Need some fresh ideas to liven up your daily spelling? Try these five that will get your students using different thinking styles and interacting with letters and words differently.
1. Fast Thinking
Students write their spelling word on a piece of paper and in one minute (use timer if you have one available) as many words as possible that are:
- similar to this word
- remind them of this word
- begin with the same letter/phonogram as this word
2. I'm Thinking
Students work with a partner and challenge one another to guess a list word. They must select a word and give their partner verbal clues about the word without revealing it. Take turns until all words have been used.
3. Partner Spelling Bee
Students form partners or small teams. They have a list of words (their spelling book) and each take turns to challenge their partner to spell the word. For a fun twist, you could also ask students to nominate a 'voice' to spell the word in - e.g. 'like an opera singer' , like a rap artist', 'in a quiet voice'
4. Make New Words
Students select a word from their list and write it on scrap paper in large letters. They cut each letter out into a rough square and use the letter tiles to form new words. For short words, students could use the letters of 2 or 3 of their spelling words.
5. Word Ninja
Students stand back to back with a partner. One student is selected to be '1' the other '2'. The teacher tells the class that either the ones or the twos will start each word on the next round - e.g 'ones, you will be starting the next word'. The teacher then calls a word. The students must quickly turn and face one another and begin spelling the word, letter by letter, back and forth. The student who makes no errors, or finishes the spelling with the last letter, scores a point.
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