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Gifted and talented

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Original poster

school has surprised me!

427 replies

blackeyedsusan · 08/11/2011 13:38

last week I asked for harder words to read... one (or more) groups have been given spellings!

I also asked for more challenging books as the yellow band books were a "little easy." given that we are reading easy chapter books at home they have put her up one band. I am shocked as we normally play a little game every couple of months where I say the books arer too easy and they ignore me and we carry on doing our own thing in our own happy way. once pmt has passed Grin

ok so she could spell the words first time at home and green band is not a big leap, but i do not know whether she will cope with spelling in a test and at least the green band books are a little harder and we can get something out of it now. she has been asked to practice adding numbers in the teens as she doesn't use the number line to count on. (tends to do these things in her head) well we have practised and introduced a strategy of using number bonds of single digit numbers to check teens+ addition (ie if 2 and 4 =6 then 12+4=16 and 22+4=26 etc) doubt that will go down well! Grin I hope she talks about her strategy at school.

I think I want to push for more, but not until she has had time to try out/prove herself for another month or so. (after all she might go to pieces under test conditions and we have a lot of work to do on handwriting) anyone fancy sitting on me and administering the duct tape for the next month?

(disclaimer, i know she is not doing some of the stuff other really bright children do at this age, though she is the top end of normal and I post mainly because i as fed up of the lack of progress ith reading in school compared to home)

ps, sorry about the lack of capitals, intermittent shift key!

OP posts:
blackeyedsanta · 03/12/2011 00:53

bandaging you foot by the sound of it. Grin

blackeyedsanta · 03/12/2011 00:58

your (oops)

blackeyedsanta · 03/12/2011 12:58

we did not get the spelings for last week and practised the wrong ones. dd went into the test not having practised/seen them at all. i popped into school first thing and told them that she had not practised. she tells me she got them all right though. hoping that does not mean we have to learn extra spelllings. I think the new ones are about the same as last time though. they probably photocopied them before the test ready to give out at hometime. they also seem to be giving out different spellings to children inadvertantly, but can not work out whether dd's were easier or harder than the other sheet as the one mum I asked could only remember one word from her list and I never saw dd's list. dd tells me that blue group get different spellings to red and yellow group.

not fussed really. just glad they do not take extra work but I am the nosiest person around and would like to get an idea of what the teacher thinks she can do.

i am not allowed to ask anything else for a while as I think I have exceeded my quota of "teacher bothering" for a while. (possibly check about the writing slope and pencil grip as that is special needs and is acceptable)

blackeyedsanta · 03/12/2011 16:04

what the hell use is the word "bust" in a 5 year olds spellings?

simpson · 03/12/2011 17:38

Don't talk to me about spellings, DS is supposed to do his spelling test on friday so while he was at school yesterday I threw this list in the bin as we have done them (so I thought) and yes guess what???

Test delayed till monday due to dress rehearsal for nativity play and I can't remember all the words

mrsshears · 03/12/2011 17:58

nosey emoction

simpson · 03/12/2011 18:47

DS is in yr2 ad last week he got: far, park, clear, argue, water (easy group) chart, bookmark (middle group) cheerful, compared (top group)

There are 3 groups in spellings: the kids who find it the toughest get 5, middle group get 7 and top group get 9. DS also has to think of 3 words (and learn how to spell them: he thought of builder, sticker & marbles)

mrsshears · 03/12/2011 18:59

Thanks simpson it's interesting to know what goes on elsewhere.

simpson · 03/12/2011 19:22

last yr in yr1 he got a big book of spellings (about 20 pages IIRC) and we just had to work through it at our own pace. We did not get them each week iyswim.

They (the school)were Shock when DS finished them at Easter and they had nothing else to give him Hmm

iggly2 · 03/12/2011 19:24

"I am totally shock at the amount of homework DS has this weekend."

I know that feeling (I veto homework/academics at weekend). Sometimes his homework goes abit OTT. Though occasionally DH blames me (we had a homework with sequences that using maths probably were A-level standard). DS and me were happily doing this using maths formulae until DH pointed out that they probably just wanted a written explanation.

blackeyedsanta · 03/12/2011 19:24

we have had a succession of cvcc words. (hand, land, lend,bend,) and bust

simpson · 03/12/2011 19:24

Forgot to say when DS has to think of 3 words they must have the sound that they are learning that wk so the example I gave was "ar" and "er"

mrsshears · 03/12/2011 19:47

Dd has that too simpson,we have to find words with the sound of the week in which this week is igh which she learned last year also Hmm,so dd has picked amongst others moonlight,frightful and delighted as a sort of self imposed extension.
She won't be tested on spelling them and we always go for slightly more difficult words to increase dd's vocabulary.

