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60 Ways to Practice Spelling
by Michele McCoy
From the
Four
Blocks/Building Blocks Mailrings
- Paint with water- Dip a Q-tip in
water and practice spelling the words on a chalkboard. The words
will disappear like magic, leaving the chalkboard clean!
- Shaving Cream Practice- An easy way
to clean those dirty work tables clean is to let the children
finger paint on the table tops. Have the students practice their
spelling words in the shaving cream.
- Scratch n' Sniff- Use a new
sensation to teach the alphabet or spelling words. Write letters
with glue on paper, then sprinkle with Jell-O. Makes a super
scratch n' Sniff when tracing over the letters.
- Adding Machine Tape Spelling-
Students get tired of writing their spelling words the same way
every time. Try having the students practice their words on adding
machine tape.
- Fishing for Words- On 3" x 5" cards
print the students spelling words, fold in half, and fasten each
with a paper clip. Place the cards in a large fish bowl. Using a
toy fishing pole or a long stick, place a magnet on the string.
The students go fishing for a spelling word to practice.
- Finger Paint Bags- Freezer strength
zip lock bags and fingerprint make great writing slates. Place a
dab of finger paint (tempera paint can work, although, not as
well. Hey, look! A use for all that semi-dried up paint!) in the
zip-lock bag, tape the bag closed for extra strength. The student
then lays the bag flat on the table and writes the word on the bag
with a finger. The word will disappear like magic.
- Record a Word- Have students use a
tape recorder to practice their spelling words.
- Disappearing Act- Help your
students perform a real disappearing act. Children write their
spelling words with chalk on black construction paper. Then you
can spray and watch their words disappear and return.
- Flannel Board Practice- Students
use a flannel board and flannel board letters to practice their
spelling words.
- Scrabble Spelling- Place the wooden
letter squares from an old Scrabble game on the Scrabble rail.
Students can use the squares to spell the weekly words or to write
a sentence of words. Incorporate math practice by having them add
the number values printed on the squares to find the week's "most
valuable word."
- Word Cubes- Write letters on small
wooden blocks and have the students arrange them and to spell
their weekly words.
- Spelling Magic- Try a little magic
to teach spelling words! Have students write words on white
construction paper with white crayon. Then have them paint over
the paper with watered down tempera paint or watercolors. Words
appear like magic!
- Partner Word Step- On large piece
of butcher paper print the letters of the alphabet. Have two
partners pair up together to play this game. Have one student read
the word aloud. The other child must step on the letters to spell
the word.
- Read and Grow- Encourage flash card
practice with this growing flower. Cut a large, colored,
construction paper flower with a yellow circle glued to its
center. Use an X-acto knife to make two parallel slits in the
center of the flower. Cut green tag board strips the width of the
slits, and insert the strip though the flower from the back. Write
the spelling words on the stem for the children to practice.
- Egg Spellers- The teacher writes
the weekly spelling words on small pieces of paper and places them
inside plastic eggs. (Now you know what to do with all those
plastic Easter eggs after your kids are bored with them. )
Students pick the eggs from an Easter basket. The students then
must write that word.
- Spelling Keys- The teacher writes
the words for the week on construction paper keys. The keys are
placed on a shower curtain ring. The students can use keys as
flash cards to help them practice the weekly spelling words. On
Friday, after the spelling test they can tear off the keys that
they learned to spell. The words that they missed remain on the
ring, this allows the student to continue to practice the words
they need help on. If the student can spell these words on the
review test they may then tear off the keys to take home.
- Take the Pepsi Challenge- For a
motivational technique, "Take the Pepsi Challenge!" Each student
has a Pepsi cup. When Friday's spelling test is returned, he
writes words he misses on a card and places it in his cup. When we
have our review test, students are re-tested on the same words.
Anyone who has a perfect score on all the unit tests and keeps his
cup empty wins a Pepsi! Give a Pepsi also for perfect scores on
review tests.
- Spelling Puzzles- Write the
spelling words on different colors of tag board. Cut the words
apart in a variety of ways. The students then put the puzzle back
together to form the spelling words.
- Q-Tip Eraser- Write the spelling
words on the chalkboard. The students then erase the words by
tracing over them again and again with a Q-tip until the words are
erased.
- Block Puzzles- The teacher strings
together wooden block beads. Write the spelling words on the top
of the cubes, fill in the other sides with other letters. Attach a
tag to the end of the string of blocks and write the spelling
words on it. The student turns the blocks to reproduce the
spelling word.
- Spelling Bingo- The teacher gives a
blank bingo card for a fun activity to take the place of your
traditional pretest. As the teacher reads each word, students
write it in a space of their choice. After giving all the words, I
call words randomly until someone calls, "BINGO!" The winner must
say the correctly spelled words that gave him the win.
- Spelling Dice- The teacher writes
the weekly spelling words on dice made from inverted milk cartons.
The student rolls the dice and whatever the dice lands on they
write 5 times.
- Musical Words- A word skill game
that is played like musical chairs. The teacher places the
spelling words on small pieces of paper in a large box or bag. The
children sit in a circle, and start passing the box around while
music plays. Whoever has the container when the music stops must
pick out the paper and read the word. If he can't, he is out.
Continue to play until there is only one person left.
