Spelling

Now that we are learning consonant digraphs, clusters, and long vowels, the spelling words are getting harder. I found these great ideas from What The Teacher Wants.

In addition to these, here are some other activities we do with spelling words in class. Hopefully these will be helpful for you at home.

-Write the words in red marker on yellow paper (there's been some research on that. apparently those colors help with remembering.)
-Write the words in ABC order
-Spell the words in shaving cream (or any other fun substance, like paint, whip cream, chocolate pudding)
-Sailboat spelling. Write the word one letter at a time, creating a sail, then write the whole word once, creating the boat. Kind of like this:

m
ma
mak
make

make

-Stamp the spelling words. (Porter's had a set of alphabet stamps for $1.99. We use these at school, and I love them! I've had them for three years now and they are still working great!)
-Train Spelling. Write the whole word and draw a box around it. Add two wheels. In the first wheel, write the first letter of the word. In the last wheel, write the last letter of the word.
-Create the words using play dough. Click here for an easy play dough recipe to make at home.

Anybody else have some great spelling ideas? I'd love to hear them!

3 comments

Ms.M said...

In addition to some of the activities you posted I have my students:

• rainbow write their words. They have to write the word with different colors.
• They also write them 3 times each. When they write their words they HAVE to say each letter & then the word when they finish.
• They clap & spell. They clap for each letter in the word as they say the letter. When they finish they say the word.
• They also get to write their words on a dry erase board & they take a picture with their pretend camera. Then they put that picture in their brain. owEow that's more than I thought I had.

Ms. M
www.msk1ell.blogspot.com

Brandy said...

What about cell phone/telephone spelling? Give the kids a laminated paper phone with the key pad printed on it. You can do it two ways...have the kids use the letters on the number keys to create "phone numbers" for each spelling word (i.e. the phone number for "cat" would be 228). Or you can give them the phone numbers and they have to figure out the word (which is obviously more challenging...better for your higher achievers) I used to do this with my students and they loved it. After they created the phone number or figured out the word, they had to pretend to dial the phone number for that word on the pretend phone and tell the "receiver" a sentence using that spelling word.

Janae said...

Those are great ideas. I love the phone one. Thanks!