Is this normal?

[rparmfamily]

My 1st graders words are like
puddle
middle
them
over
cuddle
horse
house

etc etc etc

Those words look like what my 2nd grader does and she's in the highest reading class.

 

[freckles and boo]

who ordered the infected foot

Appetite successfully suppressed. Thank you.

 

[brockash]

No, I'm not going to show a picture of an infected foot or a sick animal, I'm talking about my daughter's spelling list. She's in the first grade. Her list was:

• taxicab
• backpack
• haystack
• packed
• crackerjack
• draft
• after
• paragraph
• basket
• habitat

Now call me crazy (shut up Tig) but this seems a little advanced for a first grader . She doesn't even know what some of this stuff is.

Am I just out of touch? I hate spelling, maybe I blocked this stuff out of my memory.

I don't think you're crazy. Most of those words look like my DS's (1st grade) bonus words, and even then paragraph is out of that legue. My son has 6 pretty easy words to spell, and then he has to come up with 6 ryming words and then has 3 bonus words. Those words on your test seem much harder than his.

 

[dislal]

My DS8 is in third grade in the advanced class and these look like words he had in first and second. I would talk to the teacher. He has words this year that I struggle to spell with the list in front of me

 

[emdav]

This week, my 1st grader's words are: snow, grow, throw, dice, mice, slice, nice, went, want, over, and there. It's the first week we've had five letter words.

 

[SDFgirl]

What would bug me about these words is this - they're not useful to a first grader. What 6- or 7-year-old needs to spell crackerjack or taxicab?

Looks more like a 3rd grade spelling list to me.

 

[BuffettFan]

My third grader has a spelling pre-test on Monday. They don't know what the words will be ahead of time. If they miss one or more words on the pre-test they will be tested on those words again on Friday but if they get a 100% they get "challenge" words instead. The "challenge" words are considerably more difficult than the basic words. Your daughter's list looks like a "challenge" word list to me. After seeing one of her classmates sobbing during a challenge word test my daughter intentionally screws up the pre-test if she knows all the words.

This is how it was all while my children were in elementary school as well.
My kids always strived to get the challenge lists, so the motivation really worked for them.

Even in first grade they were spelling very difficult words....and it has really paid off !! They are in high school now, and both take all honors and AP classes. I believe that the drive to exceed expectations that was instilled in them in the early grades is what has made the difference in their education.

I would encourage your daughter to do her best, and shoot for the challenge list every week. Its better for her to be a little challenged, but learning new things every week, than to just float down the easy path.

 

[freckles and boo]

This is how it was all while my children were in elementary school as well.
My kids always strived to get the challenge lists, so the motivation really worked for them.

Even in first grade they were spelling very difficult words....and it has really paid off !! They are in high school now, and both take all honors and AP classes. I believe that the drive to exceed expectations that was instilled in them in the early grades is what has made the difference in their education.

I would encourage your daughter to do her best, and shoot for the challenge list every week. Its better for her to be a little challenged, but learning new things every week, than to just float down the easy path.

I agree and it is frustrating for me because I was a voracious reader and loved spelling. However, she enjoys school very much and she does ace her Friday spelling tests every week with the easier words. Considering she has (inattentive) ADHD and still pulls straight As, we pick our battles. Encouraging her to read for pleasure is more important to me than the spelling. She excels at piano and is quite good in her drama workshop. As long as she is pursuing something with a passion we are happy.

 

[LadyZolt]

Is the child learning phonics? I used a home school curriculum with my kids for their first few grades, and all those words have the "a" as in "apple" sound (backpack, habitat, taxicab, draft....) So if she's learning the basics of phonics, then most of those words are spelled like they sound. "After" has the "r influencing the 'e'" sound, so if she hasn't learned that, she'd have to memorize that word. Same thing for the "ph" spelling making the "f" sound in "paragraph" -- she'd have had to learn that. But if she's pretty much learned all the sounds, this list isn't too hard to sound out and spell. Try it with her and see how she does. If she's completely lost, then I'd have to wonder about the teacher and I'd be talking to the teacher about this. Hope it all works out OK!

-Dorothy (LadyZolt)

 

[kaytieeldr]

Crackerjack??? Why does a first grader need to know how to spell crackerjack?

Just an approximate definition (I'm too tired to look it up ), but it means something to the effect of extremely skilled - not (just) a sweetened popcorn snack.

 

[LaraK]

Um, yeah, I don't think my kid is going to walk around saying "that was a real crackerjack taxicab driver. He was even out of his natural habitat! I'm going to draft a new paragraph after I check my backpack. I packed it instead of a basket because we're going to the haystack."

 

[mlynn]

My DD6 has only had 4 weeks of spelling test. Some of her words are

Can
an
am
Bad
Sat
cat
Ten
men
bed
hit
sit
in
six

 

[slo]

Oh yeah......those are way to hard!!!!!

My DD's spelling words always came from her reading story that week, and she had no stories with words that complicated in first grade If your DD can't read the words, than how can she spell the words I would not be happy if my DD brought home those words in first grade

 

[whogirl'smom]

Nothing surprises me after dd came home last year in the first grade with the word "oviparous". I think it depends on the school; a friend of mine looked up the spelling words of a school in another district and they were spelling constitution, independence etc. at the beginning of second grade. We are so not there, but I'm sure we could memorize them. It's just remembering later that probably would not happen with accuracy.

 

[MsLeFever]

Too hard - but have her play on spellingcity.com! My kids are now getting much better grades - you type in your list and it lets you play games with them AND test yourself.

And it is free!

 

[GJM]

I also think those words are hard for a lst. grader.

I had issues with my DS 3rd. grade spelling words - he had the word "metamorphosis" one week. He has had Indian tribe names, and other words that he would not use in his normal everyday converstation.

In 2nd. grade he had 10 spelling words (normal words) and the 5 extra credit words that were harder.

 

[bgirldeb]

These are my 1st grader's spelling words for the past week:

Triple blends- scrap, scrape, spring, scrub, stride, splash, split, strip, stripe, spruce
High Frequency Words- give, were, say, about, says, read
Bonus Word- connection, support

He had to write a sentence for each. He knew all of them except three: Try defining spruce, stride, and support to a 1st grader without a dictionary. That was fun! He had to write a sentence using each word.

His connection sentence- "I have a connection with my Mom"

 

[Kathi OD]

My DD6 has only had 4 weeks of spelling test. Some of her words are

Can
an
am
Bad
Sat
cat
Ten
men
bed
hit
sit
in
six

those words seem pretty easy to me at this point in 1st grade.

These are my 1st grader's spelling words for the past week:

Triple blends- scrap, scrape, spring, scrub, stride, splash, split, strip, stripe, spruce
High Frequency Words- give, were, say, about, says, read
Bonus Word- connection, support

These seem more appropriate at this point in the school year.


To the OP, is it possible that the teacher has taken the vocabulary words from the story the children are reading in their readers? I know of several primary grade teachers who do this. It is possible that those words could work together in a story (and, yes, crackerjack means someone with exceptional ability) and would explain the seemingly random phonetic nature of the words.

 

[LukenDC]

I did not have spelling lists or homework until I was in the second grade (1980-81).

 

[Disney Doll]

Sounds liek they are going after the "agh" sound...cr"agh"ckerj"agh"k, b"agh"ckp"agh"ck. A "hard" A as opposed to a "soft" A, if you know what I mean?