- Transparency Show Off- The teacher
makes a transparency of regular lined paper. The students practice
writing their spelling words on the transparency. The students
then show off their work on the overhead projector for all to see.
- Individual Chalkboards- Have the
students practice writing their spelling words on small
chalkboards. They love it!
- Tissue Paper Tracing- The teacher
writes the weekly spelling words on a large piece of paper. The
students then place tissue paper over the words and trace over
them with crayon.
- Wooden Flash cards- Try using
pieces of wood as flash cards. The students enjoy the change!
- Contact Paper Chalkboards- The
teacher needs to make 5" x 7" cardboard pieces, cover half the
cardboard with the special chalkboard contact paper. (You can also
do this with chalkboard paint!) Then write the spelling word on
the other half. The students look at the word and then copy it on
the chalkboard side.
- Magnetic Cookie Sheet- The teacher
arranges assorted magnet letters on a cookie sheet. Students use
the letters to form the weekly spelling words.
- Overhead Posters- The teacher makes
a transparency of the weekly spelling words. The list is then
shown on the wall. A piece of butcher paper is taped to the wall.
The student then traces the spelling words onto the butcher paper.
- Hold It- Young children often find
it difficult to hold a handful of cards while playing "Go Fish!"
These card holders are really simple to make and really do the
job! Place two plastic lids (Cool Whip lids work great!), flat
sides together. Place a button in the center on each side, and sew
the entire unit together with strong string or dental floss.
Children slip cards between the two lids and hold the card holder.
The game is played just like "Go Fish!" by using a pair of cards
for each spelling word.
- Typewriter Fun- Have the students
write their spelling words ten times each on the typewriter. (Or
try it on your classroom computer. If you're brave you can use
your graphics software! Kid Pix is perfect for this.)
- Paint Your Words- Have the students
use small paint brushes to paint their words 5 times each.
- Soft Flash cards- Use wall paper
scraps to make unusual flash cards to practice the words.
- Carbon Paper Practice- Have the
students use carbon paper (yes, remember that stuff?) to help them
write their words. I got some old NCR scraps from a printer that
worked great and was a lot less messy. The best part: it was free!
- Close pin Spelling- The teacher
cuts out articles of clothing, from construction paper. The
spelling words are then written on the articles of clothing. The
students then reproduce the spelling words by hanging them on the
clothes line with clothespins that have the letters written on
them.
- Salt Box Spelling- The teacher
pours salt in the lid of a box (approx. 1/4"). The student then
practices the words in the salt.
- Alpha-Bit Spelling- Students use
cereal to reproduce their spelling words. Don't forget to have a
snack with the words you make.
- Pudding Practice- Try using instant
pudding as a finger paint to practice spelling words.
- Palm Reading- Motivate your
students with palm reading. Write a spelling word with watercolor
marker, (you might want to make sure that this is all right with
the parents first. ) on the palm of each student. Have the
students try to spell each other's words. The students can check
their spelling by reading each other's palms.
- Pyramid Power- Give your students a
weekly spelling assignment with a different twist. Have students
write their words in order of difficulty. They write their easiest
word once at the top of the paper near the middle, the next
easiest twice, and so on. Students will have a pyramid shape when
they are finished.
- Portable Slates- Portable slates
make a great spelling game. Plastic coffee can lids and 1 pound
margarine tub lids are used as slates. The teacher calls out a
spelling word and the students write answers with crayons, hold up
their slates to be checked, then wipe them off with tissue.
- Sandy Words- Have students write
their spelling words in glue, sprinkle sand over the glue. The
students then trace over the words with their fingers for
practice. They make terrific flash cards!
- Rainbow Words- Have the students
practice words with felt pens, alternate colors for a rainbow
look.
- Put It In Print- Have the students
cut out the letters from a newspaper to spell the weekly spelling
words.
- Round About Flash cards- Have
students decorate a paper pate. Cut a slice out of the paper plate
so it looks like a slice of pie cut out of the plate. Brad around
piece of paper to the back. Then write the weekly spelling words
in the window. The students turn the wheel and practice saying the
word.
- Spell It With Beans- The students
use lima beans to spell the weekly spelling words. The students
can also glue the beans in place for a 3-D flash card.
- Spelling Squares- Students practice
their words on graphing paper. The students use 1 box for each
letter. Have the students figure out which spelling word is in the
shortest, longest, etc. . . .
- Rainbow chains- Rainbow chains are
a great way of keeping track of the words a student knows. The
student writes the words he successfully spelled on Friday's final
test on a construction paper chain. The children love to see their
chains grow!
- Sandpaper Practice-Students write
their words on sheets of sandpaper. The students can really feel
their words!
- Pipe cleaners - Children use these
to form their spelling words.
- Toothpicks - Same as above.
- Word search - They can pick 10 of
their stumper (high frequency) words to make up a word search.
- Alphabet Stamps
- Word collage - They design a
collage using all of their words using markers, colored pencils
etc.
- Design a word - They pick one word
and bubble letter it and design it.
- Magazine letters - They find the
letters in a magazine and glue them onto construction paper.
- Painting - Paint their words.
- Playdough - I have cookie cutters
that are letters of the alphabet. The kids also like to form the
dough itself into letters.
- Magnetic Letters - I bought at a
dollar store. Twist-Tie Spelling - use the twist-ties from the
store to form letters to spell the words.
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