Spelling Words for test on December 7

Hi everyone,                   

This is Logan Larose, Logan DeShone, and Zakary Shelburne.

This week's spelling words are: who's, ahead, their, figure, results, whose, perhaps, chance, except, probably, lead, thought, classroom, whole, necessary, simple, rules, method, sit, bought, radio, general, school, family, object, king.

This week's "Challenge Words" come from ancient Greece and were selected by Molly Copp.  The Challenge Words are: 

biopsy, android, odyssey, calypso, cosmetic, sarcasm, mathematics, rhinoceros, Olympian, biblical, diagnosis, dynamic, eureka, analysis, autopsy,

Thank you.

Sincerely,

L.D, L.L

Spelling Words for 5th/6th Graders: Test on Nov 22nd

Here are the spelling words for all 5th and 6th grade students.  The spelling test will take place on Monday, Nov 22nd. 

The challenge words come from the French language.  According to the Scripps Spelling Bee web site, "Before the  Modern English that we speak today was fully settled, the French of the Middle Ages - a direct offshoot of Latin - was widely spoken in the British Isles, as a result of the conquest of Britian by France in 1066."  Bon chance!

REGULAR WORDS:

interesting                  learned              there               sure          toward            closely

thousand         break           afraid           little         their         practice      heard   

animals       through          drive             forward         lead        chance         subjects

stones       beautiful          train        fresh       sight       pretty

CHALLENGE WORDS:

diplomat         rehearse             expertise             elite            entourage         collage

gorgeous           denim         ambulance          plateau        surveillance

camouflage          renaissance            chassis       rendezvous          mayonnaise

Challenge words for Spelling Test on Nov 12th

This week's challenge words come directly from the Scripps Spelling Bee.  This is what the Scripps web site has to say about them.  "Japanese is a relative latecomer among the languages that have influenced English, making it a welcome language of origin for spellers: Recently borrowed words are spelled more consistently than are those from languages that English has been borrowing from for centuries. Japanese is written in English according to the sound of Japanese words and is not influenced by the Japanese writing system, which uses symbols for words rather than letters." 

In fact, we had a visiting teacher from Japan in my classroom last week to teach the students about life in Japan.  She showed the students the Japanese alphabets (all 3 of them) and even made origami with many of the students.

Sorry I posted these words so late.  I'm at home today with a bad cold. 

Here are your challenge words:

ninja               karate                haiku                tycoon                sushi           samarai          

futon        tofu         teriyaki               honcho               tsunami           origami           

sayonara         sumo             shogun            hibachi

Call me if you have any questions.

Jim Shea

371-8068

Words for Nov 10th Spelling Test

Dear parents,

Here are the words for our next spelling test on Nov 10th:

Level 5 (Unit 4) words:

explain, then, friends, than, beautiful, there's, that's, farm, music, their, perhaps, travel, there, answers, notice, circle, watch, single, wrote, they're, often, whose, who's, I'm

Level 6 (Unit 4) words:

let's, chance, than, there, their, past, happened, they're, science, whole, women, people, sight, really, reach, thick, pretty, interest, produce, finally, then, million, earth, result, together, common

Within the next few days, I will add a set of "challenge words" for those that want more.

As you may notice, the Sitton words often repeat themselves.  Many of last week's Level 6 words are in the Level 5 list this week.  In addition, the Level 5 words are sometimes more challenging than the Level 6 words.  I attended a Sitton Spelling conference last week in Manchester, N.H., and the instructor recommended that I use just one book (not both Level 5 and Level 6) and challenge the stronger spellers with extra activities from that one book.  I've consulted with Karen Kennedy (our 7th grade Language Arts and spelling instructor) and she agrees.  Ms. Greaves and Ms. Boucher also agree that it would be better for our 5th/6th grade students if we used one book and gave the stronger spellers more of the challenging assignments.  There are many challenging activities in the Sitton Spelling Sourcebook. 

For those compelling reasons, this will be the last week that our 5th/6th grade students have 2 separate lists of words.   Starting next week we will all use the same list of words but those students who need more of a challenge will do more than simply memorize the list. 

Regardless of what grade a student is in, the stronger spellers will now be required to study prefixes and suffixes, proofread stories, write short stories using the spelling words, analyze words in order to make spelling inferences, improve sentence structure, examine homonyms, antonyms, metaphors, change irregular verbs into past tense, and examine how to make words plural.  If you want your child to have more challenging spelling homework, there are many Sitton Spelling assignments I can send home with your child so you can work with your child.  However, since we are trying not not overwhelm our students with too much homework, I won't send those assignments home unless you request.

I firmly believe that this new path will challenge all of our 5th/6th grade students more.  Merely memorizing a list of words does not help our children become better writers and communicators.  Our children must learn how to use words as tools for communication in this 21st century.  These added exercises will help achieve that.

Sincerely,

Jim Shea
371-8068