Refresh Your Lessons With These Spelling Activities For Any List Of Words
Spelling is an essential skill, but it can be challenging to teach. Finding spelling activities that work for any list of words, provide enough practice, and keep kids engaged can be a challenge.
If your students are bored, overwhelmed, or frustrated, it’s time to makeover your spelling block.
There’s no need to spend a ton of time, money, or energy to make over your spelling block.
Of course, you want your spelling block to be engaging, fun, and a favorite part of your students’ day, but that doesn’t mean you want to spend a ton of time, money, and energy on it.
I’ve got good news for you. You DON’T have to.
A few simple steps and some fun spelling activities that work for any list of words are all you need.
You can easily make over your spelling block with three simple steps.
First, teach the spelling rules and phonics patterns.
Next, explain any rule breakers or sight words.
Finally, provide plenty of fun practice.
This post will give you the tools you need to easily makeover your spelling block.
The vast majority of English words are decodable.
Students who have a solid foundation in phonics don’t have to rely on memorization for most words.
Spelling instruction must cover segmenting words, syllabification rules, and phonics rules.
Teach kids why we spell words the way we do.
For example, “cat” is spelled with C while “kit” is spelled with K because we usually use C in front of a, o, and u unless we are talking about words with a soft c sound. In front of i and e, we usually use K.
Knowing that rule makes it a lot easier to master a spelling list full of words like cat, kit, kin, cap, cot, and key.
Some words will need to be taught as sight words.
It’s essential to teach spelling with phonics and rules. Some words don’t follow the rules. Some words simply must be memorized.
Other words fit the rules but are encountered so frequently that they need to be taught before students are ready to learn the relevant rules. This is where high-frequency word lists come into play.
Most of these words are decodable, but it is often necessary to teach them as sight words because kids often need to read and write these high-frequency words well before learning the relevant phonics rules.
Additionally, there are some words that don’t follow the phonics rules. For example, the word one sounds like it starts with a W, but it doesn’t. It’s a rule breaker.
These are the words that students will have to memorize. Editable sight word worksheets like the ones shown below let you target the exact words your students need to learn.
Don’t just give these words to your students. They haven’t learned the rules yet to sound out these words. They need to memorize sight words, or at least memorize the tricky parts of the words. (You can read this post for some quick and easy ways to teach sight words.)
The third component of a successful spelling block is plenty of practice.
Once you’ve taught a phonics rule or pattern, it still takes practice for students to master that pattern. As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect.
Practice doesn’t mean boring! When practice time is fun, your kids will look forward to it. Here are some simple tips to keep it fun.
Spelling Practice Tip 1: Kids love completing spelling activities with hands-on materials.
There are oodles of hands-on ways to practice spelling words.
These are a few kid-approved ideas for hands-on spelling practice. (The links below may contain affiliate links).
- Write in sand or salt
- Use Wikki Sticks or Pipe Cleaners to make each letter
- Stamp each spelling word with letter stamps
- Use water to paint the words onto construction paper
- Build the words with magnetic letters or letter beads
You can also spice up your spelling practice simply by swiping out pencils for markers, crayons, smelly pens, or watercolor paint.
Spelling Practice Tip 2: Pick short and sweet spelling activities that work for any list of words.
Kids have short attention spans. Keeping your spelling activities short and sweet will go a long way toward having a successful spelling block.
A few minutes of practice each day will work much better than less frequent longer sessions. Pick activities that are quick enough to avoid frustration but still provide plenty of practice.
Spelling Practice Tip 3: Variety keeps things fun.
Classic activities, like copying spelling lists and dictation practice, get boring super quickly. Keep your spelling block fun by changing up the activities frequently.
Spelling Practice Tip 4: Meet your students where they’re at.
Differentiation is where it’s at.
Pretest the words your students will practice. If your kiddos have mastered the list, bump up the challenge.
If you have kiddos who struggle with 10 new words, give them 5 new words and 5 review words.
Editable activities make it incredibly easy to adjust your spelling assignments to your students’ needs. Just type the words you want and print. Multiple versions of the same activity make differentiation easy!
Spelling Practice Tip 5: Build in choice.
Who doesn’t like to have some control over their own time?
Most kids like having control over how they spend their day.
Incorporating choice into your spelling block increases student motivation and engagement. Use choice boards to provide choice and keep your spelling block organized.
Choice boards are excellent tools for managing independent spelling activities.
They are a great way to organize independent practice.
- Choice boards allow students to take responsibility for their own learning.
- Choice boards allow students to select the activities they want to complete. Differentiation is built in. Using editable activities makes it easy to differentiate the spelling words as well.
- Choice boards are a great way to keep independent work organized.
Grab a free editable choice board. You can start today.
Grab a free spelling choice board with nine easy-to-implement spelling activities that work for any list of words. Add your own spelling words. It’s editable. Use it alone or pair it with the editable spelling activities seen in this post.
