Spelling

During the first part of Term 1 our Home Learning spelling focus will be on the Essential Lists. These Lists were developed by the New Zealand Council for Education Research (NZCER) and consist of 290 words broken into 7 lists. Together these lists make up 75% of our students' writing.

These are our building block words - the ones we use all the time. It is important that students develop a spelling memory for these words so our thinking time can be spent creating better quality writing.

Under National Standards it is expected that:
After 2 years at school students can spell most of List 1 and 2 (30 words, 40% of the words we use) and some from lists 3 and 4.
After 3 years at school students can spell most of List 1 to 4 (110 words, 60% of the words we use) and some from lists 5 and 6.

As the term develops, more interest words and words taken from the students' writing will appear in their Home Learning lists.

It is important to practise the spelling in different ways - try to find the ways that help your child learn and retain spellings. In the case of homophones (their and there, here and hear, by and buy, to, too and two) they need to know when to use the right spelling. I will usually try to put homophones together in their list, especially when they are misspelling one or the other.

You can also try spellingcity.com

Feel free to share what works well for your child with other parents in the comments section.