This year we will be basing our spelling around No Nonsense phonics. Different patterns and rules will be practised in class during the week and sent home to embed the learning.

There are various methods to help your child practise at home, some of which are listed below.

Look, say, cover, write, check

This is probably the most common strategy used to learn spellings.

Look: first look at the whole word carefully and if there is one part of the word that is difficult, look at that part in more detail.

Say: say the word as you look at it, using different ways of pronouncing it if that will make it more memorable.

Cover: cover the word.

Write: write the word from memory, saying the word as you do so.

Check: Have you got it right? If yes, try writing it again and again! If not, start again – look, say, cover, write, check.

Drawing around the word to show the shape

Draw around the words making a clear distinction in size where there are ascenders and descenders. Look carefully at the shape of the word and the letters in each box. Now try to write the word making sure that you get the same shape.

Drawing an image around the word

This strategy is all about making a word memorable. It links to meaning in order to try to make the spelling noticeable.

You can’t use this method as your main method of learning spellings, but it might work on those that are just a little more difficult to remember.

Pyramid words

This method of learning words forces you to think of each letter separately.

p

p y

p y r

p y r a

p y r a m

p y r a m i

p y r a m i d

You can then reverse the process so that you end up with a diamond.