It is with great pleasure that Savvy Mama welcomes a friend and guest writer this week, local Gold Coast Education Consultant, Nicole Swan. Nicole is a qualified Early Childhood Educator with Diplomas in Early Childhood Education, (AMI) Montessori and a Bachelor of Children Services from Bond University. She has a culmination of 12 years teaching experience in Australia and Canada. (for more information on Nicole click here.)
Here is a way to help your child remember how to spell a sight word correctly. Sight words are words in our English language that we do not sound out. We need to learn sight words from memory. When we spell sight words, we use the name of the letters in the word, so that we can learn to spell the word correctly.
Spelling from Memory
1. Start by having your child write a sight word that they can learn e.g. was
Begin with the easier sights words and your child can progress to learn the more complex ones. A helpful hint is to use a red pen when learning to spell a new word.
2. Have your child look at the sight word that they have written in step 1 and say it 2 or 3 times aloud, letter-by-letter, e.g. ‘w, a, s, spells was’.
3. Have your child close their eyes and try to picture the word. Encourage your child to repeat the word out loud e.g. ‘w a s, spells was’
4. Have your child open their eyes and check the written word. Ask your child if they did picture the word in their memory correctly.
5. You may repeat steps 2 to 4 for the more difficult sight words.
6. Have your child write the sight word in the air with their finger, or use cut out individual letters e.g. w, a, s. Your child is to place the letters of the sight word, letter by letter in correct order, and say the name of the letters, e.g. ‘w, a, s, spells was,’ out aloud at the same time. You may repeat this step a few times.
7. Have your child look at the word they made using the cut out letters in step 6 to see if they spelt the sight word correctly.
8. Now have your child write the sight word from memory.
9. Check. Were they right? If your child spelt the word incorrectly, you will need to study the word again. Go back and repeat steps 2 to 8.
10. A follow up activity could be completed in an exercise book, labelled Sight Words.
Have your child write a learnt sight word in red felt at the top of a page. Either draw a picture, or find magazine cut outs giving meaning to the word. For example: The sight word - people, use cut outs from a magazine with pictures of people to give the word the correct meaning.
11. Remember, have your child practise to write words from memory. Hence, you could practise spelling a known sight word, prior to introducing a new one. It helps to check if your child can spell from memory!
Nicole teaches Fun Family Phonics locally in Burleigh which makes learning to read and write a fun and creative adventure! Classes are available for children 4 years of age and up. She offers a patient, proactive approach to teaching the children phonics with an opportunity in each class to see, speak, hear, write and bring into play the new letters they learn.
For more information on Nicole’s classes phone her on 0403 962 053 or email.
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Spelling from Memory
ive approach to teaching the children phonics with an opportunity in each class to see, speak, hear, write and bring into play the new letters they learn. )
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