Hookt on Fonx

At our school, the teachers encourage kids to write freely and creatively without regard to spelling. They most definitely teach proper spelling, but it's done separately. The idea is to help foster creativity in a risk-free way. So, for instance, Pete has 10 spelling words to learn each week and has a spelling test every Friday. But he also has to write 10 sentences, each using one of his 10 spelling words for the week. Only the spelling word needs to be spelled properly; the rest is done in what they call "sound spelling." Hilarity ensues. Here's last week's offerings, with spelling words underscored—and "translations" following:

1. I am from a margack.          I am from America.
2. Or yow a sbas alin.         Are you a space alien? (He spelled or correctly but thought it was are—I swear, sometimes he sounds like he's from Brooklyn.)
3. I have a ckol toy.         I have a cool toy.
4. No such thing as mosrs.          No such thing as monsters.
5. My dad chops big pess of wod.         My dad chops big pieces of wood.
6. I woch to much TV.         I watch too much TV.
7. My cat ets to much fish.         My cat eats too much fish.
8. My chin is vare bude.         My chin is very bloody.
9. My ue lash is at.         My eye lash is out.
10. I shop for los of yos.         I shop for lots of toys.

Usually I can see where he gets his phonetic spelling—woch for watch or vare for very. Other times . . . not so much (ue? yos?). Once he wrote cipdr for computer, and I realized that's pretty much how he pronounces it—at least when he has a cold!

Comments

[Kirsty]

Made me smile! So familiar!
I like the way he spells 'much' correctly for the test in Q6 and then again correctly in Q7 for part of his free-spelling sentence. Shows it works!
Has he been doing 'ch' and 'sh' recently? (Questions 4 to 10)

[Karen]

Yes, we're all about diphthongs these days!

[Jessie]

That is pretty cute. It reminds me of something we're not allowed to tease my sister about - when they were learning about the suffix -er, they had to come up with -er words and what they meant. Like Painter - one who paints. She put as one of her words - Monster - one who scares. It was the cutest/funniest thing I've ever seen! Of course we teased her about it enough that she's still sensitive about it today.