Hundreds of years ago there were no rules about how things were spelt – you just spelt words how you wanted! Nowadays spellings are very much set in stone with children often being judged on their spelling more than any other aspect of literacy. Children who are very good at spellings tend to have good visual memory. They often read a lot so the words become imprinted in their brains for them to recreate in their own work. As well as reading there are lots of games that you can play at home to improve spelling and help secure the building blocks of how words sound and look.
Here are some games you can play at home to help improve spelling:
- Making little words from longer words.
Give you child a long word and ask if they can find any little words that can be made out of the letters. For example: INTERESTING – in, rest, test, net.
- How many words can I make?
You and your child write as many of a certain letter words as possible within a minute. For example write as many three letter words you can think of in a minute. You can make this harder by asking for all the words to begin with a certain letter, or end with a certain letter or maybe they all have to be animals etc…
Each time a child guesses a letter that is not in your word, add a part of your object or bit of the hangman.
A great way to encourage younger children to think of the letters words begin with. To make it more challenging play I spy, but with the letter the word ends with.
Best word game ever for children (in my humble opinion) but you can create your own Boggle by simply drawing a graph and filling your own letters in. See how many words you both can make out of the letters.
Have you got any great games you play at home with your little ones? Please share in the comments!