I was just wondering what kind of spelling words your kids have to learn for school ? Ds6 is in 1st grade, and thankfully his teacher gives him his own spelling list (which he still aces, but at least she is trying !). The regular spelling list last week was splash, string, split and scrub (they had a short week, usually have 6 words)). His added words were president, February, combination and clock. I forget this weeks words !
Just interested to see everyone elses lists ! I'm tempted to give him words of my own to learn, also, to give him a challenge.
The most memorable word DS6's teacher has given him lately is "loquacious" :-) [Colin, did she say *you* were loquacious? Yes, and she told me what it means, too!] More usually she gives him words he has mis-spelt in his own writing, e.g. "horrible", "science", "experiment" and "fizzed" (no idea what he did wrong with the last!) He also gets a selection of boring but useful words like "necessary", "because", "through" etc. I'm not wild about memorising spellings though, tbh - at least for a reasonably natural speller, it seems a bit artificial, and I'd rather he just learned by reading and writing. It's not as though it's plausible that learned spelling lists make a numerically significant contribution to most people's spelling, or at least it doesn't seem so to me. It's fairly harmless for DS, but I wouldn't go looking for more. Or is your DS begging for more?
you may want to check out
http://www.spellingcity.com/ for more spelling challange or spelling list practice.
My kids know their words the first day so if they want to practice after that I like them to do spelling city for typing practice which is meaningful, or play the games which adds more value. This site also provides lists at different grades.
Here's DD7's, 1st Grade List for this week, Sled, snake, spill, slip, snap, spin, make, game, people, water. People is the hardest word yet for this year. The also have a spelling sentence on the end of week test: The people started to slip and spin as they played a game using water. Recently the teacher lets kids take a pretest on tuesday and if they pass 100% they only get a test on spelling sentences on Friday. I'm so happy about this. It's great the teacher is noticing she knows it already, rather than just telling everyone study everyday for the test. I think kids should study until they know it and then review the day before the test. I think kids need to learn when they are ready for the test.
I would like to have my kids learn more about roots of words to expand rather jump ahead with more vocabulary. If anyone has some advice on this please let me know.
I think since my kids are big readers they are naturally moving forward with their vocabulary and spelling. My daughter, unprompted let me know this last night. I said, Did your teacher tell you this? No, I just figured it out.
I have one of those spelling-minded kids, too. He LOVES to spell. In fact DS won the 2nd grade spelling bee today.
DS and I have both been frustrated with his 2nd grade spelling words. Frankly, they're easier than the 1st grade words: more, store, pour? Seriously, in 2nd grade?
Merriam Webster partners with the Scripps Spelling Bee and has good lists at:
http://myspellit.com/ Sometimes we play "Stump the grown-up" and then DS6 gets a chance to read the words which are frequently pretty high-level for him, and DH or I spell them.
They have some games at:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/spell/index.htm and
http://www.wordcentral.com/games.html DS6 and DS8 enjoy these resources when they're in the mood for spelling.
HTH
Thanks for the links ! The reason I want him to do harder words is mainly so he has to actually THINK - the kid finds everything in school so easy right now, I would like something to be hard !
I'll check out the links later when he's home - always looking for something to keep him busy, so he doesn't annoy the daycare kids too much !
DD7's 2nd grade class does a pretest on Mondays and if they get 8 or more correct (out of 12) they get to be "super spellers" and have harder words. This week's list for super spellers is: cruise, nephew, shampoo, sleuth, macaroon, soothe, cashew, recruited, snooze, nuisance.
The regular spellers words are: too, fruit, true, suit, clue, drew, new, blue, cool, spoon, juice, flew
This weeks, ds6's spelling words are; wheat, germination, hibernation, vacation, solution and character
The rest of his 1st grade class have; keep, seed, weak, each, teach and bean
our school (private gifted) changed it's spelling program this year. they realized that many of the kids had a nearly photographic memory for spelling words so they got rid of the "memorize a list/spelling test each week" concept. Now it's a whole language spelling/vocab program that uses words from social studies and reading. the test they take is a vocab/spelling/comprehension/writing mix.
Some words from DS8's (accelerated 3rd gr) recent reading section... they were reading Heidi:
(they have about 25 words, here's a few)
councillor, emphatic, ajar, inquisitive, ravine, threshold, dilapidated, jeer, edgeways and my favorite... obstreperous
They will do the same in SS, have a list of spelling/vocab words from the section they are studying. I like it. In the past it was a total waste of time as DS just absorbed the words and could spell them all easily but didn't always know the definition or how to properly use them in context.
