It's a lot of fun and I feel better being more involved.
Lunch in the cafeteria w/ Annika. Dahl and chapatis anyone?
Annika's friend Sarah comes by with some green mangoes for Annika.
After lunch we got to see Auggie on the playground. Yes, he's trying to cross his eyes. That day was "S" day for Share & Tell so he was all decked out in Spiderman.
Annika and Sarah, the new best buds
Classmates on the playground
Annika cried after her spelling test. (On her leg is a picture of a dog. It used to have a smiley face but after her test she erased the smile and drew in a frown)
She had difficult words and knew them ALL the night before, but got a 9/15 on the test. She actually cried because she thought this would be her first perfect score. The teachers were wonderful when they found out why she was crying and how much it meant to her.
Sample words from the test: (she's the the 1st grade) though, disperse, shadows, source, reflections, prism, cardinal, cylinder, properties... DUDE!!!
Some from this week: afterwards, translucent, transparent, material, mirror, opaque, exhibition, dimension!!! WTF?!?
2 comments:
I don't know what curriculum they follow over there, but I'm a teacher, in the US and 1st grade spelling is far more difficult than 2nd grade, strange as that may sound. Poor Annika! I hope she didn't take it too hard... :-(
I'm really curious about the curriculum they are using at this school. I am also a teacher and it is true that first grade spelling words are notoriously harder than any other, but there is a logical reason for it and from the words you listed here that reason is not evident. The reason first grade spelling is usually the hardest is because they are teaching phonics rules through spelling and you will therefore usually see a common pattern among the words on the list. For example if they are working on vcv(vowel, consonant, vowel) long A the list may include words like cake, tape, save, lane, etc. Or if they were working on the ough sound the list may have words like rough, tough, and cough. Usually one weeks spelling list will include no more than 2 spelling patterns(phonics skills). Recognizing and focusing on these patterns helps kids retain that skill and learn the spelling words more easily. Tell Annika to keep her chin up, it will get easier. How is her reading going? That my area of expertise. If she's not struggling with her reading, spelling is not such a big deal. I'm sure it upsets her, but I really wouldn't worry about her spelling skills if she is reading on grade level or above.
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