Menu
Home
Site
Index
Classroom
Projects
Teacher's
Inbox
Gifted Seminar
|
Spelling Ideas and
Activities
I think that we can all
agree that spelling is important. However, there are so many
different philosophies out there about this particular subject that
it is hard to find a happy medium when actually teaching it.
Textbook activities are, for the most part, dull and boring. The
actual practice of teaching a rule and assigning a word list that
follows that rule, is, in my opinion, a valuable practice, (and I
know there are several of you out there who would agree - as well as
disagree - with me) but the activities could use a bit of sprucing
up. The main idea is to give the students practice in using, seeing,
and actually spelling the words, but to make it as interesting as
possible.
In our group this discussion came up very recently. Many of us had
our own philosophies on the way we should teach Spelling, but no
matter what that was, we all agreed that the practice activities
should be interesting to the students. The following is what we all
came up with. Many of us went a step further and actually designed
our own programs using these activities along with the word lists
and rules from our current text .
INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITIES
- Write the words in ABC
order.
- Write words in reverse ABC
order.
- Write the words forwards
and backwards.
- Use dictionary - write the
guide words and page #.
- Complete the pages in the
book for this lesson.
- Write a synonym and/or
antonym for each word.
- Make poster of words -
illustrate.
- Use the newspaper - circle
words in color.
- Make a word search using
graph paper.
- Vowels/Consonants- Write
words - red for vowels and blue for consonants.
- Write a definition for each
word.
- Write easiest word, next 2
easiest words, next 3 easiest words etc.
- Make words using a code.
- Trace 3 x using a different
color for each time.
- Write the letters of the
alphabet down on left side with # 1-26 in order. the numbers
beside each letter will represent it’s “value”. Predict
which 3 words from your list will be worth the most, using the
letter values . Use a calculator to figure it out.
- Scramble the letters of
each spelling word. Change papers. Unscramble.
- Human Spelling - give each
child a letter or two. Call out word. Children race to the front
of the room if they have a letter that is needed to spell out
word.
- Classification - have
students write words on index cards. Put children into groups of
3 - 4 and have them sort words in as many ways as possible.
- Write each word times the
number of syllables.
GROUP
ACTIVITIES
- Paragraph - Teacher types
up a paragraph using the spelling words. Many can be misspelled.
Students read the paragraph and underline the spelling words.
They must rewrite the misspelled words at the bottom.
- Spelling Acrostics - For
each letter in the words, student writes a related word dealing
with this letter.
- Spelling Relay - Divide
class into 3-4 teams. The first player from each team stands at
the board with his team lined up behind him. The teacher calls
off the first word and player #1 hurries to write the word. The
chalk is passed to player #2 and a new word is given. The relay
continues until the board is filled. Yell STOP! Have teams sit
where they are and have each team correct another team’s list.
The team with most points wins that round.
- Backward Spelling Bee -
It's challenging because kids have to think as they learn to
visualize each word.
- Spelling Slates - when a
word is called out, each student writes it on his slate and
holds up the slate for others to proofread. If he is correct, he
marks a point in the corner of the slate.
- Spelling Bingo- give
students a blank bingo board to fill with their spelling words.
- Concentration - Have
students put words on notecards. Work in teams.
- One Letter at a Time
Spelling Bee - Instead of spelling the whole word, have each
child say only one letter. If a child gives the wrong letter,
the next child must give the correct response and the game goes
on.
- Body Spelling - have
students spell words in movement of body parts.
- Guess and Spell - Hold up a
card with a spelling word on it over the head of a student
sitting at front of class. Students in their seats think up clue
for the word. IT calls on a classmate to give him a clue. If he
correctly guesses the word, he must then spell it. If he spells
it right, the clue- giver takes the front seat.
- Sketch and Spell - played
like Pictionary. Divide class into 2-4 teams. Select a player
from one team to go to the board. Whisper a word to him and give
him 30 seconds to draw clues in the board for his team. If the
team correctly guesses and spells the word, it receives a point.
If not, the other team has 10 seconds to spell the word.
- Activity Sheets Have
cooperative groups develop some activity sheets for the rest of
the class using the week's spelling words.
- Heart Attack!! - Divide
class into 4-5 teams. Arrange desks in straight line Call out a
spelling word. At the signal, the first student on each team
writes the word on paper, then passes the paper to the player
behind him. Continue in this manner until each student has
written the word. Members of the team that ends first should
stand. Check that team's paper to make sure the word was spelled
correctly by each member. If all spellings are correct, the team
earns a point.
