Teaching Spelling Words - 2Nd Grade

I used to have to "step" my words to learn them, where I would add one letter each line.

So.. "Word"=

W
WO
WOR
WORD

Keep doing the writing, but also consider scrabble letters for her to use.

A cookie sheet of rice. Let her use her finger to write the words in the rice.

A magna doodle.

I used to let our daughter give me the spelling test sometimes. I would then have HER check the words to see if I misspelled. I let her be the teacher.

Try having her write the words in different ways to keep it interesting. For example we sometimes write the words across and down like this:

Little
i
t
t
l
e

Sometimes we write each letter of the word in a different color pen making it a rainbow word.

She could do bubble letters, making a choo choo train of all the spelling words using a different color for each word, circle all the consonants in the words after she writes them, write all of the vowels in blue, etc.

Practice spelling out the words using bananagrams or scrabble tiles. My daughter is a tactile learner so this works extremely well for her.

My daughter will also tap the table with each letter as she spells it out orally. L(tap)I(tap), etc. Her teacher used this method in class last year because she found that associating a physical movement with each letter helped them remember the spelling. I'm not sure exactly how it works but she's been teaching for over 30 years and has been using this method for decades with great results.

Google word search puzzle creators online, many are free. Make word search puzzles at the beginning of the week. Have her do the puzzles a few times each week. You can print out different versions of the puzzles.

There are many ways to keep it interesting and fun for them. The key is to make it fun or they will not want to do it.

Peace and Blessings,
T. B

my sons teacher used to send him home with a home work packet he had to do with spelling words. he had to do 3 off the list of things. he could write them in rainbow colors, he could make a cross word with them , he could make a word search with them. he had to spell them each day and if he missed them he had to write them 5 times each. we also had him use them in a sentence. just keep making her do it she will figure it out.

When I grew up, memorization was all we had. We didn't have sight words or iPads or anything else.

I just learned a lot of the tricks:

i before e except after c, with the exception of their - in which case was the*ir

for g's and c's they make a hard sound when the vowels in H A R D S O U N D are used.

I used to give a little pinch when the OU came up in a spelling word. I also draw eyes in the word L O O K. Then the rhyming words are easy.

The rest of it is listening to the sounds and or memorizing them.

I used to catch my daughter writing her spelling words in columns. So if she had to write book 3 times, she would write b, b, b, o, o, o, o, o, o, k, k, k. Ya, no one can learn that way.

Most spelling lists have a pattern to them--all are spelled with ai, all have a y changed to an i and ed added, etc. Have her look for patterns in the words, have her "chunk" the words into parts, have her make up silly rhymes or associations that can help.

Actually our district (I'm a teacher) moved to doing word study instead of traditional spelling lists. Instead of memorizing a list of words, students work with a list of words and focus on the patterns and features in those words. They do word sorts grouping words with similar sounds, patterns, or meaning. Doing sorts helps them connect to other words.

After working with a certain feature or pattern, students are assessed on the words they have been working with AND unknown words that have the same pattern or feature. We do that to be sure they have transferred their learning to other words and haven't just memorized a list of words. Their word study tends to be focused more on phonics and vocabulary than traditional spelling lists do.

Try to help your daughter associate the words on her list with words that she already knows how to spell. That will help a lot.

Try spellingcity.com. You enter the words, then the computer says them and the child types them in. The computer grades it. They also have some free spelling games (there are also upgraded ones that you have to pay for).

some kids learn different. Some can say it in there head and some need to write it down. But also some kids need the repetition a few days can bring. Meaning going over the words every night. If you can find out what book the teacher is taking them out of you could probably find it on line. They usually have puzzles and games to help them learn how to spell it.

Reading all these great responses because my son in 3rd grade is really struggling with spelling too. He can study all week long and still miss the majority of the words on the list.

My son's teacher uses a website www.spellingcity.com on the home page you can type in her spelling words and do the free games. My son loves it (he is in 1st grade) hope that helps. :0)

On my kids spelling list it says

LOOK at the word.
SAY the word.
THINK about the word.
WRITE the word.
CHECK the spelling.

Let your child do all this but don't test until the day before. Let her learn them first as she goes through this process of writing them on her own . She needs to see them herself.Then the night before give her a quiz.
Good luck !

Your method sounds fine - what do you mean when you say it "is not working" with your middle daughter? She refuses to write the words? Or she writes them correctly at home but wrong on the test?

I would try doing a little clap or made-up song to the letters of each word. You can clap the letters is a little diddy and I think that would help!

Also, when I taught 3rd grade we used the technique Marle suggested. I called them triangle words. You can also see if you can find stamps with letters and have her stamp out a few of her words each night. That's fun too!

I've never used spelling city but I've heard of it, might be worth a shot!

If this wasn't the English language with all its rule breaking and silent letters it would be so easy. =). I have a 2nd grader too. Mine has special needs but is slowly integrating and has a slew of spelling list from Gen Ed.

I got a recipe box and some index cards and created spelling flash cards by week list. I let her read them phonetically. ( she learned to read from 100 lessons.. so I am able to draw lines in pencil to erase later for the long vowels and x out the silent letters). Break them down by syllable if needed especially the compound words (like timeline etc). I like the flash cards because I can ask her what she thinks the word mean and explain it if she gets stumped and I can bring it everywhere. ***There is also a sight word app on apple that you can put on you iPhone, itouch or iPad. You can customize it to change the words.

The school also maps out spelling assignments
Example
Mon - write each word 3x
Tue - alphabetical
Wed - choose some in sentences
Thurs- draw a picture with hidden words. (example it can be a picture of a house and the side of the rood can be a word, or the stem of a flower.)

Your child is probably like most kids and doesn't learn by writing. Try getting her to spell them out loud. Then to try the audio learning style you could spell a word and have her guess it.

If she's still not getting it she may need to be evaluated to figure out her learning style. You can google it and find lots of quizzes that she can do to find out which way she goes toward. I have strong visual and audio learning styles. I have low scores in writing learning styles and that's actually the one that is the lowest learning style. Not many people learn that way.

I worked with a lady that would go pick up the mail at the center then bring it back to the group home. She would sit for an hour copying the memo's, notices, new med orders, etc...into her handy dandy notebook. I told her should could make copies of them but she would insist on copying them. I finally figured out she learned by writing things. If she wanted to remember or learn something she had to write it down.

Most people have very low scores in that area though. The people that learn by writing are very few. This is the way you're trying to get her to learn.

Have her do the quizzes and see where her strengths are. Then figure out ways to get the words introduced that way. See if she does better.

We had the list over the visor all week. We'd say the word and our girl would spell it. She made 100% on each test. They worked on the words all week and by the middle of the week the words would all be correct.

If the teacher is not working on the words with the kids in school there's little hope they'll know them by the end of the week. They need to see them in sentences and hear them used. The teacher should be having them write them down each day. The teacher should also have them spelling them out loud.