How many spelling words does your 1st grader have each week?

[tiff211]

DD7 has 20. I think it's a bit much. DH who is a teacher thinks so as well. She has to define the words each week and write synonyms for them. But the words she has on her list has no synonym. What is the synonym for Alaska? States?

Then I asked if she needed a dictionary to define the words or was she supposed to do it on her own. The teacher sent back a note saying she should use a dictionary or define them on her own. What?!

DH is meeting with her on Friday so I was wondering if this is the norm?

 

[Erin1700]

DD7 has 20. I think it's a bit much. DH who is a teacher thinks so as well. She has to define the words each week and write synonyms for them. But the words she has on her list has no synonym. What is the synonym for Alaska? States?

Then I asked if she needed a dictionary to define the words or was she supposed to do it on her own. The teacher sent back a note saying she should use a dictionary or define them on her own. What?!

DH is meeting with her on Friday so I was wondering if this is the norm?

Right now my first grade DD gets 6 words, but the teacher said she will increase them to 10 next week. The words are easy words, like hat, mat, etc. We dont even need to study, but I run through them once the morning of the test. 20 words of the nature you described is CRAZY!

 

[U2_rocks!]

DS 7 gets about 10 words a week, and doesn't have to do synonyms. They do use a dictionary, but not for their spelling words - they have dictionary practice as part of their English homework sometimes.

 

[marshallandcartersmo]

20!!! Holy cow!!

DS has 10. But they are "family words". Like last weeks were lands, sand, hand, and...........met, get, set. Then she'll throw in a few that aren't family words like first and they.

They write them 5 times each while they are at school, and have to make up sentences with at least one of the spelling words in the sentence. They do that about 3 times a week, so by test day (Friday) most pretty well have them down pat. I'm lucky and haven't had to work w/DS much at home yet. I know it's coming though........

DS's teacher is VERY big into reading. She requires them to read at least 20 minutes a day at home, every day. She told the parents (and the children) "the only excuse for not reading at night is if you are dead".

 

[freckles and boo]

My daughter is in second grade. She has ten words per week. She also had ten per week last year in first grade. Twenty seems like a lot to me, too.

 

[SueInBoston]

DS is in 4th and just got to 20 words! It was 10 for 1st and 2nd. 15 for 3rd.

 

[Parkhopper]

DS also had 20 words in 1st grade. Monday night he had to write definitions, Tuesday, he had to write each word 5 times, Wednesday he had to use each word in a sentence, and Thursday he had to study for the test of all of the words on Friday.

Suzi

 

[Katy Belle]

DS7 had no spelling words in First Grade. Now in 2nd Grade he has 10. My 4th grader has 15. The 2nd grader just has to study every night, however we want to do it. I'm thrilled with this!!!!
Katy

 

[tiff211]

DS also had 20 words in 1st grade. Monday night he had to write definitions, Tuesday, he had to write each word 5 times, Wednesday he had to use each word in a sentence, and Thursday he had to study for the test of all of the words on Friday.

Suzi

I think I would be okay if she had to do this, while I would still think it's a bit much, I would not make an issue but she sometimes to has to write stories using the words or like I said come up up with a word that means the same thing. Sometimes I can't even think of one!

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

None yet.

 

[jonestavern]

DS also had 20 words in 1st grade. Monday night he had to write definitions, Tuesday, he had to write each word 5 times, Wednesday he had to use each word in a sentence, and Thursday he had to study for the test of all of the words on Friday.

Suzi

DS (who is now 18) had 20 words weekly in 1st grade, too.
The schedule was the same as Parkhopper's DS, except Thursday was the quiz or pre-test.
It didn't bother DS, probably because there just wasn't a lot of other homework (other than reading)


Jean

 

[dcgrumpy]

DS hasn't gotten any spelling words yet.

 

[mickeyboat]

DD's are in second grade. They have 16 spelling words each week - 8 are new words, practicing the vowel sound they are learning that week, the other8 are muscle words - words they should already be pretty familiar with spelling.

They have to write each word three times on Monday, and study for their spelling test on Thurday night. The rest of the work with those words is done in class which might consist of a word search, a "crossword puzzle" and sentences.

On Tuesday they have a reading worksheet, on Wednesday they have a math worksheet.

They have to read 15 minutes per day and write the title of the book and a sentence about what they have read.

On our own we practice the spelling words almost every night (thank goodness for white boards), practice addition and subtraction flash cards, and do worksheets from books I bought at Staples and Wal-Mart. And before you think I am pushing them too hard, they actually really like the extra work, especially Hannah, who wrote on her Open House form that her favorite thing about school is "homework, because it is fun."

Now Emily is another story, and we are still having a devil of a time getting her to read. Her teacher thinks she needs a little confidence boost, which will help her start reading for pleasure. Let's hope it comes soon.

Denae

 

[U2_rocks!]

DS (who is now 18) had 20 words weekly in 1st grade, too.
The schedule was the same as Parkhopper's DS, except Thursday was the quiz or pre-test.
It didn't bother DS, probably because there just wasn't a lot of other homework (other than reading)


Jean

DS' class can only get 10 words a week because there's also other homework, like math and English. I think they get tested on Tuesday, so they have the weekend to work on the words. They get math a couple of times a week, and English related to their words e.g. they are learning "magic e", which is when you add an "e" to the end of a word and it makes the other vowel say it's name i.e. adding "e" to "cut" makes it "cute", and makes the "u" sound like it's name. Then the teacher indicates which of the words on their homework worksheets are the spelling words for the week. Their homework might also include completing sentences by choosing between a couple of words, only one of which makes sense in that context, and simple crossword puzzles.

 

[tink_n_pooh]

DS also had 20 words in 1st grade. Monday night he had to write definitions, Tuesday, he had to write each word 5 times, Wednesday he had to use each word in a sentence, and Thursday he had to study for the test of all of the words on Friday.

Suzi

My niece has pretty much this same schedule in 1st grade. They also do something with a pre-test on Mondays before they look at the lesson and if they get all of the words correct on the pre-test they don't have to take the test on Friday (I remember doing this same thing in grammer school some 20 years ago ) but they still have to do all of the other work.

I don't think it's unrealistic, each nights homework is about 10 minutes (20 max) for each subject of spelling, reading, math, social studies, and other little things. They also get time to do some of their homework or ask questions in class. Any classwork that isn't finished in class also becomes homework. My niece often ends up with 'class' work as 'home' work becaus she takes too long in class. It isn't because she needs extra help, she is just very particular about how she does things and really takes her time.

 

[suzannen]

My DD had 20 words and the same schedule as Parkhopper. In second grade they upped it to 25 words.

 

[Annette_VA]

DS has a couple of different groups of words:

Word Wall Words: 5 words the whole class has to learn that are pretty easy (last week's were I, at, is, to, & can)

Word Study Words: 10 words his group had to learn - there are different groups in the class, based on ability, I believe. (last week's were fast, same, base, sack, whale, grass, what, make, hand, & page. He had to sort them based on whether they were a long a or a short a.)

On Fridays, he has a test on the Word Wall Words and the Word Study Words.

He also has Vocabulary words that he has to write sentences with. He had nine words (also, room, anything, know, should, moved, those, only, write) and had to write 5 sentences using at least one of the words. He was not tested on those words, though.

 

[Minniemouse07]

Dd has no spelling words for first grade homework...at least not right now.

She has one worksheet (math or language arts) each night, Monday through Thursday, and one book that she needs to read to either dh or myself.

 

[MamaLema]

When my kids were in 1st grade, they had 5 spelling words. I think 20 is too much!