Spelling in Reception

[Whizzz]

Just taken some work out of DSs bag. How do they teach spelling these days ?? He must have been asked to draw & spell things beginning with g, h and i so DS has written :

Gigsaw, Gokrt, Haus, Hed, IsKrem, Inkses
from his pictures I san tell that they are
Jigsaw, Go kart, house, head, ice cream and insect
but all his words have ticks against them ???

Eh ? What's all that about then ??

thats brilliant! ds2 is in year 1 and is doing similar. our school try to encourage them to write without getting bogged down in correct grammar, then when they have a good grip on writing thy concentrate more on correct spelling. they are probably pleased he got so many of the correct sounds in there, well done your ds!

? Oooh, dunno! I do know they are expected to just spell things out phonetically, but, for example, ds1 would probably do house as 'hous' (or he might just know the word and put the 'e' on, I don't know) because he knows the sounds 'h' 'ou' and 's'.

Ds1 was writing on the pavement in chalk yesterday and wrote 'shooert' which is 'Stuart' but how he pronounces it! Made me laugh! He's in reception too. they don't learn spellings though afaik.

DS is in reception too and his achool does similar. They don't correct spelling in Reception, they are more interested in letting them learn to use the phonics and the letter blends, and also in getting them used to writing words and making sentences. It does feel odd to me too (memories of spelling tests etc) but it is working with ds, he is hugely enthusiastic about writing stuff down when before Christmas it was a struggle to get him to pick up a pencil.

I didn't even know they were supposed to do spelling.

DD1 wrote a rather lovely story the other day about how Wunz Upon Tim Ther Woz To Monstres adb they livb in a bark kav.

I'm very proud.

No spelling homework at ds's school until next year when he is in Y2. They obviously work on working out words phonetically in class, e.g. he brought home a Mothers Day card, saying I was "butifl" and that he liked it when I played on the "playstashn" with him.

I suppose as a "want to be teaching assistant" I should know that, but I've not been into the Reception classes yet

They don't do formal spelling in DS2's Reception class, and even in Y3, DS1 doesn't routinely get misspelt words marked wrong in his work. I think they get spelling words to learn from the end of Y1, but it seems a bit pointless for DS1 to be learning to spell "nonentity", when he consistently misspells "friend".

When reading and writing is taught this way, there's a lot of missing out of vowels early on.

LOL! DS2 (Reception) was playing eye spy with ds1 tioday....something beginnng with R. The answer? Ragic Roundabout. What in our street? Goodness

Oh yeah and the thread.... nothing formal in Reception, marked tests from Yr1.

"creative spelling" ? Think it is more about encouraging the children to put something down on paper rather than accuracy. dd writes freely (she can always read it back so it makes eprfect sense to her!) but also does 3 or 4 words a week by Look, Cover, Write method.

I love it. DD2 writes the shopping list each week, and it is fun guessing what she means. "Choklit" always features, as do "Wofuls" and "Sweetees." This week we also had bananas (spelled correctly) and "Krips"!

Wofuls was my favourite.

my dd in year 1 spelt poncho - ponshow and got a tick for the correct sounds

love 'krips' - ds2 says crips!

Oh I love early spellings!!! I look forward to that when my dd (in reception) actually learns to read!!!!! She just hasn't really a clue, poor thing.

My ds (5.5) loves drawing in chalks on the patio and then labeling his drawings. I encourage this, and praise his attempts whatever the spelling. It usually comes out like Whizzz's ds! It also gives a fascinating insight into how his speech idiosyncracies and occasional glue ear episodes affect his understanding of spelling. For instance, ds can't pronounce his 'r's, and spells 'track' as 'chak' - but 'train' is generally correct, presumably because it's one of his favourite things and he sees the word everywhere.

I agree that at this stage understanding how sounds translate into writing is more important than absolute spelling, but I also always write the correct spelling near his word, giving him a tick for every correct letter or sound.

formal learning of spellings in reception is too early.

If children are making plausible phonic attempts at words and spelling some simple phonically regular words correctly eg cat, pig etc, then they are doing well.

MI .. wow

must say it looks like cod tbh .. are you sure she didn't plagiarise?