Ways to Increase Spelling Power, continued page 2

4. Learn phonograms
5. Look up misspelled words in a dictionary
6. Learn spelling rules
7. Master one word a week
8. Play phonogram bingo
9. Play phonogram card games
10. Memorize spelling exceptions

Learn Phonograms

Phonograms (fO no grams) are letters or groups of letters that make one sound. Some phonograms can make more than one sound. A phonogram will only make one sound in a word at a time.

Example:

E (one letter) makes the /e/ sound (as in the word egg) or the /E/ sound (as in the word eve or eel)
ph (two letters) makes the /f/ sound (one sound)
ar (two letters) makes the /ar/ sound (one sound, as in car)
ow (two letters) makes the /ow/ sound (as in the word how) or the /O/ sound (as in the word bowl)

Phonograms with Vowel Sounds

The alphabet is divided into two groups of letters. Vowels are the letters A-E-I-O-U and sometimes Y. All the rest of the letters are consonants. Some phonograms make vowel sounds.

Example:

/A/ sound phonograms: ai, ay, eigh, ei
/E/ sound phonograms: ee, ea
/I/ sound phonograms: igh
/O/ sound phonograms: oa, oe, ow
/U/ sound phonograms: ew, ui

Exercise

Read the sentences in the worksheet below. Underline the vowel sound phonograms in each word.

1. One day a snail took a pail to the beach.

2. Before the snail could dig a hole, a cat in a boat started to make a speech.

3. The cat spoke for eight minutes. He spoke until he ran out of things to say.

4. The snail gave the cat a few rocks then he went home to see his mother.

5. The cat thought the rock was candy. The cat tasted it but it wasn't sweet. The cat dropped the rock back into the water and went home to play with his sister.

6. The cat's sister wanted to sail the boat. She asked her brother to teach her to row the boat.

7. A few days later the cat and his sister each went to dig and write in the sand. They tried to get the snail's pail out of the sand box but a bird grabbed it and flew high into the sky it.

Answers:
1. snail, pail, beach
2. snail, boat, speech
3. eight
4. snail, see
5. sweet
6. sail, boat, row
7. snail's pail, high

Blended phonogram Sounds

Some phonograms have a blended sound.
Sh (as in dish), ch (as in church), ph (as in phone), oy (as in toy), oi (as in voice)
Ch, sh, and ph can be at the beginingg, middle or end of a word.

Exercise

Learn how to make a home school phonogram spelling worksheet record
1. Make a chart with five columns and ten rows.
2. Write the list the phonograms across the top of the page.
3. Use ch, sh, ph, oy, oi for the column heading.
4. Read a book. Find words and list them in the correct column.
Possible words:
church, chief, cherry
ship, shell, fish
phone, telephone, telegraph

Look Up Words in the Dictionary

A dictionary is a handy tool to have around. A dictionary is a book that tells the meaning of words (define). The words in a dictionary are listed in alphabetical order.

A dictionary has information that is helpful to one learning to spell. A dictionary shows how to break words into syllables (sound beat of a word). Spelling by syllables helps one spell longer words. It is easier to spell syllable by syllable instead of the whole word.

Example:
To spell astronomical, break the word into its syllables.
As tro nom ic al
Breaking the word into syllables helps one think to spell.

Exercise

Break these words into syllables.
1. publish
2. confess
3. mistrust
4. hamburger
5. restless
6. telescope
7. piano
8. adventurer
9. unhappily
10. unquestionable

Answers:
1. pub lish
2. con fess
3. mis trust
4. ham bur ger
5. restless ness
6. tel e scope
7. pi an o
8. ad ven tur er
9. un quest tion able
1o. un hap pi ly

Learn Spelling Rules

Spelling rules help one learn to spell. Spelling rules help home school students understand why some words are spelled the way they are.

Spelling rules give one clues as to how to spell a word. Spelling rules are easy to learn.

Spelling Rules

1. If a, e, I, o, u are at the end of a syllable, many times the vowel says its name.

Example:
baby (ba by), table (ta ble), paper (pa per)
hero ( he ro), fever (fe ver), secret(se cret)
tiger (ti ger), minus (mi nus), diner(di ner)
pony (po ny), open (o pen), clothing (clo thing)
duty (du ty), human (hu man), pupil (pu pil)

Vowels make their short sound unless there is a reason not to. For instance a silent final E changes hop to hope.

2. Doubling
- if a word has a double letter, divide the word between the doubled letter
Funny (fun ny), bottle (bot tle), tunnel (tun nel)

- one syllable word that ends with one consonant after one vowel
Hop, hopping
Drop, dropping

- Double one syllable words with a short vowel that end in f,s,l
Miss, full, bill, boss, spill

Exercise

Make a home school spelling notebook worksheet

1. Use a word processing software to create a table with three columns, and ten rows.(click Table, Insert Table, Table, enter number of columns and rows).

2. Write the spelling rule on the top line.
3. Write words to show examples of each rule.
 

4. Look at a reading book and find words from the book to put under the proper column.