Lucas's first spelling test

Lucas just moved up to a new classroom at his preschool. His last class mainly played all day. His new class follows a pre-kindergarten curriculum, learning their letters, numbers, shapes, and colors, to get ready for school next year.

Lucas knows all of the shapes and colors. He can count to 20, but he is still learning to identify each number in print (i.e., to recognize that "13" is the number thirteen). He can sing the "ABC" song, but he is still learning to recognize the letters in print and to know which sound each letter makes.

As for writing, he can write his name with help. That's about it. Up until now, all of his crayon or pencil time was spent drawing and coloring pictures. He doesn't know how to write letters yet.

Nevertheless, he had to take today's spelling test in his new classroom. They had five words this week: girl, boy, eight, sip, and purple. (If you ask me, "eight" is way too advanced for 4-year-olds. Maybe "purple" too.)

Here's how he did. Lucas's words are the first ones on each line; his teacher's corrections are in the parentheses.



(You can click on the picture to open a larger version in a new window.)

I love this! Even though he had no idea of how to write any of these words, he tried his best! And he got a "G" into "girl," I think that swirly thing at the beginning of line 2 is an attempt at a "B", he has letters with downward flags for both the "y" in "boy" and the "p" in sip, he made an "E", "i" and "g" in "eight" (even though this seemed to me to be the hardest word), and he has a backwards "P" for purple. Hey, it's something!