Spelling Bees - Dunbury Primary School

Spelling Bees
Dear Parents
You will have noticed that your children have been bringing home spelling lists each
week and we thought it would be helpful to explain a little about the tasks and
expectations.
The programme that we have chosen to follow is called ‘Spelling Bees’ which
provides a wide range of engaging activities that cater to different learning styles.
The children in Silver Birch will be given a new list of spellings every Wednesday
morning in the form of a ‘Look Say Cover Write Check’ sheet (LSCWC). The words on
the list are drawn from the new National Curriculum, and are quite challenging. This is
deliberate – it tackles the demands of the new curriculum whilst also giving us the
opportunity to embed a deep understanding of language in the children.
The LSCWC sheet can be used at home to practice spellings ready for the spelling
test the following Wednesday, and it would be very helpful if you could support your
child in both learning and understanding these words. Little and often is usually the
best approach.
Following the test in school, the children peer mark which helps consolidate the
spellings. The marking is checked by an adult, and as the test is completed on the
reverse of the new LSCWC sheet, you will be able to see how your child is getting on
each week. From now on in school, housepoints will be awarded for ‘Personal Best’
score, first ‘Full House’ (fifteen out of fifteen), and thereafter for ‘Three In A Row’ (Full
House for three consecutive weeks).
In addition to the LSCWC sheet for use at home, the children will have a spelling
activity that will normally be completed in school, during the daily ‘Guided Reading’
session. This will change from week to week, but the types of activity are explained on
the reverse of this sheet. All the activity sheets are designed to be attractive and wellspaced out to appeal to children, whilst giving them quality space to work. There
may be occasions when children bring these home for completion as an optional
homework.
Occasionally, we may increase or decrease the number of words on the list, to cater
for individual needs. We would welcome feedback from you, so please do get in
touch if you have any questions or concerns.
Kind regards,
Sue Long and Katie Leigertwood
www.links2learn.co.uk
Spelling Bees
The activities
Sentences
Spelling understanding can be embedded and used in their own writing
when children understand the words. To enable this, the children are
encouraged to write their own sentences for each word. You may wish
to encourage children to start sentences with a range of words as ‘I’
and ‘My’ are always favourites.
Alphabetical order
Sort all 15 words into alphabetical order. An alphabet is provided on
each sheet in upper and lower case to help.
Wordsearches
A familiar favourite of children. The words in these go in five directions –
horizontal (forwards and backwards), vertical (forwards and backwards
and diagonal (forwards only).
Crack the codes
Use the number codes to translate into the words in the children’s
spelling list.
Definitions
Only by understanding the word, can children use these spellings to
apply to their written work. For this task the children need to research
the meaning themselves.
Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check
A great tool for raising the profile of spelling lists, we will use them as
homework, but also sometimes as a directed task or start of the day
peer assessment. Additionally, we use these to self and / or peer mark.
Word Jumbles
The letters of each spelling word are scrambled up. Word Lists are
provided for the children to order them.
www.links2learn.co.uk