📚 How to study for a spelling bee
Study a little every day, out loud, from the right list for your grade, and practise the way the bee runs: someone says the word, you ask your questions, you spell it aloud. Here is a plan that takes fifteen minutes a day.
Get the right list
If your school or bee gives a study list, start there. If not, Peabody's grade lists are a good place to begin: twenty words for each grade from 1st to 8th, plus lists by pattern like silent letters and homophones.
A fifteen-minute day
- Five minutes of new words. Read five new words aloud, spell each one aloud, and say what it means.
- Five minutes of practice. Use Bee Practice: hear a word, build it, and see straight away if it's right.
- Five minutes of the tricky pile. Go back over the words you got wrong yesterday. A word comes off the pile when you get it right three days running.
Learn patterns, not just words
A speller who knows that -tion is far more common than -sion, that Greek words spell f as ph, and that a short vowel doubles the next consonant can spell words they have never studied. The 10 spelling rules and the Greek and Latin roots lists are the place to start.
Practise like the real thing
Once a week, have a grown-up be the pronouncer. They say the word, the speller asks for the definition, a sentence or the language of origin, then spells it aloud and says it again. Peabody's pronouncer cards give the grown-up everything they need to read.
The week before
- Run a mock bee with family or friends, standing up, at a microphone if you have a toy one.
- Go back over the whole list once; don't add new words.
- Get a good night's sleep before the day. Tired spellers rush.