Problems with spellings - y5

[HeyMacWey]

I'm after some advice about supporting my dd with her spelling.

She seems to struggle with knowing what letters to use - sometimes she'll spell a word and it'll have letters on it that you can't here so just seem to be randomly included.

I'm worried that school are not picking up on it as she gets her weekly spellings correct first time round. She does break her spellings down into mini sections to help her remember them.
When you test her a month later she gets them completely wrong as she's forgotten what her strategy was to break them down and is almost like she doesn't hear the word properly.

She doesn't have a problem with spotting wrongly spelt words. Sometimes if she's reading out loud and comes across a word she's unsure of she'll say it as gobbledegook and it's like she's not processing how to read.

I've got parents eve in a few weeks so will bring it up then but interested to know of any strategies to support her.

Is it a case of just repeat repeat repeat and they'll eventually go in or could there be an underlying problem?

DD1 (Y7) has similar problems but we found some solutions at least helped improve some consistent errors:

CGP literacy workbooks Year 4/ Year 5 include things like when to double letters, when to drop the e at the end of a word & words that don't follow those roods. What happens to words when you make them plural - i.e. knife to knives, etc....

St Ambrose spelling pages have on-line quizzes that also work some of these classic spelling rules - maybe start with Year 4 on-line quizzes (most should be marked automatically, but occasionally one won't work):

Year 4: www.saintambrosebarlow.co.uk/16-spellings/48-y4-ed-endings-1

Year 5: www.saintambrosebarlow.co.uk/16-spellings/74-y5-comparatives

Woodlands Junior school has some useful spelling games as well: resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/literacy.html#7

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finally we did a bit of old fashioned scrabble & hangman games to help.

amazon has a lovely flip version: www.amazon.co.uk/Melissa-Doug-Flip-Win-Hangman/dp/B0020UZ1DO/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1423227160&sr=8-7&keywords=hang+man - great for car journeys (although a bit heavy for air travel).

and bananagrams.

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I think you have to see it as a gradual thing - but understanding prefixes/ suffixes/ when to double and not double letters & why/ what happens when you add certain endings (y + s tends to change to ies/ -e + ly - when you drop e/ -f+s to ves when adding s etc...) you will start to make some headway. I personally have my own struggles with spellling - but if you see it as a continuous thing you have to keep working on year on year rather than something you can fix in a few weeks - it helps take the pressure off.

HTH

Oh brilliant - thank you for the links - I'll have a look at them in a bit.

I think because I was always naturally good at spelling I don't actually know any of the rules so can't explain why things are done a certain way.

This also might help:

An inexpensive and easy to use book, that can encourage children with reading, spelling and writing, and really help them to understand Phonics, is reviewed in the MN Book Reviews section. Just search ‘Phonics’.