Grade 1 - Spelling

5 Useful Tips to Make 1st Grader Learn Spelling Quickly and Easily

At a nascent age of 6-7 years when the child is in grade 1, a vital aspect of vocabulary growth can be incorporated. Learning and understanding spellings along with their meanings is the right kick-start. So, when the children leave behind the fun and frolic of preschool and kindergarten, let them dive deep into the skill of learning and understanding elementary spellings. Given here are important tips along with exercises to help the first graders excel in spellings and building vocabulary eventually.

Start with the phonics:

Do not forget that as a 1st grade student, child is just at the beginning. So, as a rule of thumb you need to keep spellings super simple and start with phonics. Let them listen, identify, manipulate the alphabets that they have learnt in their previous classes. Let them make efforts in joining those alphabets and make a small sensible world themselves like “pain”, “gain”, “rain” etc.

Keep it simple and include words that rhyme:

As mentioned, you need to keep the words as simple as possible. The words should be 3-4 alphabets long only and make sure that they rhyme so that they can learn the maximum words in a fun-filled way. For instance, “hen”, “pen”, “ten” or “hand”, “sand”…..etc. In the beginning they will face a little difficulty. They need hand holding for this. But, they are sure to learn and pick up this gradually with regular practice.

Make sure to incorporate pictures:

Take help of pictures. Pictures create a greater impact in mind than words. They are also a better way to make them comprehend what is talked about. The little minds are attuned to the images and they have learnt alphabets and counting in the similar way. So, make sure that their learning and understanding of spellings follow the same route for their ease. For instance, ask them to draw pen in front of the spelling they write. Similarly hen, man….and other things should be taught along with the pictures for a better understanding and grasping.

Make the practice exercises fun-filled:

They would grasp easily and would be able to learn in a better way when you show them a fun-filled to practice. The more they practice the sooner they would be able to learn. Give wings to your creativity and make the practice sets a lot of fun for them so that they will love to do them again and again.

Ask them to pick out difficult words from their favorite stories:

If they have learnt reading, the task of their learning and understand English becomes a lot more easy. You need to ask them to pick up the words they do not understand in their stories and hence proving to be hassles. Make them pick and underline those, tell their meanings and help them memorize those words.

Given here is an example of spelling practice test, there can be a lot more with filling the blanks in between, tick the correct spellings and jumbled spellings etc.

A brief practice test:

Draw and spell the following items which you use or see in your daily.

P_N:
H_N:
C_T:
B_T:
H_T:
B_S:
GL_SS
S_LT

Unscramble the following words:

ERULER
PJUM
PSIK
OORD
LANTP

You need to remember that the child is just at the beginning stage where grasping is as important as the method used for it. So, make sure that the child learn in just the right way so that the process continuous for a progressive and wholesome growth. More importantly, you need to make sure that the children practice as much as they can. The practice session of spelling and vocabulary building should be more engrossing to enable child to learn quickly.

Spelling word list:

The 1st grade spelling word-list severs diversified proposes. The list is made up of combination of long vowel words, first grade sight words and short vowel words. In their spare moments, parents can practice these words with their children given on the signs and packages and make them practice from flashcards. Teachers can make use of these spelling games and worksheets to make learning a fun-filled activity in the classroom.