Writing
Your child is more likely to want to write at home if they see you writing. Try to involve them in real contexts for writing, e.g., shopping lists, thank you letters, cards, emails to family. Have writing tools and materials available for your child to use, e.g., whiteboard and pens, blackboard, paper, pens and pencils, keyboard.
The Ministry of Education’s website is an excellent resource and has lots of writing ideas suitable for each year group.
Spelling
At Halswell School, we use the iDeaL platform to teach spelling across the school. A structured literacy approach to spelling is very explicit with a carefully thought out sequence to teaching spelling patterns and plenty of opportunities to revisit and practise previously taught skills
Home learning:
- Students from year 0-6 receive weekly spelling home learning to reinforce teaching in class.
- Year 0-2 students have “heart words” to practise. These are common irregular words e.g. the, a here, that they need to learn to read and write.
- Year 3-6 students have a spelling word list based on the concept that hss been explicitly taught that week. Here is an example.
Click on this button below for more ideas on reading and spelling
Useful Websites and Apps for Writing
Story Starters
Storybird
Book Creator
Write About This
