Weekly Spelling Homework Ideas
Spelling homework is essential to your students' English lessons, because it teaches them how to become better readers and writers. Many educators assign weekly spelling homework so that students practice their lessons at home. The ideas you come up with for homework assignments should be creative to engage students and make their spelling activities stimulating.
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Spelling Blocks
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Students do not look forward to spelling homework, but homework that involves spelling blocks gives kids an entertaining way to learn about new words. To prepare your students for this homework activity, create a homework bag for them. A homework bag is like a goody bag from a party, only it is filled with school supplies instead of toys and candy. Inside of the homework bag are alphabet blocks, which are square blocks with different letters on all sides, and a worksheet containing that week's spelling words. As a homework assignment for that week, instruct students to spell the new vocabulary words using the alphabet blocks. They can line the letters up horizontally or stack them vertically to create the words. It is up to them how they would like to spell the words on the worksheet. It is recommended that students practice the spelling words every night until they are comfortable with being able to spell them fluently. By the end of the week, students shall take a quiz on how to spell that week's set of vocabulary words.
Crossword Puzzles
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Crossword puzzles are word games that are entertaining and educational. In this homework assignment, students are required to create their own crossword puzzle using the week's new spelling words. This is an effective activity to assign every week, because every week brings a new host of vocabulary words to learn. Before you send kids off on their own to do this homework assignment, demonstrate to them how to create a crossword puzzle, such as creating the letter blocks to fit the clues at the bottom of the puzzle. This assignment not only teaches students how to spell the words, it also requires them to think about the meaning of the words because they will have to develop clues for the puzzle. At the end of the week, ask students to bring in their weekly crossword puzzle and they can exchange puzzles in class to work on.
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Making Sentences
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It is one thing for students to learn how to spell a new word; it is another for them to learn how to use the word properly in a sentence. This homework assignment teaches students how to do both. At the beginning of the week, provide students with a new set of vocabulary words. For homework, instruct students to look up the definitions of the words, practice spelling them 10 times each and, for the last part of the homework, create a sentence using the new word. Students should provide you with one sentence per each vocabulary word that they have.
Find the Word
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Each week, assign every student in your class one vocabulary word to focus on. As a homework activity the kids shall spend time looking for newspaper or magazine articles that use that word. This homework assignment is two-fold, as it teaches students how to identify their words while also helping to improve their reading skills, since they will have to read through articles to find the word they are looking for. At the end of the week students shall bring in an article and read the sentence that contains their word to the rest of the class.
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