To think these are ridiculas spelling test words for a year 5 bottom group?

[olympicblues]

quite happy to be told if there is some magic reason behind them.

Gnu
Matzo
Bhaji
Alibi
Haiku
Chapatti
Tagliatelli
automobile
autobahn
bicentenary
bisect
circumnavigate

Automobile and alibi seem fine.
The rest YANBU.

Tagliatelli is incorrect - it's tagliatelle.

I don't think they're ridiculous. Bit random though.

odd list

my kids would have had those words, yes, but not in one list, rather spread out over a few weeks

Are they expected to go on a lot of school trips?

Sorry but at the spelling mistake in the heading of a thread about spelling tests. Classic.

Seems a bit pointless to me. I'm a bit old school and am of the opinion that spellings should be words they will use because otherwise it just becomes rote learning

We bisected Belgium taking the E40 and circumnavigated Luxembourg by hitting the autobahn, no that we stopped for matzo balls (optional lol). We reached Italy via the Mont Blanc tunnel and pondered its ever reaching its bicentennial - overland with the gnu we dreamt of India; chapattis and bhajis. The Haiku didn't go down too well at the Taj Majal, but luckily the Gnu was my alibi.

Weird - especially the recent import foreign words with spelling patterns that are rare in English.

Now, you do sometimes get spelling words at the start of a new school year that seem quite different to what was done the year before - DD (year 4) has a set which are much harder than she was doing last year - and I assumed it was a form of assessment to see where their spelling level has settled over the summer.

But hers were all mainstream English words (with prefixes and suffixes), and I can see that they will test how well basic words and their standards expansions will work. I don't see how this set works as an assessment, except perhaps for gnu, automobile, bicentenary, bisect and circumnavigate.

I think the skill they are learning is how to break down words to spell them, rather than learning everyday useful words they are learning a useful spelling skill. Something all children will find helpful, but I'd imagine that children in the bottom group who are struggling may find even more useful than those in the top of the class that spelling comes naturally to.

I may be talking a load of rubbish though!

(I also had a chuckle at the spelling error in the title .)

I suppose it depends when you think would be reasonable to teach those words.

Maybe it was just an exercise in seeing if they could memorise them? They are quite interesting words.

Perhaps the teacher thought it would be an opportunity for the children to find out what they meant?

I don't think it is that big a deal to be honest. Not ridiculous anyway.

Golden thats how it is spelt on the list.

FannyFiferSun 09-Sep-12 17:02:28 Sorry but at the spelling mistake in the heading of a thread about spelling tests. Classic.

WOOPS!

although in fairness I will admit I cannot spell for toffee!

Can I just add the following weeks are as weird.

sometimes a list of random looking spelling words comes from words that have been misspelt in the classes work that week, but I'm not sure Y5 would have been using those words the first week of term - unless they had had some really exotic summer holidays, maybe?

at DolomitesDonkey!

Olympic I was pointing out that the spelling on the list was wrong, not your spelling of it (unless you'd copied it out incorrectly) - so that you could let the teacher know and the children weren't all learning the wrong spelling of the word.

I wasn't criticising your spelling (plenty of other people did that ).

Laughing @ ridiculas

Sorry!

Yes, ridiculas got me going, too. But OP is right. Some of the words are bloody daft.

Daft is easier to spell that ridiculous.

When will they learn 'ridiculous' ?

YANBU.

I would struggle with about a quarter of those, I'm not dyslexic though I will admit spelling is not my strength.

Supposedly my IQ & profession place me in the top 2% of the population.

PMSL at ridiculas!

OP yoo are comedie gowld!

I don't think there's anything unreasonable about encouraging / expecting them to learn to spell unusual words. I would presume that the words were chosen for some reason (e.g. came up in the previous week - discussing holidays?, tie in to other work - on other cultures / geography?, some kind of spelling theme of learning unusually spelt words? I may be clutching at straws!).

Certainly some of them are good words - circumnavigate is one of my personal favourites

Mwaha I cannot spell I admit it!!

But maybe if my school's had taught proper words I would be able to spell ridiculous

Whoops has a H in it by the way.