Spelling
How can I help my child with their spelling at home?
In your child's Phonic lessons (we use Read, Write, Inc.) they are taught to recognise 'red words' and 'green words'. Green words can be 'Fred Talked' (in class, we sound them out with the help of Fred the frog!) such as 'b-a-th', whereas red words can't be easily sounded out, such as 'said', so these have to be learnt by sight. We sometimes refer to these as 'sight words'. Your child can use 'Fred Talking' to help them sounding out spellings, but will need to learn to spell red words by heart.
We will regularly send home words related to their current reading level for your child to practise reading and spelling. Although these will not be collected in, whether or not they have had a go will be evident in the progress they make with their reading and writing so we do urge you to support your child with these on a regular basis.
In addition to these, a set of High Frequency Words were sent home at the beginning of term in your Parent Support booklet. Please support your child in learning to spell these, as these are crucial to their writing progress through Key Stage 1.
There are many games you can play to practise spellings - watch this space for new ideas!