What Happens at Gramma's….

December 4, 2009

“Rth”

What does that spell?

Well, if you’re sounding out words in Kindergarten, take a guess.

If you got “earth”, you are correct.

I was back in Kindergarten today.  Lucky me.  Lawrence’s mom couldn’t make it so I got to go twice this week!  (Sorry, Karen…)

As usual these days, my job at center time is to help kids stretch out words.  They don’t need to know how they are really spelled.  They just need to write down how they sound for now because they are being taught the sounds of the letters, not how to spell.

We’re making a list of five things we Need this week.  Not ice cream, not cake (like I said in my last post, it was tough not to let them write that down as a Need), and not skate boards.  Certainly not TVs.  : )

And, yea!.  Elizabeth came up with “earth”.  We Need the earth!  Awesome.

But, let me ask you…do you know how tough it is to let a kid spell “earth” “r-t-h”?  LOL.  I must have had a funny look on my face when she said “R” as the first letter.  But I let her write “r” down because “r” is the first sound in “earth”.   She knew the “th” because it’s at the end of her name.  So she had “rth”.

Then she looks at me with this skeptical look on her face.  ”Is that how you spell it?”

Okay, so now I’m caught.

Me: “Well, actually, that’s not how you spell it because “earth” is a funny word.  It doesn’t sound like it’s spelled.”

Elizabeth: “Well how do you spell it?”

Me: “Well, “earth” actually is spelled e-a-r-t-h so you got most of it right.”

Elizabeth turns her pencil upsidedown to use the eraser.

Me: “Just leave it like that, sweetie.  Mrs. Smith just wants you to spell out what you are hearing right now.  It doesn’t matter if it’s spelled right.”

I think that just about killed her.  Five-year-olds are such rule followers I’ve found.  If there’s a rule, they are bound and determined to follow it.  I could just see the battle waging in her little brain between spelling the word right and following an adult’s directions (two conflicting rules!  Oh no!).

So we talked about the sound and spelling of earth…

Me: “Earth is one of those words that just isn’t spelled like it sounds.  The “e” and the “a” are kind of silent.  You don’t say EE-ARE-TH when you say it, do you?”

All the kids at the table are in on the conversation now.  Mikayla and Nadia and Elizabeth chorus “no!”.

Me: “So sometimes you’re going to have words that just aren’t spelled anything like they sound.  But what Mrs. Smith wants you to do now is just understand the sounds the letters make and “r-t-h” is what “earth” sounds like when you stretch it out.

Elizabeth’s eraser was still hovering, but she bravely put the pencil down and accepted that she didn’t need to be perfect quite yet.

And isn’t that a blessing?