Make sure your child can read AND spell the weekly spelling words. See if they can tell you words that rhyme with the spelling words. Just knowing these words is a window to learning all the words in that family. In fact at the end of the year, if the student knows how to spell these spelling words, they can spell 700 others:
Example: If a child knows how to spell big, they can also spell: dig, fig, gig, jig, pig, rig, twig, wig
In our class, we also do word analysis, I ask: -How many letters are in that word? -How many consonants (a letter that is not a vowel)? vowels (a, e, i, o, u)? (write a letter c under consonants and a v under vowels) -How many syllables? (clap it out un/der/stand - 3 syllables, hap/py - 2 syllables, can - 1 syllable, each syllable will have a vowel -Are there any small words in that word? ("or" in the word "for") -Are there any tricky sounds (letters that don't make the usual sounds)? For example, in the word some, the o makes a short u sound and the e is silent. -Are there rhyming words?
Word work is a great way to become a word detective.