Ericaand4kids Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 So my sweet DD who just started 5th grade is an AWFUL speller! Her teacher doesn't care one bit and she actually has the same teacher as last year, whom I really like, but she doesn't think spelling is important. However my daughter started gifted classes this year and her gifted teacher expects better! Some examples of her mistakes and this is when she was supposedly trying: biluldings (buildings) colapse diferent scientis (scientist) realy simplle dectetion (detection) matirial somthing gess (guess) streched These are from one page and she reads/comprehends at an 8th grade level! I was thinking about AVKO, but not sure if that fits what she needs, I don't really understand why she doesn't get it. Also I'd like a cheap/free resource recommendation for practicing her times tables.... I'm sort of questioning whether she should be in gifted, but she just started and I do like the fact that she has another teacher besides just the one, so I will give that awhile! Thank you! I've not been on here in so long, glad to stop back by! ~Erica Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cougarmom4 Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 I just discovered spellingcity.com from a suggestion on here--but it's not a curriculum, it's online games to practice with your student's spelling list. You enter their list and then there are several different activities she can do with her words. My ds7 loves it and I'm going to start my dd10 working on it this week. If your dd doesn't have a list, you can just enter words she often mis-spells. Hmm, multiplication practice--I've just bought a bunch of different kinds of practice games (flashcards, dominoes, wrap-up, multiplication bingo) to keep in a basket for my ds7 to play with...everyday he chooses one afterschool to work on. There are also a lot of different online games. And I found a CD that has multiplication facts to music so we listen to it in the car. I think it also helps to use a multiplication table to figure out which ones are the trickiest for her to remember--you write out the whole table, then highlight the ones she already knows (zero, one, two, five, ten, for example...let's say she knows her threes, and fours, too...), then you can highlight in a different color the ones that are left...and when you look at it that way, there aren't very many left at all (especially when she sees that 6x7 is the same as 7x6 so only counts as one to learn!). My ds loved this--it helped him to visually see that it wasn't that overwhelming to finish it off. Hope you get some more suggestions on here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starwarsmomma Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 I can tell you that I've met MANY Gifted children who are horrible spellers! NO, not always bad spellers, but it is common. Spelling city is great, you can also do the little tricks == like putting sand or salt in a shallow dish and have her write words with her fingers, writing out her spelling words into a silly poem, writing them with window markers onto her mirror or bedroom window (my kids favorite), etc... As far as multiplication-- there is the FREE games at http://www.multiplication.com lots of great stuff there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katrina J Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 My brother is a brilliant engineer and a terrible speller. He builds large scale, highly technical infrastructure but his spelling is so bad, not even spell check can help him. It sounds like your daughter has learnt to read by sight, meaning she can recognise words easily and apply her knowledge of existing words to work out the meaning and pronunciation of new words, but hasn't had to pay close attention to phonics and spelling rules. Some of the free online phonics reading programs might be worth looking at to improve her phonic knowledge and learn some spelling rules. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katrina J Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 Have you tried www.justreadflorida.com? I have a really useful pdf download called THE SOURCE: A Curriculum Guide for Reading Mentors that includes age and grade related reading and spelling information. I can't find the link quickly but I'm sure you could search the site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lgm Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 One of mine was a poor speller despite teaching himself to read. Turns out he thought in chunks (which was reinforced by the school) and never learned what a syllable was. It became obvious in Gr. 5. We use the first MegaWords book over the summer - spelling portion only and that cleared up all his issues. He requested Book 2 to learn a little after Gr. 8. Cheap/free resource for times tables: math blaster multiplication war http://letsplaymath.wordpress.com/2006/12/29/the-game-that-is-worth-1000-worksheets/ http://www.addictinggames.com/multiplicationstation.html http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/thats_a_fact/english_4_6.html http://www.mathmastery.com/cyberchallenge/ http://themathworksheetsite.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ericaand4kids Posted September 8, 2009 Author Share Posted September 8, 2009 THank you! It is reassuring to hear of gifted bad spellers, my gifted 3rd grader is an awesome speller (he spells much better than his 10 yr old sister) so that is my main comparison. Anyways, I think for now we will use Spellingcity.com and keep a notebook of words to work on. She doesn't have spelling words this year, last year when she did she almost always got an A. If working like this doesn't help then I might again look into something else in a month or two. I'm going to look into what megawords is too. ~Erica Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 I have some free online spelling lessons that might help. I was a good reader but a poor speller until I learned all the phonetic spelling rules. Here's a page of spelling ideas and links to free and cheap programs that I like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cammie Posted September 12, 2009 Share Posted September 12, 2009 I was always in gifted classes and I was always (and still am) a terrible speller! Thank god for spell check. I think there are just some brains that don't retain the information! I am a HUGE reader but I will misspell words I have seen thousands of times. I can't explain it but I am pretty sure it has nothing to do with how smart or gifted you are! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OLCH Posted September 13, 2009 Share Posted September 13, 2009 OMG ~ I am still new w/ the forums & love to just read. However had to say thanks this was the first thread where I found out about spelling city & Love it!!!:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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