s/o--What are your child's spelling words this week & are they harder than last year?

[justlearning]

Beth's thread now has me thinking about spelling words. So, out of curiosity what are your child's spelling words this week and are they harder or easier than his/her words at the end of last school year?

My son's in second grade and their words this week are:
room
hope
same
glad
with
mine
chair
forgot
guess
hang
from
form
wind (a toy)
wind
print
air
fill
along
lost
name

Interestingly, his spelling words this year have been MUCH easier than the words he had at the end of last school year. Here's his class list from the end of 1st grade:
thought
question
yesterday
cheerful
leather
mixture
permission
trophy
voices
social
pause
nation
rough
strange
baking
dozen
December
January
October
fairy

My theory is that schools start the first quarter of the school year easy so kids can catch up if they've forgotten things over the summer or if they're transferring from another school and are behind. Do you agree? Is this the case at your child's school?

I'm going to ask my son's teacher at our conference in a couple of weeks if/when his second-grade words will get more challenging.

[GaPeach_in_Ca]

My son is in first grade, I don't have the list handy, but some words from this week are:
jug
tug
said

They have a theme for part of the words, like this week is "short u", and then there are some sight words. "Said" is one of this weeks sight words.

Your 1st grade spelling list looks really hard, IMO.

[justlearning]

Your 1st grade spelling list looks really hard, IMO.

I agree. Last year I was very surprised at how hard his words were. This year I'm surprised at how easy they are. It's still the same school so perhaps they've decided to start going easier with the kids across the school or perhaps my theory's correct about them getting more difficult later in the year.

[LBW]

DS1 is in third grade. His list this week is

slip
fish
pick
rocks
lunch
gift
thing
inch
truck
pond
from
jump
socks
dish
thump
frown
expression
emotion
smirk
surprised

The last five are "challenge" words. List is much easier than end of second grade, but it's the same spelling/reading program - Harcourt Houghton Mifflin Trophies. I'm sure the words are spiraled in a way so that the beginning of each grade repeats some of the spelling rules from last year.

[erosenst]

I am guessing that last year, he was getting 'challenge' words, and that the teacher hasn't started that yet this year.

DD is in first grade. The "regular" spelling list is very much like a PP's - basic phonetics around the sound(s) of the week. The challenge list over the last couple of weeks has included:

Elephant
Pencil
Backpack
Flagstick (reminds me to look it up - is that a word?)
Octopus
Interest
Kitchen
Insect
Friend

Kids get the 'challenge' list by passing the 'regular' pretest. On average, somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 of the class pass the pretest.

[kristenk]

DD is in 1st grade. Some of this week's words:

fix
mix
big
pig
wish
fish
chin
pin
like
and

Last year, they had 2-3 sight words per week. This year, they're focusing on vowel sounds and letter "chunks" I believe.

[egoldber]

DD is in 4th grade. This week's words (the theme is short vowel sounds):

bunk
staff
dock
slept
mist
bunch
swift
stuck
breath
tough
fond
crush
grasp
dwell
fund
ditch
split
swept
deaf
rough

Last year, her first spelling list was:

skate
stage
clay
face
paint
champion
graceful
athletic
activity
relay
magnet
fraction
graph
display
frail
bizarre
chartreuse
plain
limply
hunched

[spanannie]

DS was in 1st grade last year and the words were so ridiculously easy, he never missed 1 one a test all year.

They are a little harder this year, but not too bad.

Here are this week's:
Pattern: Long o

1. rode
2. nose
3. home
4. spoke
5. those
6. open
7. over
8. clover
9. cold
10. most
11. colt
12. slow
13. snow
14. grow
15. throw

Bonus words:
1. October
2. subtraction
3. difference
4. capitalization
5. punctuation

Work Wall Words (also used as bonus words and the list is added to each week):
about
after
again
another
because
been
called
could
day
does
found
get
give
has
have
his
her
make
new
said
should
their
there
was
would

[octmom]

DS is in first grade. This is his third week of word sort/ word study. His words are:

j_: jot, jack, just, jog
ch_: chum, chick, check, chop
tr_: truck, trick, trim, trap
dr_: drum, drag, drop, drug

He did not have word study/ spelling in K, just sight words to learn. This year he has word sort/ study and sight words.

[groundhog74]

The regular 1st grade words are things like pick, pack, lock and other words with -ck. DS gets his own list though which has stuff like shrink, packet, ticket, blinking, cricket, drinking, etc.

[Tondi G]

my 4th grader's words this week are

troublesome
feisty
energetic
mild mannered
alarmed
pesky
peering

the last 2 weeks were

timid
enviously
mock
snare
cunning
haughty
menacing
mustering


treacherous
prospect
fierce
ineffectively
dubiously
authoritative
alarmingly