Tricky words

Here you will find some videos and activities to help your child with learning and recognising the spelling of 'tricky red words' and 'high frequency words'. 'Tricky red words' are common words that you cannot use your phonics to read or spell in your writing, where as 'high frequency words' can be sounded out, but are so common it is helpful to recognise them on sight. At the bottom of the page you will find the 'tricky red words' organised into animals - in Reception, the tricky words are introduce to the children in these sets. You might find your child particularly needs to practise the 'elephant' words, or the'pig' words... Or a mix! All of the games will also work with the KS1 high frequency and tricky words in your reading journals.

Tricky words games

Below are some videos showing some games you can play to help recognition of tricky words. The better our recognition of these tricky words, the more fluent our reading is. Descriptions of some other games can be found below the videos.

I saw the most..?

Pick a selection of tricky red words to be your focus for the week - you might pick all of the dog words if these are the ones your child needs to focus on, or you might pick a random selection to ensure lots of the tricky red words are being reviewed. Make a chart that your child can use to record every time you see or hear the tricky words in stories. You could use tally marks, stickers or writing out the word each time you find it. I wonder which 'tricky red word' you saw the most this week..!

We're Going on a 'Tricky Red Word' Hunt

Write your tricky red words on pieces of paper and hide them around the house. The children have to see how quickly they can find them all and get back to where they started. Extend this activity by using each word in a sentence before they can find another one!

A Pirates Life For Me!

Write your tricky red words on pieces of paper and stick them around the walls for furniture where they can be seen. Use chalk or masking tape to add an 'X marks the spot' to the floor in a place where the children could see all of the words you have stuck around the room. This is their crows nest. From the crows nest, the children need to spot as many 'tricky red words' on far off islands as possible - these could be the treasure! Your child might like to make binoculars or a telescope out of junk modelling especially for this game! You could extend this game by adding several 'X marks the spot's to the floor, with different sets of words visible from each crows nest.

BAM!

High frequency word games

These games features 'high frequency words'. These are words that you can sound out, but we see a lot of in our reading. The faster our recognition of these 'high frequency words', the more fluent our reading. You can repeat any of the games above with high frequency words as well as tricky words. You can find a list of the most common high frequency words below the BAM! videos.

BAM!