Spelling Bee Preparation

On Wednesday I started helping the sixth graders at New Life Christian School prepare for the spelling bee.  They just received a copy of the sixth grade words so that's where we started.  The word lists include three levels of difficulty, and, as I'm sure I mentioned last year, sixth graders in the states would find many of the average and most of the difficult words very challenging.  For New Life kids, these words are in their second language so that makes them even harder.

I found an online spelling program that allowed me to build word lists for a class and provided an individual login for my students.  The best part is that the program pronounces and uses each word in a sentence.  Since we have access to the small computer lab, each student can login and complete their own practice.  It is a great way to maximize our time.  Even better, the students with computers can access the program at home.  

On Fridays school is dismissed at 12:30.  My seven kids brought their lunch and then we worked from 1:00 to 3:30.  We mixed things up a bit with some computer work, then had a traditional spelling bee, then had a lightning round with the easiest words.  If they missed them, they had to go write the word 10 times before they could come rejoin the round.

We don't meet again until Wednesday so, hopefully, they will find time to study the rest of the 6th grade words so we can start on the 7th grade words on Thursday.  We have 11 more practices until the spelling bee on Tuesday, April 29.