Teaching & Learning Page

Spelling Spotlight

Each week, we’ll be sharing a simple spelling rule or strategy to help families better understand how we teach spelling at Surfside. These tips will support your child’s learning and give you ideas for how to reinforce spelling at home in a fun and meaningful way. Keep an eye out for our Spelling Spotlight in each newsletter!

THE DOUBLING RULE

This week, we're learning about The Doubling Rule — a handy tip that helps children spell words correctly when adding suffixes (endings) like -ing, -ed, -er, or -est

The Rule:When a one-syllable word ends in one vowel (a, e i, o, u, y) followed by one consonant (letters other than vowels), and we’re adding a vowel suffix (-ed, -ing), we double the final consonant BEFORE adding the suffix.

For example:

• run → running
• hop → hopped
• big → bigger

Why do we double?Without the double letter, hopped might look like hoped, which changes both the sound and meaning.

This rule helps build confident spellers and strengthens understanding of how words work.