Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Studying for Spelling Tests can be Fun!

My children have weekly spelling tests and I like to keep the daily studying fun. There are only so many times a child will want to look at words and write them down or verbally spell them out. I know that if you give them the list to look at more than a few times, they will eventually space out and forget it all. I came up with a super fun routine that makes them CHEER for new words on Monday! I follow the same process for all of my children, even though each one is at a different level and gets different words. We work at the same time at the HOMEWORK CENTER with a little back and forth from Mom & it works well!

MONDAY: First we take our list and read the words. We write down the words on flashcards and bind them with a book ring to make them easy to flip through. As they write each word, the SAY the word before they begin. Next, they SPELL the word as they write each letter and finally they SAY the word in a sentence. Our flashcards are sometimes just white index cards, colored cardstock, old greeting cards that have been cut up or even paper trimmed in pinking shears! We like to vary it up. Next, we look up the definition of EACH word and write it down in our SPELLING WORD DICTIONARY that I told you all about before!

TUESDAY:
We turn our cards over and STAMP the words on the back or even right on the same side as the writing if there is enough room. This helps them remember the letters, as they have to search for each individual one in the stamp box & then say the letter aloud as they stamp it. When the word is through being stamped they must SAY the word, Spell the word & SAY the word in a sentence before moving on to the next word.
WEDNESDAY:
Today we take our words and spell them out in clay! This day is the most fun and is often requested earlier in the week hahah. They form each letter with their own hands to spell the words. Each child gets a cookie sheet and takes their flashcard ring to begin. They do 1 word at a time and as they form the letter they say it out loud. Once each letter has been created they SAY the word. They then SPELL the word and of course they finally SAY the word in a sentence. We constantly work on the basics of spelling, with a little fun and a lot of memorization worked in.
Thursday is practice test before the big day on Friday! On this day, they each get a stencil (upper case & lower case) and with each word that I ask them to spell, they seek out each letter and begin to stencil it. This way, they are taking the time to THINK about each letter they need and not just rush & guess. They have a lot of fun with the stencils and I am also squeezing in proper letter formation here as well! With Friday being test day in school, our spelling study ends on Thursday! My children both hold A's in Spelling the youngest is not graded, since I give him words from home, not in preschool and they have all come to LOVE the learning process.

How do you study for tests??

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