Resolve an irregular spelling

The spelling that matches how the word sounds is usually the wrong one; that is what makes these words worth learning. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.

Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Find the letters where the options differ, then use this memory clue: Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants: b-e-c-a-u-s-e. The a comes before the u.

The skill map draws the line here: This is orthographic recall, not vocabulary meaning. A question past that line is testing a different named English skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.

The spelling strand holds 3 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to resolve an irregular spelling are apply a prefix or suffix and form a plural. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.

Use Spelling Surgeon, embedded on this page. It is the exercise the skill map attaches to resolve an irregular spelling, it runs in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. It also has its own link, so you can send it to a child without sending them anywhere else first.