Suggestions on helping a kindergartner with remembering spelling words?

Question

I do not want to get frustrated with helping my daughter memorize her spelling words. She does fine when she can sound the words out and it sounds the way it is spelled. But with words that don't sound the way they are spelled, that is a problem for her. She spells the words fine at home sometimes, but when she gets to school, she goes blank on some words. Her grades in spelling is not the best, How can I help her. She writes her words five times each every night, we go over the words (spelling the words) every night. I usually give her three words a night to learn to spell at a time. She is trying to use the same technique of spelling words that sound the way they are spelled, which works for some words, but not all. Any suggestions on what I can do, I understand that children learn differently, but I don't know what I should do to help her.

Answer 1

I have a 6yr old son that I am trying to help with this to. (By the way, do you agree that it's ridiculous that schools require a huge set of spelling words each week?) Anyway, what works with my son is writing the letters of the spelling words on a set of cards. Then laying all of them out on the table. I say the word out loud to him and he picks the letter cards to spell out the word. He glues them to a piece of paper. I think this works better for him because it's fun like a puzzle and it helps him memorize it easier. You could also use magnet letters and a magnetic marker board so you don't always have to write them all out. Hope this helps. Good luck! :-)

Answer 2

This is what we did with our first graders who are also learning to spell new words. First you say the word, then you spell the word out loud, then you cover the word and try and spell it out on paper. Try this for homework every night until the test and hopefully you will see results. Sight words are really hard for kids to learn. They are not typical words. So flash cards are also really good for kids to use and when you are reading books to her, dont forget to put you finger on the words as you read and be sure to identify the words that she might know already..."Oh look, there's an I, or look, theres that word AND" Sounds cheesy but it works. Good luck...

Answer 3

When my son was in elementary school, I taught him using a rhythm, mostly by syllables. Another thing that helps is to clap the letters as they are being spelled out loud.

Answer 4

Make it something "fun" or "funny" to help her remember. Like scissors for example, saying something like " let's not forget that silly old hiding "c", the old bad guy, ha ha ha...anything that is humorous or unusual will make the experience of learning those words that are exceptions will make it "stick" in her mind.