spelling in year 1 - is this normal?

[SarfEasticated]

DD5 has had two lots of spelling to do, a column with words in which she has to cover, write and check and then repeat 3 times in total.
1st lot contains words like 'ladybird' and 'wheelchair' 2nd lot has 'television' and 'decision' in it - does that seem normal to you?

Thanks everyone for your help - I really appreciate it. We parents have been invited in to the classroom on Monday so I'll see if I can talk to her teacher then. I should trust them to do their jobs but it does seem a bit excessive to me to teach a group of 5 year olds how to spell leisure, and then test them on it. I'll see what's on the next list - 'onomatopoeia'!

I'm not sure I would trust teachers who gave those lists to a 5-year-old. I hope you get to the bottom of it on Monday.

Wow, DS2 has got - wet, bed, men, red, and a few others like that. They are easing them in.

I would only expect words you are getting home for the children who are exceptional at spelling. They sound similar to the Y3/4 words from what I have seen.

Could be Y2 but I definitely know loads of Y2 unable to spell this well.

Do you know what phase of letters and sounds she was working at in her fs2 class? The spellings she has come from phase five,but as mrz said not from week three. I know that I sent children up to year one who were working in week ten of phase five so would be working with similar spellings now as the year one teachers continue from where they were last assessed to be. I would try to arrange a meeting with the teacher to discuss any concerns you have. I am sure you will be able to meet individually before the two set meetings in the year.

To add another perspective, my ds2 is in Y2 and had the following words this week: their, people, could, asked, here. He's a fluent reader, not such a fluent writer/speller and apparently in the '2nd from top group'. He struggled with those words so would definitely not be able to spell the words your dd has been given OP.

DS1 is in Y1 and has spellings, and his school use the look/say/cover method.

I do them with him phonetically, so he reads the word, then we cover and he sounds it out and then writes it down. They get credit for spelling in a phonetically plausible way.
I actually find it a really good way to do phonics with him. He is prepared to be more patient with encoding than decoding, so we do it this way and his reading benefits.

They get tested in class every week as part of their writing work. Children who are finding the words easy move onto the next set, so there is good differentiation.

Those words seem really hard though Sarf. DS is a good reader and a reasonable speller and he would be at those words.

Spelling this week has been a little easier 'crayon' and 'pounce' which dd is happy with. I suppose I was just thrown by the fact she was being taken out if class, given complicated words and that her writing was so messy it didn't fit in the spaces. Apparently when they are tested they are given credit for trying too which is heartening. I wish I'd been a bit more prepared! Thanks very much for all of your help - much appreciated!