Spelling Practice at Home

Okay, so you have one week of helping your second grader practice their spelling words under your belt!  Yay!  However, you might be thinking something like "This sorting thing might get old pretty quickly," or "I think my son/daughter just memorized how the sort looks, but isn't internalizing the features."  (At least, these are some things I would be thinking!)

Here are my answers to these concerns.  The spelling sort may be repetitive, but the sort does help students to compare/contrast familiar features with new ones they are encountering.  (Example:  Student is familiar with the short a sound in words and is now learning how to spell the long a sound. They can contrast the known short a in "can" with the new long a in "cane".)  Persevere in the sorting for homework.  Repetition for young children is important.  And after all, the sorting should take less than five minutes each night.

To switch things up a bit, sorts can be completed as a written sort.  Students can write their words in the appropriate categories as you read off their words.  This helps students to hear the various features and practice writing their words at the same time.  Bonus!

If your child needs additional activities to practice their spelling words or more variety in their nightly homework, here are a few ideas:

- Rainbow words:  students write each letter of their spelling word in a different color pencil or crayon
- Wrong-hand writing:  students write each of their spelling words with their non-dominant hand
- Hidden words:  students draw and color a picture and then hide their spelling words within the picture for you to find
- Spelling pyramids:  students create a pyramid with each word---thematic fun for our Egypt study
Example:    p
                  py
                 pyr
                pyra
               pyram
              pyrami
             pyramid

- Spelling City:  each week I will post words on spellingcity.com.  All your student needs to do is follow the spelling city link posted on the sidebar of this blog.  They should search for their list with "Grosh".  Once they find Grosh, they will see color lists.  They should click on the color corresponding to the color of the paper their spelling sorts are printed on.  They may practice their spelling words using the free games on this site.

Make it fun!