Spelling Ideas

 

It is a good idea to practice your spelling at least twice a week for homework. If you find spelling tricky then do a few words each night, think about the letter patterns you are learning.

You can do different games and activities; highlight the letter patterns and sort them into groups to make it easier.

Ideas

• ‘Write’ your words using magnetic letters or letter tiles.
• Two handed: Hold two different coloured markers, crayons, or pens in your hand. Copy the words in your best handwriting.
• Word detective: Use old newspapers, magazines, junk mail, etc. to find and highlight the spelling words.
• Spelling word pairs: Write the spelling words two times each, cut out in rectangular fashion, turn them over face-down, and match.
• Jokes: Write a joke, riddle or tongue twister using your spelling words.
• Name search: Write your spelling words. Circle the letters in each word that are in your name.
• Vowel sort: Write each spelling word with crayons. Use red for vowels and blue for consonants.
• 30 Second Words: Take a piece of paper and fold it into quarters. Write the spelling word in one corner of the paper. You have 30 seconds to write the word as many times as you can. (Ask someone to time you or use an egg timer)
• Finger Tracing: Use your finger to spell out each of your words one letter at a time on your partner, Mum or Dads back. Then its YOUR turn to feel and spell.
• Three Cheers for Spelling! : Develop a cheer for some of your words. Make it snappy, make it catchy, but make sure you spell out the letters of each word.

Games

• Hangman: Play a game of Hangman using spelling words.
• Noughts and Crosses: Instead of using Xs and 0s write a spelling word in each square.
• Guess What! : Play charades with your words. Each person chooses a word to act out. The person guessing the word must not only guess the word, but must also spell it correctly. You can score one point for guessing the word and one point for spelling it correctly.
• Match It : This is a partner game that is also known as ‘Go Fish’. Find a friend/adult. Write your words on cards so that you have two cards for each word. Deal out part of the stack. Ask your partner for a particular word. If s/he does not have it, draw from the remaining stack. Scoring: 1 point per match if it is your partner’s word, and 2 points per match for your own word.

 

Primary 4 pupils have logins for Spelling City so they can login at www.spellingcity.com and look through the teacher’s list for their spelling words for the week.

 

Can you think of a fun way to practice your spelling words?   Then go for it! Be sure to explain your activity so that I can share it with the class!