Dear Parents,

Your child has recently brought home a list of spellings to learn. The lists are long and I have asked them to work on 8 – 12 words a week. The reason for giving out so many words at once is so that the children can regularly read all the words on their list. Looking at the words frequently is important not only when learning but also to remember the correct spelling.

Your child may be able to spell some of the words on their list, but there will definitely be some patterns that they do need to learn. All children have done a spelling test recently, indicating which level of words they need to work on and they have been given an appropriate list.

Children will do ‘partner’ testing on Tuesdays and write their new spellings in their homework diaries for the following week at the end of the session. Correctly spelt words in the testing session will be highlighted in the homework diary and you could also highlight the words in your home list. Make sure children keep reading the learnt words to help remember them!

At school, the most common method we use to learn spellings is ‘Look, Read, Cover, Say, Write, Check’. It works like this;

• Look at the word either from the list or written out (clearly and correctly!) on a separate piece of paper.
• Read it several times.
• Cover it up.
• Say the word and hear the sounds in it.
• Write the word without being able to see it.
• Uncover the word and check your spelling.

Happy Spelling!

Helen Bishop – Year 3 teacher.