Frustrated

This morning was particularly frustrating.  I was working with 2 - 1st graders who suffer from a serious spelling problem.  Out of 10 words they only got 2 and 3 right.  My first go to technique for spelling (after a series of questions about their study habits at home) is to copy the word 5 times each.  The problem is however, that even with the word spelled out in front of them - they had no idea what the word was.  The low phonetic skills they exhibit is becoming a hinderance and already affecting their success.  Even more frustrating, is that one of the students repeated kindergarten and should be sufficiently able to sound out simple words like "lung" or "leg".