blackeyedsanta · 03/12/2011 19:59

I have added bridge/hedge etc as she struggles with the dge ending. also added house as she did know it but has forgotten and used ow digraph.

there are different groups for spelling but I do not know where in the class dd is. getting all the spellings right without having seen the sheet may have blown our cover though.

we did not get any homework other than spellings this weekend and this seemed quite strange. it is confusing. we have had maths homework sheets, learning logs that last for a week, then forr 2 weeks and then nothing. we have plenty of reading homework though, which i make up myself.

mrsshears · 03/12/2011 20:10

We don't get much homework here.
Normally just the words and 1-2 reading books per week.Dd started kumon maths today and has work everyday for that until next weekend,its very very simple though but we have been told the first few weeks will be to ease them in so to speak but then after that it will get trickier,although the lady who runs it said if dd shows signs of being bored she may have a re-think.

Wafflenose · 03/12/2011 20:23

We get no spellings whatsoever. According to my friends, the school doesn't give out spelling lists until Year 3!! DD can spell all regular phonetic words fine, and has picked up lots of others (in terms of difficulty, things like people/special/friend/colour) but is keen to do more. She panics when a word doesn't look 'right' and gets annoyed when we don't spell things for her.

EyeOfNewtToeOfFrog · 05/12/2011 13:34

Oh, spellings! LOL!

We had a classic last year when DD was in Y2. I explained that she was ahead in literacy (free reader since reception) and needed challenging spellings. Well, the teacher apparently agreed and kept sending home the following: "decree, major, majority, mortgage" Hmm DD kept getting them all correct Grin

In hindsight I think the b**y teacher was taking the piss (there were other ishoos). Now in Y3 DD is back on things like "hexagonal, January, appointment, obviously"

....be careful what you ask for, eh? Grin

Iamnotminterested · 05/12/2011 13:55

Can never understand why people get so hung up on spellings - whether kids get them, or not, too many, too few, too easy, too hard...etc etc. It's been proven that spelling lists do not teach a child to spell, It's a far better use of time and energy IME to keep a notebook handy whilst reading with a child and jot down any unfamiliar or "Hard" words to then look up together in a dictionary - if you want to take it a step further, then use a thesaurus to think of similar words.

I am not steps down off soap box.

blackeyedsanta · 05/12/2011 14:58

teaching spelling patterns that the child has difficulty with in their writing helps. teaching useful words for writing helps if you have a child that will only use a word that they can spell in independent writing. (suddenly, yesterday, next, later) it is best if that is done individually though, which is next to impossible in school. that is why i do not wabnt harder spelling from school. I can concentrate on things she needs to know next, rather than waiting for school to get round to it sometime next year when everybody needs to know that.

blackeyedsanta · 05/12/2011 14:59

school can fill in the gaps I have missed too by their systematic approach, best of both worlds.

simpson · 05/12/2011 17:09

Can anyone give me some ideas on what to do to help DS with his maths???

He is the only one in his class to come home with a worksheet with 100 times tables questions. He has just sat at the table and got them right bam, bam one after the other Shock

He was quicker than me Blush

Now reading and writing I can deal with but because maths is not my strong point I don't have a clue Blush

Also I have a question about SATS scores?? How is it done in yr2. What is the highest they can get and is it all done on teacher assessments??? Or do they sit papers iyswim?

blackeyedsanta · 05/12/2011 20:17

give us an idea of what he can do and wwe can see if we can come up with something.

simpson · 05/12/2011 21:54

he got 100 questions on times tables which seem to be a huge variety of numbers but he does know 2s, 3s, 5,s & 10s so on every question he was able to reverse it if he did not know all of them.

For example if it was 7x3 and he does not know 7 times tables he knows the 3s iyswim.

I swear he did the whole sheet in less than 3 minutes Shock

Its rare that I am blown away by what he does as he is my oldest so I have nothing to compare it to iyswim but I was blown away tonight!!!

simpson · 05/12/2011 21:55

wonder if I should speak to his teacher tomorrow as the sheet was only give out as DS did not want to watch a DVD at last break time with his class mates but wanted some maths instead.

blackeyedsanta · 05/12/2011 22:30

can he do multiplication in reverse? ie dividing but using his multiplication facts to work out his division?

can he add 2, 2 digit numbers in his head? (adding a multiple of ten to a number, themn any two numbers where the uunits to not cross a tens barrier, then any two numbers with an answer up to 100?)

what about counting back past 0 eg 4-6=-2 if it is done on a number line to start to give and idea?

learn the rest of his multiplication divide tavbles?

can he find pairs of numbers that make 100 (firstly 60 + ?=100 then 63 + ?=100)

does he find the difference between 2 2 digit numbers?

just guessing at what he may be able to do. may be way out on the ability level.