1st grader with spelling problems

Christine - posted on 01/24/2013

My daughter's words are: education, yesterday, behavior, society, responsibility. That's first grade! Crazy and stressful!!!

Barbara - posted on 11/16/2012

My son is in first grade and what I tell him is to find a small word inside the word. Single you can find sing. Wiggle you can find wig. Handle you can find hand and so forth. He loves finding a word inside a word. We now play boggle. He loves it so he is learning to spell words and make words with him I do not use the timer. We may play one session for about a good 10 minutes rather than speeding so he can learn to spell and read at the same time. I hope this helps you. But your son will get it. Patience is most needed and try to make it fun with him finding small words to his spelling words. Then we repeat the words through the night and do a sentence with his word. My son get around 8 words a night so we repeat this over and over until he gets it. So far he gets 100 or 90 or his quiz.

Nancy - posted on 11/11/2012

I find flash cards are very beneficial to my son.

By using flash cards and flashing them fast, my son seems to be able to recall and recognize pictures or words flash to him.



You may want to check out this website... www.rightbraineducationshop.com



and also grab their free ebook.



They explained how to use and teach your child using flash cards and other whole lot of things you will find useful.



They have over 10,000 e-flash cards like alphabet, vocabulary, phonics flash cards and many more.



I think it is important to start teaching your child at the early age.



I hope then my child won't have any problems trying to play "catch up" in school.

Vicki - posted on 11/08/2012

It is odd that there are so many differences between 1st graders from one area to the next. We're doing spelling words also. So far, they've been 6 letters or less. But, I can't find any rhyme or reason behind which words are chosen at a time. My son also writes sentences with words. Spelling hasn't been easy. He had an A the first nine weeks, but a B the second nine weeks, and I still haven't found a way for him to truly remember the words apart from plain or memory rote, either writing the word several times, or simply spelling the words several time. Sometimes as soon as he spells a word correctly...he misses it...3 seconds later.

Danielle - posted on 07/28/2011

I think the key is definitely making it fun for the child.. there are apps like Spell Tutor (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/spelltuto...) that make the test like a game and when they feel like they are playing a game, it's fun to them and they will retain it more. :)

Tiffany - posted on 03/11/2009

I just reread my 1st post it should have said gotten a C but almost a D. However I just checked his grades online and he's brought his grade up this semester from a 61F to a 86C YAY I'm so proud!!!  Thanks so much for all the support and suggestions they have really worked!

Jessica - posted on 03/11/2009

What helps my son (he's in 1st grade, too) do well in spelling is to have him practice, practice, practice his words each week.  But make it fun... we have magnetic letters on the fridge so he can spell his words and see them every time he gets a snack.  Let him use fingerpaint or glitter pens to write his words.  Even using a dry erase board and marker are more fun than paper and pencil. We write his cards on flashcards that we keep in a ziploc bag in the car to practice on the way to or from school.  Add the new ones each week and review the old ones at the same time.  Play games with his spelling words - take turns making rhyming words (even made-up nonsense words). 

Kathleen - posted on 03/11/2009

One of the other Mom's in my daughters class told me about a website that helped her daughter with her spelling. Spellingcity.com.  You can add the spelling list for each week.  There are choices to teach, test and play games with the spelling lists.  My daughter loves it and it really has helped my daughter when she was having trouble with some of the words.

Irene - posted on 02/11/2009

wow my son is in 2nd grade and they still haven't started spelling in his class even in year 1 , I try at home with some simple words so i guess thats better than nothing...

Antonietta - posted on 02/11/2009

Quoting Tiffany:

1st grader with spelling problems

My son is having problems in spelling. We got a B in reading but almost a D in spelling. We started doing practice tests on Thurs nights last week. He had them here but got a 4/10 on his test. Last night after I had him do the practice test his dad and I called them out to him to spell orally. I'm not sure what he received on the test today. I sent a note to ask his teacher if along with the written she would give him an oral test. He had a sub so I havent found out that either. These arent what I would call 1st grade words some of the ones from this week are... single, handle, and wiggle. He kept spelling single and wiggle with an e instead of an i. Thanks!!!!

