Mrs. Thorp’s Third Grade Blog

If your child is now back into school, he/she will soon be getting that first spelling list of words.  For some children, spelling comes easily.  They look at a word for a few seconds and know how to spell it.  This is not true for most children.  Most children need to study the words.

Since all children have their own learning style,  they will learn to spell in different ways.  Here are some suggestions that have worked.  Maybe  you can decide which works best for your child.

• Write the spelling word, look at the word,cover it up and try to write it without looking.  If it is spelled incorrectly, correct it and write it again so that you remember the right way and not the wrong way.
• Use two crayons, markers or colored pencils of different colors. Write the spelling word using one color for the vowels and one for the consonants.  This helps your child see where the vowels are so that “first” does not get spelled “frist” or “great” does not get spelled “gerat”.
• For children who are very verbal, spelling the words aloud works well.  And spelling the word aloud while walking around works for children who like to move about.
• Does your child like to bounce a ball?  Have  your child bounce a ball while spelling, one bounce for each letter.  Likewise, jumping rope while spelling works too.
• Does your child dislike writing?  Get out a Scrabble game and use the letter tiles to spell the words on the list.  Magnetic letters accomplish the same idea.

Just a few more do’s and don’t’s:

• Don’t send your child to his room and say learn your spelling words.  They need your help and interest in what they are doing.
• Do start learning the words at the beginning of the week.  Don’t start the night before the test. Children who start early in the week and continue each night, will remember the words for longer period rather than just for the test.  The goal is to put those spelling words into the long term memory rather than their short term memory.
• Do encourage your child to do his best.  Praise your child’s  efforts not how he does on the final test.  If your child studied hard and still gets some wrong, he is still a winner!

If anyone needs some ideas on what words third graders should be able to spell.  You can look at the list I used last year before I retired.

If you have any ideas that you use to help your child,  please post a comment.  I would love to hear from  you.