tell me something innovative..

[loosinas]

that i can do to make learning tricky words fun ... effective.... for my reception son ?? so far i have posted them around the house and he looks for them but he is not really retaining them and has not managed to get past the first set of 6 yet
thanks x

well we have had a note home to ask us to help them learn their high frequency words... 6 at a time...

I had to do this with my DS. I bought a bag of chocolate chips. After tea, we had "word competitions". For each one he got, he won a chocolate chip. We went over them every day, even as more were added. Chocolate chips are tiny, so not much consumed really. Seems to have helped them stick. I'd rather the school didn't ask us to do this though - I'd prefer they stuck to phonics.

Make up a matching game so you have them face down and turn 2 over at a time looking for a match. THhe repetition of seeing them over and over and having them said out loud should help them sink in without it being too tedious.

We didn't do anything like that in reception, just the phonics and a reading book now and then.

In Y1 DS was not keen on his second lot of words, DS doesn't really like sitting down games. However, I wrote the words on pieces of paper and hid them in the garden and he looked for them and the other way round, always reading each word found. Also, we stuck them to a wall and had a race moving them to the opposite wall (always reading each word). Once he could read a word well, DS enjoyed making a paper ball out of it and aiming it for the recycling bin. The remaining words we stuck to the wall by the dining table so he could always look at them when sat at the table.

Anything active and physical would work with my DS, and variety, timing (e.g. how many can you read in 10 seconds)

DS liked anything that made it a game - eg. how many can you read in 1 minute, me betting him he couldn't manage this word etc....

Doing them over breakfast everyday helped too - regular repetition really helps, & over breakfast - when they're sitting anyway = not interfering with playing time

Dd - who ASKS to sit down and practice her words came as a bit of a shock

We did matching pairs. We also had a magnetic fishing game, we stuck a word to each fish and DD had to catch them.

Word snap where you have to shout out the word.

Magnetic letters on the fridge.

And do funny sentences eg for "what" White Hats Are Terrific