 

That's fine his reading is good keep practicing and i do agree ,the words are so not first graders words unfortunately the system pushes them to learn fast , the same happens with Gabriela i wrote a note explainning to them when needed that she seems overwhelmed and i'm trying to keep her balanced don't want her to get discouraged , i stop for a while then get back into it slowly it works well and as far as the mixing e's for i's it'll fall in place . It could be the reason why at home his spelling is good it's cause he's in a comfort zone ,he'll adapt slowly ,try and see if maybe he's anxiouse or nervouse when tests are comming up, there's ways to help them deal with anxiety ,it's ok they have a way to adapte to these issues just have a ear out and look for signs  and see from there but i do believe he'll be fine :)

Sandra - posted on 02/02/2009

Not sure what your son's homework entails, but my son has to write them 3x each and now starting in January he has to write each one in a sentence. (1st grade)  So he is getting double the emphasis - written and definition.  We then practice them orally each day on the walk to the bus stop and before bed.  Sometimes we do practice tests (only when he is having some trouble...and he just LOVES those).  Every little bit helps and whatever "works" for him.  But as he progresses through the grades, learning how the teacher tests is the most important, as someone else mentioned. When I gave a test as a teacher, I would say the word, put it in a sentence and then repeat the word again....give them a few moments and then move on to the next word.  But that may not be the case at all!

Last week, my son's teacher sent home the words "hole" and "whole" on the same test.  So of course I spent the week explaining the difference each time I would ask him the words orally. But she didn't use either of them in a sentence on test day...go figure!  How in the world would they know which one to write? Sometimes I'm just left baffled.  LOL

Pearl - posted on 01/27/2009

I found when my daughetr started scholl that the worsd were quite big. But what we did and still do is practice every morning before school and every nite before bed all week. She has got the odd one wrong more carelessness than anything I think. But she does words now like conseqeuncesand such, don't even know if I spelled that right. Some times the word is memorization more than anything. I also say a sentence with the word so that she knows the meaning of it.  Hope this helps some way

DM - posted on 01/27/2009

With my 2nd grader we used to do only oral spelling tests at home, but then he would get words wrong when he had to do the written test, so we started doing the written test at home, so it is just like school. If he gets a word wrong then he has to write it 5 times. We practice Mon-Wed and tests are on Thurs.

Tiffany - posted on 01/26/2009

I got an email response back from his teacher. She said as long as we do something every night she will give him a check for homework complete. Today both he and his big sis are home sick so we'll start tomorrow hopefully!

Lea Ann - posted on 01/26/2009

My Son has problems in spelling as well. He's in fourth grade. Practicing the test at home exactly like the test is given in school has produced the best results for us. Ask his teacher how she gives the test (this means he will have to write them down at home). My son also does better with oral tests, but I've found that asking for "special"

accomadations for my child is not always well recieved. And I can understand why. Also ask his teacher, or look up, how to memorize effectively.

Sandra - posted on 01/25/2009

I'm a former 1st grade teacher.  Is your son learning a program called Saxon Phonics?  Anyway, those particular words use what is called a final stable syllable (ble, dle, gle).  If he was learning these words as part of his phonics and language program concurrently, hopefully he was learning to break them down into parts.  And that is the advice I would give to you.  Most words past 3 and 4 letters are best learned in parts. 

I loved (and still do to this day as a parent) teaching many topics set to music.  And I don't mean putting on Mozart in the background (however very helpful to do Math to).  Anyway, I like to make words a bit of a sing-song.  Put a "beat" into the word...."I said s-i-n-gle, that's right s-i-n-gle. "  And when you write words on flashcards it's okay to write them with spaces as long as you explain to your child that the word does NOT actually have the space when it is written.  This is just a learning tool.  When my daughter was in 1st grade, she had tough words and was also given bonus words.  One of her bonus words was CEPHALOTHORAX!   We will never forget it.  Well I pulled out a long flash card and wrote  ceph * alo * thor * ax  (without the asterisks)   Learning that word in 4 different parts made this gigantic word quite easy for her.  ceph (like the ph in phone), alo (this made it easy to remember it was A L O next), thor and ax were a cinch.  What seemed impossible when she brought home the list became as she put it "easy peezy, piece of cake!"  

