Spelling Activities

We’ve all heard the cliché, practice makes perfect. Although my son’s baseball coach has improved this cliché to read, perfect practice makes perfect – it is important that you practice doing something the right way. Below are some fun activities to help a child correctly spell their spelling words.

Spelling Activity

1. Look at the word.
2. Say the word.
3. Name the letters.
4. Cover the word.
5. Write the word.
6. Check the word letter by letter.

Repeat this process until you can spell it correctly and gain automaticity (without thinking about it).

Spelling Scramble

Use magnetic letters or SCRABBLE pieces, scramble the letters of a spelling word and then put the letters back into their correct order. You can also create your own by writing each letter on a small piece of paper. Mix up the letters and then properly sort them back into your spelling word.

Write Spelling Words

Get your child acclimated to a Word or Excel document and have them type each spelling word five times. Writing the words on a piece of paper is another activity that helps a child learn their spelling words. Try these fun activities.

• Create rainbow words. Using the ROYGBIV acronym to remember the order and colors of the rainbow, write each spelling word using the colors of the rainbow. The first word is written in red, the second word is written in orange, the third in yellow, the fourth in green, the fifth in blue and the sixth in purple to represent indigo and violet.
• Red light, green light isn’t for preschoolers anymore! Have your child write each consonant in green and each vowel in red. Do this five times for each word. Make sure your child says each letter as he writes them down.
• If your child can, write each word five times in cursive. Make sure she is saying each letter as she writes it.
• Use the three way approach. Write each word three different ways, e.g., print, cursive, uppercase letters, lowercase letters or bubble letters.

Spelling Word Pyramid

Create a word pyramid. Using the word, almost, the pyramid would look like the following:
a
al
alm
almo
almos
almost
Make sure you say each letter as your write them down. After your child completes the pyramid, read or chant each line, e.g, a, take a breath a, l, take a breath a, l, m etc.

Spelling Word Families

For each spelling word, write all of the possible variations of the word, e.g. happy, happier, happiest, happiness and unhappy.

Spelling Word Search

Using your spelling words, create a word search. Use a computer program or just a pen and paper.

Learning how to spell is an important skill every child needs to master. Spelling tests will occur weekly or biweekly depending upon the curriculum. Use these activities to help your child ace their spelling tests.