Ideas to improve yr2 DD's spellings please

[sleepwouldbenice]

Hi

would like some ideas to help with the above please.

She is a confident reader, so there is no problem with her recognising all the sounds from the various phonics phases - This might even be part of the problem as its almost like she is not having to think about how to sound words out anymore and therefore she struggles to identify how to break a word down to spell it?

She can do well from memory eg spelling tests.

She is also good at general writing (she can remember rules like when to use speech marks, or using connectives) and description (quite inventive)

But she just doesn't seem to be able to spell very well - as I say missing out some of the sounds or picking the wrong group of letters to make a sound (eg ee instead of ea) or not being able to recall different ways of making the same sound.

Any suggestions welcome - on line games, books, general games, rules (eg drop the e and add i-n-g) to help me re enforce with her?

Thanks very much

She might find the Squeebles app fun. However, if she can spell the words in tests, it might just be the heat of creativity distracting her. Can you encourage her to self-edit her writing so she can correct at least some of the errors?

I think teaching her to self-edit is the way to go - as you have discovered, it's possible for someone to do brilliantly in spelling tests but not spell brilliantly in independent writing.

Alongside the self-editing, just ensure she keeps reading. That way she will be exposed to correctly-spelled words of all kinds of construction over and over again. It will stick eventually if she's doing it alongside the self-editing.

Also, if she asks you how a word is spelled when she's writing, throw the question back at her: 'How do you think it's spelled?' and then ask if she can think of any other ways of spelling it if she picks the wrong one. Writing the different 'possibilities' out above each other is also a useful tactic - when she sees it on paper, it's likely she will be able to pick out the one that is right.

I still use these methods with my DDs who are 11 and 13. They do both like using Spellodrome as well.

Maybe she would enjoy spelling games, such as Scrabble.

Thanks for the suggestions

Been doing the self editing as the teacher suggested a few sentences a day the her correcting. Has worked a bit and improved focus but looking for other fun ideas for variety.

Will try other ideas too, she loves on line games. I think going through different ways to spell sounds might be a way too, is there any website with all this on to save my brain.....

Spelling tennis.

You suggest the word. She does the first letter, you do the second etc. person who finishes the word wins. If they get a letter wrong it passes to the other person. Good with words with double letters or ea / OU sounds. Great to play in the car!

Hi sleep

My DDs were much the same. I'd relax about it this year.

Next year (Y3):

Start off by choosing your battles:

For me it was WITH not whith/ REALLY not realy and other words frequently used by DDs and usually misspelled. I'd simply read through her school work and consistently go for those frequent mistakes (a few at a time) until they were no longer an issue.

I didn't discover these until Y4 (so can't swear Y3 isn't too early still) - but in Y4 I started two things:

I used the spelling games on the St. Ambrose spelling page: www.saintambrosebarlow.wigan.sch.uk/spellingpage.htm - this does have Y3 games. Warning - most will correct them for you - but a few don't work - so you do need to be around.

I also stumbled across the CGP literacy workbooks: www.amazon.co.uk/KS2-English-Literacy-Workbook-published/dp/B00GX2949W/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1402568759&sr=8-6&keywords=CGP+literacy+workbook+Year+3 - We used year 4 - but this is the link for Y3. Obviously this is about grammar/ punctuation - but in amongst this are lessons about when to double consonants, i before e, etc... - and it all seemed to help DD1 a lot with her spelling.

HTH

Thanks to all again> I am not too worried about it honestly.

I am actually a little relieved in some ways - she finds lots of things very easy which is of course nice but to have her have to think and work at something is also good for her in a way as well s she doesn't think school is too easy