, Hangman and Boggle can help your child think about words and their spellings using certain letters.

Hope you have lots of fun trying out some of these techniques…let me know which ones work the best for you!

In the meantime why not view my Frankie Book Series on Amazon which follows the adventures of a boy who is such a bad speller that a mishap with spelling the place name Scilly Isles ends up as Silly Isle which is where his carcopter takes him. We are in the process of creating some spelling activity books to accompany the series so look out for these on Kids Learn Fast.

Elisa x