Yr1 spellings - can you tell me what your DCs are learning?

[thanksamillion]

I live abroad and DD1 goes to the local school in the local language. I'm trying to keep up her English with a bit of home schooling on the side and I realise that it would help her to learn some spellings.

SO can you please tell me, for example what your DCs have learnt this week, or if you can remember more that would be really fantastic.

DD2 has just started at a new school where they do not start spelling tests until year 2. However at her old school the spellings would follow whatever topic they had covered that week. So for instance after Science week the words (that I can still remember!) were:

prediction
energy
method
results

Another time it was days of the week. Suggest you google search UK national curriculum stage 1 for the words they are supposed to know by the end of year 2. Having said all that, am quite happy dd2 no longer has spellings to learn - quite happy to spend our time together reading. I'm sure that has a better long term outcome.

We're on 'oi' words this week.... spoil, toilet, coil etc etc etc. Was 'ai' words a few weeks ago - including rainbow, laid etc. They normally seem to follow a theme, although ocasionally there are one or two that don't follow that theme.

Our primary school has stopped doing spelling tests this year (across the whole school) - they say it's along new government guidelines that say spelling tests don't help children to learn to spell. They get 'word walls' (sheets of paper with 100 words on each) and learn to spell and read the words on these sheets by using the exact same technique they would use to learn spellings in the past . Once they've highlighted each word and can use it correctly in a sentence, they move onto the next wall.

Thanks for your replies - I did wonder if schools still did spelling tests. I think I'm panicking a bit because she starts 'proper' school here in September rather than kindergarten where she is now, and then will really start to read/write etc in the other language. Once she starts that I think it'll be harder to keep up the English so I'm trying to cram it in now! Probably not a good technique though...

there is a list of key words for KS1, and they seem quite random (I know it has cat and pet but also narrator ) they are called HFWs (High frequency Words).

Google KS1 HFW and some lists should pop up

See if you can get hold of the Schonell book of spelling lists - it was first published in the 50s or 60s and has groups of words (in related clumps) in a carefully graded progression. You can then work through this in your own time and be confident you'll have covered all the important spelling patterns.

think this is the book I mean.

Try www.topmarks.co.uk and the BBC website for KS1. There are English and Maths activities for that age.

If you google it you will propably find a word list for KS1 or Y1, but I find different schools have different aproaches.

Common advise is to let them learn reading and writing in the majority language first and then teach it in the second language. I tried to teach DS to read in German at the same time he started school here in the UK, I abandoned it after a while. Now it seems I won't have to teach him as he picks it up by himself, mostly. I know German in phonetic and therefore easy, I don't know what your languages are, it might be more complex.

Thanks again for all the advise.

gabid the language is Romanian so also phonetic. I thought that as they haven't really started to learn to read at school yet I would take the opportunity to reinforce her English - not least because I think it is harder to read than Romanian. She only really hears English from me and DH so I'm a but conscious of her not struggling with that.

The book looks good meditrina I will probably order it I think.

Bit not but

DD in Yr1 has 5 words a week that she has to learn to spell. They're the high frequency words.
Here they are:

I me am my mum dad
and a yes are the
am no away said at
all come he in big
go she is can going
they it day like we
on for look you of
get play cat to see
this dog up was went

The school recommend we play games to help remember them ie memory, snap, or see how many words you can write in a minute.

My dd is in year 1 and has 10 spellings a week with a test on Fridays. (She is in the top of 3 levels in her class and each level will be given a different list). This week's are: coast, roast, toast, shrink, blink, think, thing, so, do, some. It always seems to be a couple of groups based on the sounds they are looking at, and then a few 'tricky' (non phonetic) words.

Yes well that brings me to a question - in your kids classes does the teacher give different spellings to different kids or does the whole class get the same ones?

DS is in yr1 and has spelling tests every wk...

words like giant, white, looks, rabbit, along, dragon, river, pulled, grow, across, stopped, most, miss, better, because....

These were on his latest homework list

carole - in DS's class the better kids at spelling get 10 words and the ones not so good get 5. But the 5 words they all do are the same iyswim

We get 40 spellings a term with a test towards the end of term. If they spell 32 words (I think) correctly they get a different list, if not they get the same list again.

all the class get the same spellings in our school

We have no spellings in yr 1.

Friend of mine is Romanian. English is a much more complicated, hybrid language wrt spelling.