Doonfoot Primary School. Helping your child with. Spelling at Home

Transcription

1 Doonfoot Primary School Helping your child with Spelling at Home

2 Information for Parents Introduction Being able to spell words correctly is one of the most important writing skills that your child can acquire during his / her school years. It is the task of the school to help children to spell with confidence and independence in their written work. At Doonfoot we are implementing Curriculum Visions as our main spelling resource It is important that home and school work together and we hope that you will continue to support spelling homework by emphasising the need to look carefully at words. The technique which the children use at school and the one which should be used at home is outlined in the following pages.

3 Spelling ability depends on children looking very carefully at words with the intention to remember and reproduce them. You may hear your child say, My teacher has asked me to LaSaCaWaC these words What does LaSaCaWaC mean? LaSaCaWaC is the contraction for: Look and Say and Cover and Write and Check This is the strategy which must be used by the child when learning to spell. It is very important that the child is encouraged to use this strategy right from the early stages of spelling. Parents can help the child establish good spelling habits by following this procedure.

4 Helping with Spelling Homework 1. Ask your child to look carefully at the word and if appropriate, ask if he / she can identify letter clusters or any letter patterns. e.g. came, lame, tame. 2. Ask your child to say the word to him / herself and - if it helps say it out loud. 3. Now cover the word and ask your child to picture it in his / her mind. 4. Ask your child to write the word from memory - he / she must not copy it. 5. Finally, ask your child to check what he / she has written. If there is a mistake, identify how the mistake was made e.g. missing letter, letter reversal. The child should score out the incorrect letter or letters. Then go back to step 1 and repeat the steps until the child has written the word correctly. N.B It is imperative that the child is encouraged to self check the accuracy of his / her spelling by referring to appropriate resources e.g. word list, dictionary, thesaurus.

5 How do you spell ? When your child is involved in a personal writing task at home and asks how to spell a word, the following procedure should be used: 1. Ask the child to have a go at writing the word. 2. If the word is mis-spelt, or the child is not able to begin writing it, write out the word clearly. 3. Do not let the child start to copy the word. Instead, pronounce the word clearly and draw attention to important features. 4. Ask the child to pronounce the word. 5. Ask the child to study the word. Once the child is happy that the spelling has been memorized, cover the word up. 6. Ask the child to write the word from memory. 7. The child then checks the word against the one you have supplied. 8. If a mistake has occurred. The child repeats the procedure paying particular attention to the part which caused the problem. The child should be allowed to score out the incorrect letter or letters.

6 In school, words needed by the child for independent writing are written in a personal alphabetical word list for future reference. You may wish to keep a similar notebook at home for your child. Please do not hesitate to contact the school if you require more information, advice or assistance on helping your child to spell words confidently and independently. Best wishes Caroline Connell Head Teacher

7 Commonly used words Dolch List a all after always about apple home and am again around better baby horse away are an because bring back house big at any been carry ball kitty blue ate as before clean bear leg can be ask best cut bed letter come black by both done bell man down brown could buy draw bird men find but every call drink birthday milk for came fly cold eight boat money funny did from does fall box morning go do give don't far boy mother help eat going fast full bread name here four had first got brother nest I get has five grow cake night in good her found hold car paper is have him gave hot cat party it he his goes hurt chair picture jump into how green if chicken pig little like just its keep children rabbit look must know made kind Christmas rain make new let many laugh coat ring me no live off light corn robin my now may or long cow Santa Claus not on of pull much day school one our old read myself dog seed play out once right never doll sheep red please open sing only door shoe run pretty over sit own duck sister said ran put sleep pick egg snow see ride round tell seven eye song

8 the saw some their shall farm squirrel three say stop these show farmer stick to she take those six father street two so thank upon small feet sun up soon them us start fire table we that then use ten fish thing where there think very today floor time yellow they walk wash together flower top you this were which try game toy too when why warm garden tree under wish girl watch want work good-bye water was would grass way well write ground wind went your hand window what head wood white hill who will with yes