Some words from DS8's (accelerated 3rd gr) recent reading section... they were reading Heidi:
(they have about 25 words, here's a few)
councillor, emphatic, ajar, inquisitive, ravine, threshold, dilapidated, jeer, edgeways and my favorite... obstreperous
Yep - your favorite is my favorite, too
The past couple of weeks, ds6 has been attending ULE classes, and they are learning about space, so his teacher has been giving him related words - including International Space Center, microgravity, universe, exploration, telescope, asteroid and astronaut. I love that she is making the words relevant for him
Well, now I'm depressed. Here's DD9's 3rd grade list for the week, and bear in mind that she's in the top spelling group:
away, before, again, because, ago, between, around, begin, believe, about, alive, become, beyond, ahead, beside, across, below, asleep, afraid, began, behind, above, along
They can be tested on any 10 of the above words. I think we're looking at a case of quantity = quality in the school's eyes.
My biggest issue with spelling is that if they can get 100% on a pretest on Monday, then no matter how hard the words are they aren't learning anything new. This irks me, but I guess math and reading are bigger priorities for us...
I've been wondering what kinds of words other kids have because I've not been impressed with DS9s words this year.
The 5th grade words for this week are: subtract, distract, contract, complex, distrust, extra, improve, instead, Congress, English, conflict, exchange, pumpkin, sandwich, Christmas, construction, luncheon, complaint, transform, and although.
I'm certain he had 'pumpkin' and 'sandwich' back in 1st grade... Maybe I have unrealistic expectations or something.
I've decided to start saving the spelling lists for the rest of the year to check on repeats. I hate to check up on the teachers but I've heard there may be problems with the 3rd grade teacher and differentiation... We are on spring break now, but should get a new list Monday...
our school (private gifted) changed it's spelling program this year. they realized that many of the kids had a nearly photographic memory for spelling word....
It's neat to read this. We've noticed this attribute in our DD5, who's accelerated two years in spelling. She remembers words she learned months ago, can ace a tests after studying for ten minutes in the car,and is now complaining that second grade spelling is now too easy.
It's very, very cool that you found a school that recognizes this fact!
Val
Grade 3 list of the week: partner, hard, chart, farm, start, large, more, before, horse, north, morning, care, stare, warning. DD8's September in-school testing showed she was spelling at a Grade 6 level so we asked for harder words--her teacher said it "wouldn't be fair to the other children." Still trying to wrap my head around that one. A gifted IEP meeting with the principal, gifted teacher, and class teacher didn't produce any change, so...school-shopping again!
her teacher said it "wouldn't be fair to the other children."
Uggh!
Good luck with the school shopping.
DD8's September in-school testing showed she was spelling at a Grade 6 level so we asked for harder words--her teacher said it "wouldn't be fair to the other children."
I totally don't get that - what 8 year old would complain about another kid having harder spelling words ?? Good luck in your school search. Hearing other peoples stories makes me realise how lucky we've been - so far
so we asked for harder words--her teacher said it "wouldn't be fair to the other children."
you could try advocating for some bonus words every week. Everyone has the option to learn them or not, so it would be "fair"
Some of our recent grade
3 2 words: graph laugh cough telephone photograph recruit pursuit rough
Okay, I could cry now. DS9 is in 3rd grade and his spelling words for the last 2 weeks were : face, door, cut, done, group, red, true, half, fish, plants. No wonder he's spinning his wheels, and this is in a "gifted" cluster class!
We haven't done much about it because DS is such a good speller, but maybe by not asking for harder lists or bonus words (great idea btw), we are actually holding him back from learing more. Hmmmm. Seeing all the other's spelling words is eye opening.
thankfully our DS10 teacher uses the "words your way" program... it has been AMAZING. they take a test to see where their spelling falls apart and then each week the list focuses on a 'rule' of spelling. he went up 5 levels in one year because the words werent just some seemingly random list. he really has made such great progress. he has an APD and w/ the clear rules for each week's words, it has made spelling quite 'easy' for him considering he went from spelling horribly (where you couldnt even GUESS what he was trying to spell) to now having great phonetic spelling even w/ words he is unsure of!