Spellings for reception child?

[ChristmasTreeCat]

My dd, who is a late July birthday, has asked Santa for some spellings homework like the yr 1s in her class get. She is very good at Reading (reading usborne beginners reference books about anything and everything, famous five, reads bedtime stories to her who brother etc). School have refused to give her any as 'they don't give spellings to yr R'. Can anyone point me in the direction of some good resources so I can start doing some sensible lists of words with her? It seems a shame not to go with her when she is actively seeking out knowledge! Thank you

My ds' school don't do spelling for reception normally, but my ds got spelling from start of the reception as a exception. They tested him on 300 HFW first, than moved on to more set things like days of the week, months of the year, name of the country, name of the vegetable and fruits, etc.

There are a lot of spelling games online/apps if you like, but ds preferred playing board games like wordsearch and scrabble .

Thank you. We play Boggle. I have junior scrabble somewhere, I'll have to get it out again. I was thinking I'd get her a notebook and write in some words for her to practise when she asks. Your ds' school sounds fab! Dd's is struggling to differentiate for her, then I keep getting told she is in trouble and missing golden time for fidgeting. She says she's bored. I know she needs to learn to behave but I think they should be able to challenge her a bit more. I'll start making some lists based on your suggestions

Wordsearch game is really good as well. I've just checked. Colours, shapes, name of animals, clothing, house(desk, door, room, etc.), body .....
All easy short spellings.

If you dont mind screen time the Sqeebles programme is good. You can use set tests or make up your own where you speak the words into the machine and then the audio plays back and she can type the word in. The more you get right the more points you earn to play a brief game.

That app sounds good. She has a couple of wordsearch books for Christmas so will see how she gets on. Thank you for all your suggestions

Id avoid word searches as they often have words running diagonally , bottom to top or right to left which is poor practice for beginner readers and writers. For children taught phonics the use of single letters rather than sounds and capital letters or all lower case isn't what we want them to learn.

Thank you for your input mrz. She can read upside down and mirror words almost as quick as she can read forwards. I take on board your comments about wordsearch especially not helping the phonics side. Can you recommend anything I can do with her to expand her learning? Thank you

Id discourage her from doing that

http://www.spelfabet.com.au/2013/07/spelling-for-kids/

My " Wordsearch" was actually board game version, but still has the same problem mrz suggests.

My ds actually used to love making his own version of word searches on grid papers. He didn't make diagonal words or reversed words. It was actually good for practice writing letters.

mrz it's not something I encourage, it's her leaning over when I'm writing a shopping list and reading it upside down, or she plays teachers with her brother and reads the book facing him and looking down over the top so he can see the pictures. I don't think she needs party tricks , she's doing pretty well already! I found some high frequency words so I'll start with them and also carry on with what I'm doing with regards to asking her how she thinks something would be spelt when she asks me.

She definitely doesn't need party tricks especially if she's being taught phonics well.
http://literacyblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/should-key-words-be-taught-as-sight.html

I'm not sure I'd aspire to learning spellings. Maybe you could find something else that you could encourage? A new area of something to investigate together, some special books to read, some new lego.

I dont really agree with spellings in the first place and it's a little sad she sees it as something she wants!

Puzzle books? The sort with some basic logic problems in maybe? I loved those as a bright kid.

If she knows her sounds, you could give her some letters and get her to see how many words she can make/write from them e.g. a, t, s, b, p, c, r to make at, sat etc. At her age I would stick to 2 and 3 letter word-making, but you could write out flashcards for irregular words she uses a lot (names, places, toys) so they're relevant to her.

My DD is 5. She likes playing around with the letters in her sound box to make words. Magnetic letters on the fridge are good. She also needs an endless supply of notebooks for writing her own lists and stories. DH and her have a game they play where they add words all the time. They started with cat, sat, mat and now have a very convoluted story going on.

Mrz I am confused. I read the blog about teaching sight words.

My dc hasn't been taught ai = the ai sound in said yet afaik. They've only covered ai as in pain wheee it makes an ay sound. Won't I confuse if I break down the high frequency words using sounds they haven't been taught yet?

G1raffe I'm asking for new ideas! Puzzle books is a good one. I'm don't know why you think she's sad though. She's desperate to learn, she has loads of stories in her head and wants to be able to write them down. She's in a class with some yr1's and wants to do what they're doing as she's bored. I've asked school for some more differentiation, they've agreed she needs it and she's starting a gifted and talented programme in January. I'm just asking for things I can do with her at home to keep her motivation going. She has lego for Christmas, and we go to the library every week and read books every night, usually a new one and a favourite few.

Dh is currently deployed away and she wants to be able to write letters to him without asking for help all the time, she's very independent. And not sad at all!

keeptrudging and howabout I like those ideas too. Thank you.

Just read to her and if she asks about the spelling of a word then explain it too her. She is obviously quick and she has the rest of her life for formal education. Let her be a child. Just respond to her queries; then take her out for some fresh air and exercise!

There are lots of opportunities for learning spelling when she is out and about - shop fronts, lorries, newspapers, road signs etc. But only if she asks.

She gets loads of fresh air and exercise! We've just got back from the park, don't worry, she is carefree and happy. This is all driven by her. She doesn't want reading to, she can do it herself. She's independent! We often read alternate pages or paragraphs. We are currently reading 'Five on Kirrin Island Again' which she loves.

I'm not trying to force her, just keep up with her interests

"My dc hasn't been taught ai = the ai sound in said yet afaik" so when you teach her how to spell said you teach that the sound /e/ in said us spelt it's that simple

Encourage her to say the sounds as she writes the letters representing the sounds.

I assume she isn't confused by and being different ways to spell the sound /k/ so why would she be confused by other sounds having more than one spelling.