Spelling Made Magic is a brilliant resource bursting with a variety of games, activities and strategies that will get your child learning to spell in a way you've never imagined before, whatever their age or ability.
Together, you'll use all of your senses – sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste – and everyday objects such as chocolate cake and glitter to help your child remember the correct spelling of a word.
The Spelling Made Magic eBook was created exclusively for TheSchoolRun by author, teacher and (perhaps most importantly) mum, Clare Winstanley. Clare is an expert in spelling and literacy for children diagnosed with dyslexia. She has vast experience of working with children for whom spelling is a challenge... and with those who just need an extra boost.
What does Spelling Made Magic involve?
Spelling Made Magic is built around short, game-like activities for you and your child to enjoy together.
Clare Winstanley really knows how to make spelling fun! And not just for the children, for us parents too. With 20 years of experience of helping children to engage with literacy learning, she's learnt how to tap in to help any child learn spelling using the multi-sensory opportunities all around us.
“Multi-sensory what?”
Multi-sensory learning is exactly what the name suggests. It's using many senses to learn something.
Traditionally, we think of teaching as very much, "listen to me." But estimates state that only 8% of school-age children learn from listening!
Significantly more are kinesthetic learners (that means learning from doing something physical!) And most of our kids (indeed most of us!) learn through a mixture of all our senses.
The beauty of Clare's Spelling Made Magic eBook is that her multi-sensory approach ensures that within one particular topic, one piece of work, you'll be using as many senses as possible to help your child to learn.
It makes sense
Clare's is a proven technique and one that a group of TheSchoolRun testers, who had special advance access to Spelling Made Magic (you can read their reviews below), were blown away by.
These techniques have previously been the preserve of the pupils (many through expensive private tutoring) who have been lucky enough to benefit from learning with Clare.
It's not about teaching, it's about learning. It's not about lessons, it's about fun.
“Spelling Made Magic is a wonderful, effective and above all, fun way of helping children learn to spell.
Clare Winstanley has produced a super array of novel and engaging ideas to tackle a huge variety of common spelling problems, including Spelling Sandwiches, acrostics and mnemonics.
My seven-year-old daughter loved meeting “Ed” and “Ian”, and was terribly proud of herself for learning how to spell Mediterranean using Clare's foolproof method – we had to put in a call to Grandma to spell it over the phone to her as well!
The key to the success of Spelling Made Magic for us was that it turns spelling into a fun challenge, rather than a dull, weekly chore.
Phoebe was having so much fun playing the games and doing the activities, that it didn't even dawn on her that she was ‘doing spellings’, and I certainly won't be reminding her!”
- Sara Harris, mum, Bedfordshire
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“Spelling Made Magic is well-written and easy to understand… once you have read the first two chapters and understand how it works, you can actually choose the activities that appeal or are relevant.
Children of all ages will benefit from using this book … and adults too. In fact anyone who was party to learning to spell phonetically would benefit hugely from Clare's advice.
An excellent guide for parents and teachers alike.
And here is a word from my hubby too: 'I think this is a wonderful, wonderful book and I would have given gold for this at 15. It would have changed my life, it's presented in a fun way and it is spelling magic.' "
- Linda High, mum, Wigan
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“The straightforward, clear approach of this book makes it a must for every parent and teacher. It is a book that would be well thumbed in any primary school setting. Every page is packed full of useful, new ideas for learning spelling, written in a fun, amazingly clear way.
Clare manages to communicate spelling rules in a succinct, easy-to-understand style, with examples of success from her own practice. It exudes the multi-sensory approach in a big way: sight, sound, touch and smell feature strongly on every page, with much emphasis on eating your words!
A most impressive resource.”
- Graham Cooper, Headteacher, William de Yaxley Junior School, Cambridgeshire
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“When students ask me what they can do to improve their spelling, I'm pushed to come up with more than a couple of ideas.
Spelling Made Magic, on the other hand, is fit to bursting with ideas. Spelling Made Magic contains a plethora of engaging and accessible activities that I'm sure would enliven and motivate even the most reluctant of learners.
Who could fail to be enticed by chapters such as ‘Bubble wrap, basketball and biscuit dough'?
I love the ideas in this book and not only would I recommend it to students and parents, I will definitely be implementing Clare Winstanley's ideas in my own classroom.”
- Mrs C Middleyard, English teacher, Knaresborough, Yorkshire