- Memory - write all spelling
words on the board. Have students cover eyes while one word is
erased. Ask a student to look at the board and identify the
missing word. He must then write it on his paper. If it spelled
correctly, he receives a point.
Contributed by
Joanne
SPELLING GAMES
One activity I've used a lot is a Boggle grid. Do you know this
commercial game? Just in case you don't, it's a plastic box with
either a 4X4 or 5X5 grid and letter cubes that are shaken up and
fall into random patterns in the grid. The object is to find words
by looking for patterns in the interconnecting cubes.
For school, I don't use the commercial game. I make up a grid (I
prefer the 5X5 grid--more words, more possibilities for
success--especially for weaker spellers). I've done this lots of
ways--written it on the chalkboard for a whole-class activity or
printed it up on paper for use as a small-group or individual
activity. Since my spelling has been based around a particular word
family or pattern, I've always incorporated this in the grid.
I like this activity, because the kids really start to notice
patterns and relationships among words. They really like it, too,
and are very motivated. It CAN be very competitive, so you might
want to think about how you present it to the class. I always had
the kids work collaboratively in small groups of 2 or 3, and we
concentrated on class totals rather than group totals. - from Mary
Jane, Tallahassee Primary School.
I use spelling tic-tac-toe. The children play the game in the
regular manner (using a board and unifix cubes), but in order to
'earn' the space, they have to spell a word that their partners give
them. (I make lists available in the basket where the game supplies
are kept.)
I also have "treasure hunts" for words that have the same
pattern in them. For example, if the rimes we are working on are -at
and -an, a great word would be Atlantic. Other possibilities are
matter or fan. It depends on the child's level. Kids can generate
lists from their heads or they can use books, magazines or
newspapers to search for words. - from Kimberly, East Aurora, NY.
Every week my students have a spelling contract where they complete
4 must do's and 3 options. Some of the options they have to choose
from are:
- Ransom Words, where they
have to cut letters out of magazines to form their words;
- Secret Codes, where each
letter has a corresponding number ex: A=1,B=2, C=3, etc., and
the children have to write their spelling words as a code (cat =
3,1,20);
- Partner Quiz, where a pair
of students quizzes each other; Use 10 words to write sentences,
poems, stories etc.;
- Scrambler, where a pair of
children each scramble their spelling words, and then they trade
papers and unscramble
- from Heather Pinkerton
Contributed by Janice
A game I have played in spelling is Buzz. Students line up and
stay in that order. We choose a vowel, consonant, or one of
each. The students spell the words saying buzz when that letter
is needed. When the word is spelled properly the next student
needs to pronounce the word correctly. We have done this when
the student misspelling sat down or just crouched down until we
were back at the beginning of the line. Last year I had a very
competitive class and they wanted the students who misspelled a
word to sit down so
there could be a winner. They still had to play both ways,
because you can not always have a winner!
We also wrote what we called silly stories using the spelling
words. The story was just silly, but the word had to be used
properly and spelled correctly. Grammar skills had to be used
also.
Contributed by Luann
Here's one that my kids loved this year. Practice spelling the
words by having the boys (in deep masculine voices) say the
consonants and the girls (in high-pitched feminine voices) say
the vowels. For instance: for the word "problem",
PRoBLeM. You can switch their parts after
going through the list once. You can also have them jump up when
it is their turn to call a letter. I like this----no one loses,
no one wins, no one gets embarrassed because they can't spell
the word since they are saying the letters in unison and
everyone giggles!!
Contributed by Lynda
A variation I do for spelling practice is like Wheel of Fortune.
Kids who are not good spellers will participate because they see
people who are pretty good (on TV) mess up while playing wheel
.. so they will be less reluctant to try. I have a wheel
made up like the TV game...and you can have up to 6 kids spin at
a time. I use this week's spelling words and last week's as
well. You can turn this into a center by making one child be the
announcer and one child be Vanna and write on the chalkboard.
Another one my kids like (and it is an oldie) is Hang Man. This
can also be done in a center with the Hang Man job rotating. I
include a list of words. You don't have to hang a man,
specifically. One day we hung the cooks because they thought
lunch was bad. One day they even hung me...too much homework, I
guess.
Contributed by April
|