How to learn spellings with Y1 child?

[JanePurdy]

The whole experience makes me realise I should never be a teacher.

DD is 5.5, in Y1, gets 10 spellings home a week. She isn't interested in practising her spellings but gets upset when she does poorly in the test - children with 9/10 out of 10 get their name read out in class & a prize.

At the moment we get her to read them then write them out, is there a better way to do it?

Different ways...
you can use look, say, cover, write, check which means she looks at the first word, says it, covers it, writes it and checks it. then the next, etc.
you can write sentences using the words
you can 'test' her on them without learning them and see which bits she struggles to get right (dd had 'said' the other week and she kept spelling it 'siad', so we looked at the fact it was spelled 'sayed' if you gave the ai the ay sound. then she remembered it.)
I also fire a tricky spelling at her every so often, so I knew she gound said tricky, so for a day or two I'd ask her to spell it in the car, in the bath, over dinnrr, etc.
finally we also have the squeebles app which she likes.

Are they based on the phonics they're doing in class? If so, I would always start with the sound- so if they all include 'ar' start by making sure she can spell it and hear it in the different words. Then maybe get her to use magnetic letters or letter cards- put 'ar' in the centre, then ask her to choose and place other letters to make the words.

If they're not based on a particular sound it's more tricky, but I'd still work on breaking each word down into its sounds, and pay particular attention to any tricky parts, e.g. the 'ey' in they.

I don't think they are related to the phonics in class - possibly related to the topics? Although this week has quite a few of what I would call 'magic e' words & my DD calls split digraphs!

I think we struggle partly because I work full time & while DP is at home part time we have a loud & demanding 2 year old at home too...

I like the idea of doing it with magnetic letter or somethingX I think that will engage her a bit more. I will look up the squeebles app too, thanks.

In DD's school (now Y2) they are given sheets to practise the spellings independently. The words are on the left column & there are 3 blank columns. The first is for copying & checking; second is to write by memory & check; third is again write by memory & check. You can try this for some independent learning + writing practise!

DD1 is in yr1, they get 10 spellings a week, some are common words so like were, where, what etc and the rest are the sound of the week so could all be er or ae ou and so on.

I think you need to try and explain to her (much easier said than done) that if she practices them for just a few minutes each day then she will find they aren't as hard as she thinks and then she will do better in the tests which she obviously wants to.

If you can point out patterns in the words that will help her with remembering them long term.

DS2 found bouncing on a trampoline helped him remember, he would bpunce and I would say one letter for each bounce then we would do it together then he would do it on his own a few ties - he's on the autistic spectrum though so found movement useful for all sorts of things like that.

DS3 learns his by using a whiteboard pen to write them out on the patio door. We do a mini test to see what he knows already then look at any he's struggling with a bit more and like Galena said - I fire random words at him at various points in the day.

We do look cover thing, and also getting her to say them when i think of it.

As to actually getting her to DO it, we do this: I tell her when we're going to do it and make sure littler DS knows it's a special time. We sit down to do it when i said. Then, if she shows disinterest or won't concentrate, i say, 'Fine. They're your spellings, not mine. if you want my help you can have it now. If you don't: fine but I won't asK you again.'

It sounds a bit brutal but there is now way I'm going to spend more time than i need to nagging her, and she loves to have my undivided attention.
It has worked so far.

DD's (yr1) school recommend the look, say, cover thing too.

She gets 10 spellings a week which have zero correlation with each other phonetically.

When we walk to school I will also ask her verbally how to spell certain words too.

The best thing we bought in September was a whiteboard for my daughter. She is in Y1 and loves pretending being a teacher. That's how we learn: 10 words every week.

Bath crayons, if you can bear the mess.

My y1 loves "teaching" his 2yo brother. Do you think you could make it into a schools game at home? would the 2yo cooperate? Mine is a hellion lively except when "being the class" and scribbling in an exercise book.

Hi JanePurdy:

We found look, say, cover really didn't work for both DDs

so we tackled it another way.

Day 1 - look over spelling list are their types of words.

joint
choir
avoid
boisterous
point

buoy
oyster
annoying
royal
destroy

They were all mixed up - so first off we grouped them into 5 'oi' words and 5 'oy' words.

the school asked that they wrote each word 3 times - so then I had my DDs write each word three times.

But - because I'm evil - I challenged them to come up with a sentence or sentences using each group:

When they were little (Y1/ early Y2) I'd help them work it out - for these we eventually came up with...

I make it a POINT to AVOID the BOISTEROUS CHOIR so my nose doesn't get out of JOINT

The ANNOYING ROYAL BUOY looks set to DESTROY the OYSTER.

but late Y2 both girls were really into trying to use all their words in one sentence.

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Day 2: have them write out words again (if tricky for them) or give them a little quiz.

Day 3: Quiz. See how they do be very relaxed. 6/10 7/10 quite normal at this stage. Have them write the word they missed 3x.

Day 4: Quiz. A bit more serious. look for a bit of improvement - have them write the words they miss 5x

Day 5 - NOW WE MEAN BUSINESS - any missed words written 7 times.

Day 6 - NIGHT BEFORE THE TEST - maybe will miss one or two - have them write those 10 times.

Morning of the test - practice the words that are giving them trouble on the way into school.

Usually DDs did great on tests but a few days later completely forgot how to spell the words. So as they got older I used to throw in the odd word from older spelling lists into their spelling quiz with me. I personally enjoyed their squeels of 'THAT'S NOT FAIR!' 'THEY'RE NOT TESTING US ON THAT' - but I am entitled to a bit of fun since I'm doing this too!

I usually gave them 1 night off a week - but my weird kids started to enjoy an APP called SQUEEBLES - so I started entering their spellings on that - and they did even more practice. Info on Squeebles here: www.keystagefun.co.uk/spelling-games.html

HTH