Spelling Fun

I remember spelling words as an invigorating part of my school week. But I'm weird like that. Anything that was a chance for success, I was all in.

Roman, not so much. The kid thoroughly enjoys learning. Always has. Laps up knowledge. His comprehension and inferencing are mindblowing. His memory is just down right frightening (there are things best forgotten :). For him, it all builds and relates.

And it comes fairly easy. I'm pretty sure this is the crux. Pretty sure this is why we can't make it through a day of spelling words without whining and gnashing of teeth. Learning to spell in a language that throws grammatical order to the wind can be a challenge. And after all day learning, he's not a fan of this willy nilly nonsense.

NONETHELESS (like that?), he must learn to spell.

If your kids complain about spelling words OR if you just want to make it fun. Here are some ideas to make learning spelling words fun!

STEP 1: I always start the week with a pretest to see what he already knows. This way I can help him focus on the ones he needs to work on.

STEP 2: Then every day I give him the words again and he writes them. The ones he misses, he writes 3-5 times. BUT, I have him say the word, spell it out loud as he writes in, and say it again.

STEP 3: We also throw in some fun games along the way. There are LOTS of options...here are a few!

---Challenge them to find the words in their books and magazines.
---Have them draw pictures of the words (if possible) and spell the words underneath
---Have them make up a short tune to go with words that are particularly challenging (this works beautifully! my boys can still sing tunes from the beginning of school for certain words.
---Memory--write each word twice and cut them up. Play the game of memory. Each word that is turned over needs to be read and spelled.
---Ernie came up with a great one! He had Roman spell the words on the computer in a word document. This was a HUGE hit!
---Make word puzzles---searches, crosswords and much more at Discovery Education
---Letter tiles--say a word and have your child find the letters and spell it. Somehow moving the letters makes the spelling more fun.
---BINGO--make a bingo board and cards with the words.
---Play hangman.

Our bingo boards, bingo cards, letter tiles, and a buncha other junk (including my feet) for the week. Elijah doesn't have spelling words, but he's working on sight words, so I've incorporated those as well. This way both boys can play!

I color coded everything. Roman is brown. Elijah is orange.

Bingo Board. When a word is drawn, the boy it belongs to reads and spells the word. Then both boys find it on their boards.

Depending on the week. Sometimes I write these out and others they do. This does NOT take much work. I did these bingo games and letter tiles while I was feeding Dane this morning. 10 minutes MAX. It's a great time investment. The true payoff is the sound of laughter instead of the drone of complaining. SO worth it!

If you have a great idea, we're always looking for new ones. Share it in the comments. AND....have fun spelling!!!