Spelling: most compelling!

Spellings, for some, are associated with boring learning by rote, but we put fun and excitement into spelling proficiency, this week holding the House Spelling Bee at school! The Bee is a great way to encourage house spirit between the different years and celebrate those who have worked hard on their spellings.

Inter-house Spelling Bee

The results were as follows:

Years 1/2 – Chalybeate

Years 3/4 – Thackeray

Years 5/6 – Chalybeate

Due to the points system, it resulted in a Thackeray and Chalybeate tiebreaker. Well done to Thackeray won in an intense sudden-death round, to the cheers of the whole school!

Spellings at home

Oxford Owl recognises the importance of spelling for children to become confident writers, have uninterrupted thought, have an adventurous vocabulary, and deliver clear messages. They have a variety of suggestions for supporting children at home. In addition, we recommend the following:

Phonics-   e.g. c-a-tch

       Sounding out or phonics is the most popular way of teaching spelling. Ensure children sound out the three sounds, i.e. c-a-tch, and keep practising.

 Prefixes and suffixes – such as (dis) or (ing), e.g. disadvantage or swimming

¨ Mnemonics – big elephants can always understand small elephants (because)

An excellent strategy for tricky words!

¨ Etymology (the word meanings) – bi (two) + cycle (circle) = bicycle.

¨ Applying rules  – Teaching some of the known spelling rules, such as Q is followed by a U.

¨ Syllabification  – Cur-rent

        Clap out the syllables

¨ Board Games – Scrabble, Upwords, Bananagrams, Boggle, Spinmaster and many more are all great games to play that gamify learning and provide entertainment whilst becoming familiar with spellings. 

¨ Reading – by reading, you are exposed to thousands of words and become familiar with word structure, patterns and formation. Click to find out the importance of reading and how we approach it within the school.