My advice would be to discuss this with the teacher and see if you could find out the "skills" she is testing on so that you can be more educated on how to help at home (such as knowing final stable syllable, or sneaky e so you can look this up on the Internet).  But if that is not possible, breaking up the pie into pieces, making it more fun as all of the above suggestions have mentioned is definitely key. 

Knowing how your child best learns would also help.  Does he like to look at things, hear things, or touch things?  If you aren't sure, this is why setting the spelling words to a bit of music, putting them on flash cards, AND having him write them either as a practice test or in some fun way (sit in front of him and have him write them on your back with his finger) reinforces all 3! 

My son is in 1st grade now.  He gets his words on Monday and we start that night having fun with the words until Friday morning before the big test.  We've had so much "fun" with them all week that I think it helps takes the stress out of the event.  I hope any of this helps you.  You are welcome to contact me.

Tiffany - posted on 01/25/2009

He had a 77.4 D and I asked his teacher if he could do bonus work since he was less than a point away from a C she gave him the C. I checked his grades on the schools website and right now he has a F. Our school district has been #1 in our state for the past 4 years and they push these kids to hard. My 5th grader is doing 7th grade math for example they both having history reports due and they're only one difference his are on flas cards and hers is a 2 pg report they both have to dress up. I love our school district just cant see why they push these kids so dang hard. The games yall have suggested It hink will help quite a bit since its more fun thatn repeation. We shall see I'm waiting on an email response from his teacher to see why they focus on 2 words instead of the other 6.

Amanda - posted on 01/24/2009

I am surprised at the difficulty level of those spelling words. My son is also in Grade 1 and their spelling tests are usually 3 or 4 letter words that focus on learning the vowel sounds. For example: pet, let, fed, get, red. I would definitly get some flash cards with sight words and work on those at home, but I would also speak to the teacher about the difficulty of the words and what is required in the curriculum. I would also try to do a practice test every night with only a few of the words at a time and work up to the full list by the end of the week.

Holly - posted on 01/24/2009

My son's in 1st grade, too. Some of the ways I help him to learn his words are by playing hangman, fill in the missing letters, word searches, and simply just writing the word down often. He practices them a little bit every night. If he gets a good grade, he gets some time playing his favorite video game as an added incentive. There's a website that his teacher recommended that lets you enter their spelling words and has different activities to help them learn and practice the words.

http://www.spellingcity.com

Dalane - posted on 01/24/2009

HI Tiffany

Given that he is so young it isn't something worrying yet. Most parents would also agree that first born children tend to excel faster and that second and subsequent children tend to relax a bit more. For some kids this is becasue the time of parent's are stretched between more children now, but often becasue their older sibling/s do things for them so they are more relaxed with needing to learn to do things themselves. This is normal.

'Almost D' I guess means he got a 'C'? Remember that C is average... where children are meant to be at any given age :)

If you are concerned about the words themselves you could ask your friend or the principal to take a look at them to ascertain whether they are the right level spelling words.

Good luck :)

Tiffany - posted on 01/24/2009

Thanks~ I have a friend who is a teacher she told me to get some flash cards and I forgot when I was at the store the other day :( I know it will come in due time but as a mom I feel bad when he feels bad. His older sis hasnt had problems like this so this is new to me as a parent. We're working on it!!!!

Antonietta - posted on 01/24/2009

at this stage i wouldn't worry to much they often mix and miss letter's i would just keep practicing eventually all come's in order.........................Netta

Jennifer - posted on 01/24/2009

I had a problem with spelling when i was a kid my mom would put together cross word puzzlse for me it worked a treat it made it fun and now i am a good speller and I love to do the cross word puzzles. Good luck

Jhylia - posted on 01/24/2009

Aloha,

I bought my daughter Olivia who is in the first grade as well, flash cards. I also made vowels charts on computer paper and laminated them, so we could use a reflection chart when helping with homework. It took a while for her to put the two together, but eventually she got it. I keep telling her to slow down and take your time, it is not a race. But practicing with her in recognizing her vowels (long or short) really helped her to understand. They also sell work books that can be used to practice with at home. Patience...;) he'll be fine.

Have a great day!

Mahalo,

Jhylia