Does everyone else here do spelling for 1st grade? I know a lot of schools do, but it seems that they will learn the spelling of the more simple words as they read and write them in sentences, so I wonder if they really need spelling individually? Thanks!
I started doing it last year with my two and then quit part way through. Honestly, I wish I hadn't quit. Spelling helps a lot with phonics. Of course, that might depend on the spelling curriculum. I've liked doing spelling this year with my kids, and I've seen how it really has helped them recognize words better.
I am going to use Spelling Wisdom with Grace next year for 1st grade. It is simple dictation so they learn spelling words in the context of sentences not just a list. I've used this some with Samantha and it works well. Sam has always been a good speller though.
here is what i think about spelling in 1st. we tried to do it with dd, but abeka lists were over her head, so we gave up 2 months in and didnt do any more for the year. this year we started back up with 2nd grade spelling and we are doing it a bit diff. she gets a pretest. anything spelled right, she doesnt have to do again, anything spelled wrong, we work on for the week. our spelling focuses on 2 or 3 phonics sounds so i guess if you wanted you could just pick 10 words that include whatever your phonics sounds for the week are? personally, i feel that at this age unless they help with phonentic awareness or sightwords, they really are useless, and unless you can find a good fit it is too frustrating for a young one good luck!
I didn't teach first at home, but DS did have spelling in PS, and when I teach the younger ones I will do spelling. http://www.zaner-bloser.com/spellingconnections/practice-pages.html
We have spelling lists and tests with my ds (k). I make up the word lists and use it to reinforce something else we are doing. For example, I notice in his reading the long vowel because of a silent e at the end of the word can still confuse him---so we will use this as a base for his next spelling list. Words such as: like, bike, cane, zone, etc..... This will give us a chance to go over the rules and for him to see it in action. I usually give him a new list of 7 words every two weeks..........I think it does help him with phonics and I get practice explaining simple rules before I have to explain much more complex ones in later grades
my ds is in K, and we are just learning the 2 vowel rule, and we havent done any spelling yet, so i was wondering what curric you use? not trying to hijack thread but pp got me thinking about how early we should start spelling, and if maybe it would be a good idea to throw a little in K as well to reinforce phonics rules?
My 1st grader does most of his spelling work as part of his Explode the Code workbook for phonics. He's a natural speller at this point so I'm not "stressing" him out with another program but just sort of using what we have. I do plan to start a bit more formally soon using All About Spelling (I own level 1 and 2 from my middle dd). It's a hands-on program. Not really a "testing" sort but a mastery of rules. It's working well for DD who has "spelling issues"....lol. My nephew has spelling tests at his private school in MO....he's also in 1st. They mostly focus on sight words from what my sister says.
We just use Hooked on Phonics.....for my ds it has worked really well. He breezed through k and 1st grade levels and is now doing the Master Reader Series..... But as for the rules, he learned most of them off of Starfall.com. When he is reading now and is having trouble with a word like seat-- I just ask him how many vowels are together? He will tell me 2 and then recites the poem from starfall, "When two vowels go a walking, the first one does the talking!" As for spelling I don't use a curriculum, I just make up my own lists.....It might be numbers or days of the week. Just random words or words that relate to something we are learning about (animals, colors, or whatever). I don't plan on buying a curriculum for spelling---once I am doing more vocabulary then I might, but I have still have some time to decide. What I add or take away from our schooling really just depends on if I feel ds is being challanged enough or too much. I know that with my dd things will be different and I don't plan on her being as far along as my son at this stage in k----although it would be nice All kids work at their own pace and have their own strenghts and weaknesses. My current thoughts on all this (as this is my first year hsing) is let them go full steam ahead in what they are good at and let them take the time they need to figure out the areas that are a bit more challanging.
I will just say that I wish I had started being more uptight/strict about spelling from the start. Just today, I had my student write some sentences as notes from what she was reading today. I almost cried. She is in 3rd grade and reads very well. She has her head in books all of the time, and there were more words spelled incorrectly than spelled right. She had attempted phonetic spellings on about 75 percent of the words. We have lots of work to do. I am not letting on about how worried I am, just making it clear that we need to be a better speller before 4th grade. We will make this out major focus for the rest of the year. We read well and can do math well enough to work at McDonalds, so it is time to shore up a weekness that will hold us back.
I noticed that our new spelling book by BJU uses this strategy. I think that it is just what we need. We had been using spelling power. I was hopeful that it would help us get past the sight words, but it has proven not to have done well. I am not knocking the curriculum, but we are just behind and I am going to start with the new stuff and also hunt up some online spelling websites and spend the time inserting lists of words we need to work on. sigh, Its mostly a wake up call for me. There have been other crises and we will work past this one also.
Edited to add: Thanks for bringing up StarFall.com in relationship to spelling. There are many exercises on there that are spelling related. I had not thought of this site in regard to me older student, only the younger one. I think that this will help alot, I need some serious submersion in spelling at this point and this is a good way to keep things varied.
We started spelling in K. We used A Beka spelling for a few years then I started making my own lists. This year I bought a used A Beka speller but we really haven't used it.
I am doing spelling with my son I actually found a book at Dollar tree with word lists (like -ake, -own, -ish endings etc..) and each has a few worksheets using those words but I also have an activity each day. M - write each word 3 times Tu- write the words in alphabetical order W - pick 5 words and illustrate Th- write a sentence with each word F - spelling test also for computer time I put that spelling list on spellingcity.com so he plays games with those words.
My oldest two went to PS for 1st and did spelling. With my little one I waited until he had finished his reading book. We used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I waited because he had so many speech irregularities and I spent extra time with the reading to work on his speech patterns. He is in 2nd and we just started spelling this semester. BTW his speech is so much better than his sisters at this age and he had more problems than she did.
It seems I may need to do spelling then, not just let him pick up the spelling as he goes along. I'll look around for some lists on the internet. Thanks so much!!!
Did you check the link I listed? It gives a list and a worksheet for each week. We do the list on Monday, the worksheet on Weds and test on Friday. Anything missed gets added to the next week after he writes it 3 times each.
My 3rd grader also is very weak in spelling. We've started using All About Spelling for her. It's has levels not grades so we started with level 1 and she's now 1/3 of the way through level 2. She has an opposite issue. She doesn't even think to spell them phonetically because she learned to read using sight words at her former school and although she reads above grade level, she doesn't "think" phonetically at all. She loves AAS (which I originally bought to use with DS6 but haven't at this point because he spells very well for his age and reading level). All this to say vantage, hang in there and know I'm right there with you! (I'm still waiting on psycho-ed test results to see if DD8 has a written expression disorder but even if she does, spelling is still an issue).
