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Spelling Strategies for Spelling Bee
- Learn the basic rules for spelling with plural nouns so that you know whether to use s or es and how to make plurals of nouns that end in y or f
- Remember all the rules which apply to the spelling of the words. For example
i before e, except after c or when sounded like “ay”as in neighbor and weigh
Here are some words that follow the rule:
ie words: believe, field, relief
cei words: ceiling, deceit, receive
ei words: freight, reign, sleigh
Some exceptions: either, foreign, height, leisure, protein, weird
“CIEN words” are another exception to the rule. These include ancient, efficient, and science.
- Another spelling rule is :
“Silent e helps a vowel say its name.”
This means that when a word ends with a vowel followed by a consonant and then silent e, the vowel has a long sound. That’s the difference between rate and rat, hide and hid, and cube and cub.
- One more spelling rule that applies to words with two continuous vowels is:
“When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking?”
This means that when there are two vowels in a row, the first usually has a long sound and the second is silent. That’s why it’s team, not taem; coat, not caot; and wait, not wiat. Remembering this rule will help you to put vowels in the right order.
- A good way to understand a word is to break it into syllables. Look out for prefixes, suffixes, and roots.
- Spelling the word traditional may make compound words divide most easily into parts because they are made by combining individual words. For example: cross-dressing, chambermaid, four-poster.
- Mnemonics are memory tricks that help you remember everything from the order of the planets to your grocery list. For example, to remember how to spell principal, look at the last three letters: the principal is your pal. Principle, in contrast, ends in le, like rule (which is what principle means).. Another kind of memory aid is to make up a sentence in which the first letter of each word can be used to make the spelling word. The sillier the better—goofy sentences may be easier to remember. For example chili: cats have interesting little ideas.
- Make sure that you are pronouncing words correctly. This can help you to avoid some common spelling errors, such as canidate instead of candidate, jewelery instead of jewelry, and libary instead of library.
- Visualize. Think about how the word is spelled; get a clear mental picture of the word. This will help you remember the word and spell it correctly in the future.
- Try air writing to check the spelling of a word or to learn the spelling of an unfamiliar word, try writing it in the air.
Hope these strategies help your child spell better and win spelling bee contest. Get, set, SPELL. Please call us if you have any questions. At SMARTS Club we continue to provide as we have during the past three years, a friendly platform for kids to demonstrate their talents and skills by participating and performing in various events such as our Annual Spelling Bee!
Contact us to enroll or use our EZ Online Registration to register for BEE SMARTS 2014, our Third Annual Spelling Bee
You can also let the learning fun continue all year long by enrolling your child into our award winning After School Program or any of our academic classes or extracurricular activities including STAAR, cogAT, ACT, ITBS, and SAT Prep all under one roof! We have locations in Frisco and Plano and for your convenience we also offer all our academic programs online! Enroll your child today and watch their test scores go up!
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