Spelling practice can be fun. When I became a teacher, I swore off repetitious spelling drills and looked for ways to make spelling time a fun time. Shaving cream, Wikki Stix, magic markers, magnetic letters, and even Q-Tips can enhance your students' word work. Check out the following hands-on, creative, and fun ways to practice spelling.
Shaving CreamTactile Spelling Practice
Shaving cream is wonderful for tactile spelling practice. Just spray it onto a desk, smear it around, and start writing. Shaving cream words are easily erased which provides three benefits. Mistakes are gone at the swipe of a hand; students can practice a word several times without seeing their previous effort; and they can work through several words in a short amount of time. Children love the cool, smooth feeling, and teachers love how clean the desks are after spelling practice with shaving cream. Here are some more fun things to do with shaving cream.
Word PicturesVisual Spelling
For visual learners, word pictures are great spelling practice. This photo shows one of my first graders doing spelling practice. She is writing some words randomly, but notice the placement of "up" in the upper part of the page, the word "blue" written in blue, and "time" with clocks all around it.
Concentric SpellingFun Spelling Drill
Why write a spelling word five times in a list when you can write it five times in colorful concentric bubble letters? Make sure your students put extra space between the letters in their words so they have room to write each letter bigger and bigger. I don't have the data to prove it, but my hunch is that spelling words written like this leave a longer-lasting impression than writing the same word over and over in list form.
Magnetic LettersQuick Spelling Practice
Magnetic letters work well when you want your students to practice several words in a row, and especially well when working with word families. Keep the cluster of letters that you are working on, and switch the other letters in and out.
Q-Tip SpellingBuild Spelling Words
Good, old cotton swabs work well for tactile spelling practice. It's tricky to form curved letters, but as you can see by the letter e in little, it can be done. The space between the two ts is there to indicate the division between syllables.
Wikki Stix SpellingFocus on One Word
I've written elsewhere about wikki stix
as learning tools, so I won't repeat myself here. They are durable, flexible, inexpensive, and versatile manipulatives for spelling and, well, for just about anything else. This student formed her letters from wikki stix, spelled the syllables of yes-ter-day, and then pushed the syllables together to form the word. Check out wikki stix on amazon
.Looking for fun ways to teach kids dictionary skills?
Great ideas!
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