Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Just for fun - spelling at school

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

My DS9 loves this game!

http://www.amazon.com/Merriam-Webst...c/dp/B001RNO1JA/ref=dsvrt_myd_asin_block

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.

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