Natalie has spelling tests this year. In fact, she has one every Friday. It would’ve been nice to know this at the beginning of the week instead of on Thursday morning as she handed me the notice she was supposed to give me last week. (at least it wasn’t on Friday morning)
As a fun way to practice, I pulled out some old scrabble pieces and had her spell out the words with the tiles as I called them out. She’s tactile by nature and I’m hoping this will help her visualize the words for her test.
She made a running list on the side until she ran out of Hs.
This game takes some time so be prepared to be at the table awhile. I think it took us a half hour to get through her whole spelling list. Ideally, when I have several days to help her study, this will be an activity for one day followed by a few days of a few different activities.
And here’s another way to use scrabble tiles – teach kids to read. I did this with Natalie and Ainsley to go over word groupings. You can take a prefix, suffix, or main body of a word and change out the surrounding letters to show the child the repetitiveness of the grouping. Both girls enjoyed this activity as preschoolers.
What tips do you have for helping young grade-schoolers study for their spelling test?
(c) 2016 Leighann Marquiss
Comments (9)
Love this idea! Now, I wonder where we put that scrabble game when we unpacked? 🙂
I sometimes have my kids look through a newspaper/magazine,cut the letters out, and glue them to construction paper to spell their words.
I think that you also would have been perfect for the field of occupational therapy. Must run in the family 🙂
Katie
I just learned how using visual, hands on techniques helps kids.
Autumn had a huge history test which was actually more like a geography test on Tues. Monday night we studied where all the oceans, seas, bays and continents were. I had just been given a inflatable ball that looked a globe. We used that to study. Autumn told me Tues that for several of the questions she knew the answer because she remembered finding them on the “globe”.
Not any sort of tip on studying spelling. But I learned that having something visual such as scrabble pieces or a globe helps a kid better study and learn.
Any tips on learning letters and sounds?
There is a game out there like this called banana grams!
I have heard of using stairs as a game for spelling practice. Have her start at the bottom step and each time she spells one right, she gets to go up a step, or if she misses she goes down a step or stays the same. If both girls have a list, they could try and beat each other to the top. As an alternate that is less competitive in nature, put a letter of the alphabet on each step (if you have enough steps) and have her go to each letter as she spells you the world.
Great tips, ladies. @Johanna – I totally cheated on teaching the girls their letters and sounds. With Natalie we did an ABC puzzle over and over – it was just part of our daily routine and I would say the name of the letter and ask her where it went. Pretty soon she recognized the letters. For sounds, I sat her in front of the tv and let her watch The Letter Factory by Leap Frog. Ainsley learned most her letters vicariously through me working with Natalie and then watching the movie. The rest she learned in preschool. Ryan is learning his letters too…. he knows A and R and B. I’m not trying to teach him but he picks them up from The Letter Factory and the girls and I reading together.
Any kind of physical movement or motion is great for learning spelling word–clapping the letters, jumping rope while spelling, making the letters with your body. Go outside with a sponge paint brush and some water and “paint” the words on the driveway. Or just use sidewalk chalk and make the words fancy.
Also–check out spelling city dot com (“spelling city” is all one work). You can enter the words and then the computer will generate games for her to play. My second grade class last year loved it and the parents appreciated a night or two of something different.
I have a list of about 30 ideas somewhere. Might have to read over it and see what else I might suggest.
I remember having spelling tests every Friday in grade school! I have not tips, but I do tip my hat to you for recognizing her learning style.
Practicing spelling words in shaving cream or whipped cream is another kinesthetic approach