I wanted to share some word work and spelling ideas with you that I have used in the classroom and in home schooling. I made some of these up and got the others from various resources, mostly from Mailbox Magazine. I have had these in my resource files since the early 90’s, so I can’t be more specific with my sources. I apologize for that. However, these add a lot of fun and variety to the school day. When you incorporate activities involving several learning modalities, concepts are more likely to “stick.” Who says learning can’t be fun?
Ribbon Spelling
Use a ribbon like a pencil, and write each word in the air.
Gooey Spelling
Place a sheet of wax paper on the table. Then place something gooey, such as finger paint, shaving cream, pudding, whipped cream, etc. smoothly on top of the waxed paper. Have your child spell words with his/her fingers in the goo!
Jell-O Spelling
Sprinkle powdered Jell-O in a pan and smooth it out. Have your child spell words or practice writing letters as neatly as possible in the powder. The fun part is that when you finish a word and smooth out the powder again, you get to lick your fingers! Afterward, if you happen to have letter-shaped molds, you can actually make letter shaped Jell-O. You will need to use about ¼ less water than usual to make the letters a little firmer and easier to handle when done. Then, use the Jell-O letters to spell words before eating them.
Tic-Tac-Toe Review
This takes 2 players. Draw a Tic-Tac-Toe grid. Each player must spell a word correctly before placing an X or an O in the grid.
Squirt Bottle Spelling
Fill a squirt bottle with water and food coloring. Squeeze the bottle to form the shape of letters onto your driveway. (This is especially fun to try in the snow during the winter time.)
Spelling Goose
This is fun if you have several children involved. Instead of the usual “Duck, Duck, Goose,” have one speller go around the circle saying one letter at a time of a word. When the last letter of the word is said, the chase it on!
Ping-Pong Toss
Place several paper cups in rows on the ground. Place strips of paper with words or questions for review in each cup. Have your child stand back and toss a ping-pong ball into one of the cups. Wherever it lands is the word or question that must be spelled or answered.
The Dictionary Game
This is good for increasing vocabulary and can be modified for any level. If there are only a few children, make up some phone definitions for each chosen word and write them on strips of paper. Also, write the correct definition on one of the papers. Have your child guess which one is correct. If there are several people playing, call out a word and have each person write their own crazy definition for it on a strip of paper. Then, you write the correct definition for the word. Collect all the pieces of paper and read each answer. Have each one guess which one they think is correct. This can be hysterical!
Old Fashioned Win, Lose, or Draw
Remember this show from a few years ago? This can be adapted to help increase vocabulary. Take turns drawing pictures of words and have other guess what your are drawing.
Hangman
I probably don’t need to explain this one, but it excellent to increase spelling skills.
Vocabulary Match Game
Write a word on each of several index cards or sentence strips. On separate pieces, write the corresponding definition. Place the cards face down and take turns flipping two pieces at a time until you find matches. Or, place them face up and just practice matching the words to the definitions.
Word Puzzles
Write several words on index cards. Cut each one down the middle. Practice matching word parts.
Vocabulary Explosion
Write several words on index cards. On about ¼ of the cards, place the word BANG with a picture of a piece of dynamite and shuffle these cards in with the rest. Take turns drawing cards. If you get draw a word, you must use the word correctly in a sentence to keep the card. If you draw a BANG card, you lose all your cards. However, if you want to keep it more positive, you can use the BANG card as a bonus and offer extra points or a prize.
Alphabet Stamps
If you have rubber stamps and an ink pad, sponge letters, magnetic letters, foam letters, mailbox stickers, etc., you can have fun creating words or sentences.
Window Art
Believe me; it’s not as bad as it sounds. Washable markers are great on large windows and clean in a cinch. Use this as a unique opportunity to practice skills or just be creative.
Rainbow Words
Write a word with small letters and plenty of space between each. Outline each letter in purple, then blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. You will have beautiful words!
Partner Spelling
Write letters or words on your child’s back with your finger and have him/her guess what you are writing.
One At a Time, Please!
Call out a word. Two or more students will take turns saying one letter at a time until the word is spelled.
Alphabet Game (This is one of my favorites!)
Great for memory, beginning sounds, and reinforcement of ABC order. Name a category, such as foods, cartoon characters, animals, etc. The first player names one that begins with an “A”. The second player must name what was said before him and then name one that begins with “B”. Play continues with each player naming everything that is said before him/her in order before naming the things that begins with the next letter. This is hard, but so much fun!
A variation is to say “I went to the store and I bought (anything that begins with “A”.) Each person in turn begins the same way and must say everything that was said before him before naming something beginning with the next letter.
What’s missing?
Write several words with blanks in place of some of the letters. Have your child figure out which letters are missing.
Super Bowl
Draw a football field with a fifty yard line in the middle, and label each progressive 10 yard line unto the goal. Each player places a paper football in the middle. As each player answers a question correctly or spells a word correctly, he moves his football 10 yards toward his goal. The first one to his goal wins the Super Bowl!
Be an Investigator
Write some words or some facts incorrectly. Have your “investigator” discover what is wrong with each.
Alphabetical Caterpillar
Cut out 27 large green circles. On one, draw a funny caterpillar face. On the rest, write 26 words that begin with each of the letters of the alphabet. Mix them up and see how fast your child can arrange then in alphabetical order and in the shape of a caterpillar.
A variation is to use only a few words at a time since this can be difficult for our younger students.
Silly Sentences
Write words in index cards and place them in a jar. Draw a word, and try to make up the silliest sentence you can using that word.
