Classroom Games That Reinforce Spelling
Coming up with new and exciting games to play in the classroom to help your students learn to spell can be difficult. There is a variety of easy activities that can be done in the classroom that can reinforce the children's spelling abilities. Learning a few games that you can play in your classes to reinforce you student's spelling ability can give you an idea of which ones to try on your class.
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Hot Seat
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This game involves placing three chairs at the front of the class, facing the class. Get three children to sit in the seats, and then write a word on the white board/chalkboard behind them. The children in the class have to give the three children in the chairs clues as to what the word is (without saying the word itself). When one of the children in the chairs thinks they know the word, they have to ring a bell (improvise a vocal "bell" if you don't have any) and spell the word out. If they get the word and the spelling right, they get to leave the "Hot Seat" and nominate someone to come and take their place. (Hint: Those red "easy" buttons from Staples are inexpensive and fun to push.)
Spelling Detective
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This game is simple, and can be a good way of developing a critical eye for spelling in your children. When you have the week's spelling list up on the board, get the children to close their eyes for a moment. Erase one of the words and re-write it with a spelling mistake in. Tell the children to open their eyes, and let them know that you've spelled one of the words wrong. Ask them to write the correct spelling of the word on a piece of paper.
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3D Spelling
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This is another game that can be done using the children's existing spelling list for the week. Write all the words on small pieces of paper and put them into a hat. Split the class in to pairs, and then get the first pair to come up to the front and draw a word from the hat. Give the children a minute to confer and then ask them to invite some students up to help them spell the word. The children who come to help must be instructed by the pair on how to position themselves in order to spell out the word. The pair can't tell the helper children what the word is; they just have to move them so that between them, they spell the word out. The rest of the class can then guess the word that is being spelled. Take pictures of the 3D words using a digital camera and put them up around class to help the children remember the words.
Battleship Spelling
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Print off a sheet for each child with two 12 by 12 grids of squares on, labeled alphabetically along the horizontal axis and numerically on the vertical axis. The top grid, the children are told to write around five words from their spelling lists, and they can leave the bottom grid blank. Get the children to pair up, and play a game of spelling Battleships. Get them to fold the paper to a right angle and put a book behind the top section to hide it from their opponent's view. The children take turns to guess grid co-ordinates. If the co-ordinates strike one of their opponent's words, they have scored a hit, and are told which letter was hit; if the co-ordinates are blank, then the child has missed. The children mark down their hits and misses on the lower grid. The winner is the first child to find out the others' words.
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References
- Photo Credit desk, pencil, eraser, book, apple, letters spelling out apple. image by Michael Drager from Fotolia.com
