Tammy Hanford, mother of two from Big Rapids, Michigan and teacher of 23 years is back on the mom blog. She is here to share tips that will help your children have fun learning spelling words.
Tammy Hanford is a mother of two from Big Rapids, Michigan. She has 23 years of teaching experience. We definitely need more teachers like her!
* Do you struggle with getting your child to practice their spelling words?
* Does your child feel that writing their spelling words for practice is a laborious task?
* Did you know that using tactile tools for learning is a more effective way to send a message to the brain than using a pencil and paper?
* Here are some useful activities to jazz up your child’s spelling skills.
~ Write words on the carpeting with your finger
~ Write words in shaving cream or pudding
~ Write words in sand, sugar, flour, or baking soda/powder on a cookie sheet
~ Write words with a toothpick in flat Playdoh
~ *Use crayons, markers, pencils, paints…making sure red is used for the vowels or vowel sounds
~ *Type them on the computer using red, a simple font, somewhat large
~ Make flashcards
~ Say it, close your eyes and spell it, open eyes and look at word to check (after much tactile practice)
~ Use a familiar tune or make up your own tune to sing the real tricky words
* Using the computer is 3x the reinforcement:
1. The child has to look at the word.
2. The letters need to be located on the keyboard.
3. They see the word on the screen.
*Our brain retains the color red the longest. This is why stop signs and stoplights are red. Using red will help the brain remember tricky vowel sounds.
Share the gift of learning!
Tammy Hanford
Title 1 Teacher
Riverview Elementary
Tammy loves sharing her ideas. Check out her earlier post, https://www.blogwithmom.com/2011/03/did-you-realize-how-much-teachers-shape-childrens-lives/. If you have any questions for her, please send her a comment at the end of this post and she’ll reply back to you!
Tammy, I’ve found, too, that typing helps kids with their spelling. We use a Mavis Beacon lessons and some typying games on LearningGamesForKids. I try to do as much reinforcement in as many different ways as I can find. My two older kids are naturally good spellers, but my youngest has some learning difficulties. So the more we can practice spelling with her, the better. Repetition in different formats. Thanks for sharing those tactile tools. I’m going to try them with her. I think some hands-on practice will be fun.
Oh, another fun site we use is SpellingCity.
Thanks again for sharing!
janet