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61
Ways to Practice Spelling
by Michele McCoy
From the Four Blocks/Building Blocks Mailrings
1. 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!
2.
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.
3.
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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7.
Record a Word
- Have students use a tape recorder to practice their spelling words.
8.
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.
9. Flannel
Board Practice
- Students use a flannel board and flannel board letters to practice
their spelling words
10. 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."
11. Word
Cubes
- Write letters on small wooden blocks and have the students arrange
them and to spell their weekly
words.
12. 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!
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. 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.
20. 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.
21. 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.
22. 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.
23. 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.
24. 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.
25. Individual
Chalkboards - Have the
students practice writing their
spelling words on small chalkboards.
26. 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.
27. Wooden
Flash
cards - Try using pieces of
wood as flash cards.
The students enjoy the
change!
28. 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.
29. Magnetic
Cookie Sheet - The teacher
arranges assorted magnet
letters on a cookie sheet.
Students use the
letters to
form the weekly spelling words.
30. 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.
31. 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.
32. 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.)
33. Paint
Your
Words - Have the students use
small paint brushes to paint
their words 5 times each.
34. Soft
Flash
cards - Use wall paper scraps
to make unusual flash cards
to practice the words.
35. Carbon
Paper
Practice - Have the students
use carbon paper (yes,
remember that stuff?) to help them write their
words.
36. 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.
37. 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.
38. Alpha-Bit
Spelling
- Students use
cereal to reproduce their spelling
words. Don't forget to have a snack
with the
words you make.
39. Pudding
Practice - Try using instant
pudding as a finger paint to
practice spelling words.
40. 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.
41. 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.
42. 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.
43. 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!
44. Rainbow
Words
- Have the students practice words with felt pens, alternate colors for
a rainbow look.
45. Put
It In Print
- Have the students cut out the letters from a newspaper to spell the
weekly spelling words.
46. 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 a round 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.
47. 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.
48. 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.
.
49. 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!
50. Sandpaper
Practice - Students write
their words on sheets of
sandpaper.
The students can really feel
their words!
51. Pipe
Cleaners
- Children use these to form their spelling words.
52. Toothpicks
- Same as above.
53. Word
Search -
They can pick 10 of their stumper (high frequency) words to make up a
word search.
54. Alphabet
Stamps
55. Word
Collage - They
design a collage using all of their words using markers, colored
pencils etc.
56. Design
a Word
- They pick one word and bubble letter it and design it.
57. Magazine
Letters - They find the
letters in a magazine and glue
them onto construction paper.
58. Painting
- Paint their words.
59. Playdough
- I have cookie cutters that are letters of the alphabet.
The kids also like to form
the dough itself into letters.
60. Magnetic
Letters - I bought at a
dollar store.
61. Twist-Tie
Spelling
- Use the twist-ties from the store to form letters to spell the words.
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