Here's How That COULD Be Spelt

The Phonics Screening Check is undertaken in Key Stage 1 and is supposed to indicate a child's understanding of phonics. 

As part of the check, children are asked to read words. Some real; others made up (pseudo):

How about turning that on its head when studying phonics, reading, writing and spelling across primary (and maybe even secondary) education?: 

When studying a spelling, ask the children for examples of how it could be spelt. There are 44 phonemes. How can they be rearranged and swapped to create the same sound, but a different spelling: fone, phone, phowne, fowne...

Which one looks right, do all the suggestions look likely, how could this be useful for spelling new words?

#Taskmaster: 5 Letter Word Game

Yay! Taskmaster is back on TV. Yeah, it inspired us, again!

This time it was Series 4, Episode 3. On this occasion, it was the final task that we were most interested in. The contestants stood side-by-side and were told that music would be played. In turn, they needed to say a five letter word when the music stopped. If someone couldn't say a word or repeated a previously said word, they were out. Each time the game restarted, the number of letters in the word changed (2 letters was surprisingly hard). 

Image credit: UKTV - awaiting permission

- Group of children stand up.

- Give them a number of letters in a word (e.g. 5).

- Play music.

- Each time the music stops, the pupils, in turn, say a word with the required number of letters.

- Repeat or fail and you're out.

- Change number of letters.

 Enjoy!

 

'We Make Use of...' Spellodrome

This is the first post of a series that we're goign to tag with 'We Make Use of...'

We've been making use of Spellodrome for about five years. Initially a little sceptical of how Mathletics (covering all of maths) could  have a similar site focusing on only spelling would work, we began to use it.

Image credit: www.3plearning.com

In the site, there are word lists set up that can be used. These link to curriculum expectations. There is also the ability to set up custom word lists. To learn the spellings there are a large variety of enjoyable games for the children to complete. These games include: putting parts of words back together, a similar game to hangman, writing word in sentences, word searches and more. The games enable the children to learn the words, their meaning and the sounds that make them up in a variety of contexts.

Both teachers, pupils and parents are able to track pupils' progress

Within Spellodrome, there are certificates that an be earned by children for their independent work. We hand these out in class and in assemblies within school. The children are engaged and motivated by them and, seeing them being handed out, also motivates others to use Spellodrome too.

We have used this to accompany weekly set spelling lists, as part of spelling lessons, to support prevention and intervention groups, for independent work and more.

That's just a small insight into what we've found Spellodrome useful for. If you want to know more, please get in contact with us or 3P Learning.

Note: We have written this post as a result of using this website in our classrooms. We have not been asked or paid to write. We are often approached to write posts, but have and will continue to only write about what we have done in our classrooms. We're two full-time class teachers choosing to blog about our experiences.

Fed up with Spelling Tests?

We need to learn how to spell. It's essential if we're to communicate using written text. 

To find out if someone can spell a word a spelling test can be used. However, this does not need to be always done through the means of 'adult reads word, child writes word and then a score out of ten is produced'.

Image credit: www.flickr.com/photos/aries1980/4122434587

Yes, still use the 'traditional' spelling test sometimes, but how's about trying some of these too:

Anagrams: Provide the children anagrams of the words for them to then unscramble.

Crosswords: Give the children clues to a word's meaning or sentences with gaps.

Sentences: Write out some sentences. Some using the word correctly, others where the word's used incorrectly. Good for homophones and apostrophes.

Text: Provide a text with the words spelled incorrectly within in. Children correct the words.

Wordsearches: Put the words into a wordsearch for the children to find.

These often provide support, interest and engagement in the learning of spelling rules, patterns or key words for a particular topic. Using these also provides the opportunity to assess the children's understanding of a word's meaning.