Spelling skills develop over time, and errors are crucial to the learning process. It can be tricky for families to know when it’s appropriate to ignore an error and when to hold your child accountable for correct spelling. Below are some guidelines for spelling in the early grades and ways to support your child’s spelling in kindergarten through second grade.
In kindergarten, we focus on recognizing individual letters, associating letters with sounds, and identifying letters to spell short regular words. Children are encouraged to think carefully about the structure of words and the relationship between letters and sounds. During this early phonetic stage of spelling, most spelling is not yet conventional (ex. dun for done, sld for slide, etc.). It is common for children to write only the beginning and ending sounds of words and omit vowels.
To support your kindergartener with spelling at home:
Encourage attempts at spelling – Provide your child with opportunities to practice spelling by having them write a letter for each sound they hear in a word. Magnetic letters can also be a fun way to practice matching letters to sounds. Praise attempts to write or identify a letter for each sound they hear in a word.
Practice interactive writing – Involve your child in writing at home. Grocery lists, labels, drawings, and checklists can be great opportunities to encourage your kindergartner to practice their writing. Share the writing with your child, showing them how you use writing in your everyday life, and encouraging them to contribute words or parts of words they know.
Celebrate – Kindergartners are expected to do a lot when they spell! They need to listen closely to isolate each sound in a spoken word, identify a corresponding letter, and correctly write the strokes of the letter to represent the spoken sound. Celebrate their efforts and encourage your child to take risks by trying new words.
As children move through first and second grade, we hold students accountable for spelling more words correctly and teach the difference between errors (e.g., misspelling known high-frequency words) and appropriate risk-taking with spelling. Word Study lessons build on understanding of vowels and syllabication to support reading and spelling of increasingly complex words. During this transitional stage between phonetic and conventional spelling, children begin to move away from sole reliance on sound and transfer their increasing knowledge of language patterns to their work.
To support your first or second grader with spelling at home:
Play games – Challenge your child to a game of Scrabble or involve them in helping you solve the latest Wordle. Games improve vocabulary, teach perseverance, and support understanding of language patterns and possibilities.
Write for many purposes – Encourage your child to write a birthday card, keep a journal, or make a list of ingredients needed for a recipe. Writing for many purposes encourages the application of language learning.
Gently correct spelling – It is ok to correct your child’s spelling, particularly when you know they are familiar with a word or spelling pattern. Point out the parts of the word they know and show them how to spell the rest of the word correctly. If your child spells beach as “beech,” you can ask “What other spellings do you know for the long e sound?” and support them in identifying the correct spelling.
Continue reading together – Your child may be developing more interest in reading independently, but it’s important to keep routines around reading together. Reading together supports your child’s rapidly growing vocabulary, reading comprehension, and understanding of spelling patterns.