0  | 

I found this helpful Thank You! Your vote will be tallied soon!

Can you spell the word, "pilgrim?"

The Cheese brought home a Thanksgiving card last week.  On the front was a hand-print turkey and on the inside were the pre-printed words "I am thankful for..." followed by blank lines.  Here is what the Cheese wrote in his card:

my famle
I luv my mom dad
Pomr fred

This is what is known in kindergarten as Guess-n-Go spelling.  I first learned about it when I was volunteering in the Cheese's classroom.  I was helping with a center where they were working on writing in their journals.  From the board they copied the words "I see a blue..." and then they had to write a word of something that saw that was blue.  Most of the words that the kids came up with were simple words--ball, sky, chair--but whatever word they chose, they had to spell it all on their own.

"Have them use Guess-n-Go spelling," his teacher told me.  "Have the kids say the word, stretching it out to hear each letter sound, and write down the sounds that they hear." 

I watched as they sounded out the words, writing down what they heard even if it was spelled wrong.  My own son looked at me an asked, "How do you spell ocean?"  Instinctively, I began to tell him the letters, but the instructions that his teacher had given me had been the exact opposite.  Simply telling my child how to spell the word wasn't going to be accomplishing the task of the center. 

Kindergartners writing in journals seemed crazy at first, but the idea was to have them practice writing and get their idea down on paper.  Throughout my own writing I have always heard the same thing, "Don't worry about the rules of spelling, just write!" and Guess-n-Go is just that.  This is also called "invented spelling."  The word might not be spelled correctly, often written phonically.  What is important is that the students have effectively communicated their thoughts in writing.

Most of the children were doing well, but my child was one of the ones who was struggling.  I was impressed that he had chosen a word totally different from all of his peers, but he had picked out a word that wasn't the easiest to sound out and spell.  He got so far as writing the "O" and then got stuck.  He struggled, only hearing a "shun" sound instead of hearing each individual letter.  His eyes looked at me, pleading for me to tell him the letters.  Before we knew it, time was up and he had to move to a new center.

I collected his journal and watched him move to the next table, where he began to cry because he couldn't spell his blue word.  I couldn't help but hurt for him.  I have always been a terrible speller (I've often said that spell check was created just for me), and in my early years it made me feel like I wasn't a good writer.  I didn't want my child to think that he wasn't a good writer--or worse dislike writing--just because he didn't know how to spell a word.

So when the Thanksgiving journal-like card came home, I was so excited to see his inventive spelling like "famle" for "family" and "luv" for "love."  He read his card to me with enthusiasm and I praised him for both his writing and reading.  It was obvious that the Guess-n-Go spelling was starting to work.

I'm considering letting him write all of our Christmas cards this year.

Kindergarten Chronicles a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z