Elementary Spelling Games

Many students have difficulty with spelling, but spelling games can make it easy and fun to learn new words. Try these games with your students and ask them for suggestions when you're finished. Students might come up with fun variations on these games.

Invisible Man

Start by drawing two stick figures on the board with equal numbers of body parts. Divide the class into two teams and let each team take turns, one player at a time. Give the first student from the first team a word to spell. The student must say the word out loud, spell it and say it again. If the student spells the word correctly, she can go up to the board and erase one of the body parts from the other team's stick figure. Both teams do this one player at a time until one of the figures is fully erased. The first team to have their figure erased loses.

Spelling Tic-Tac-Toe

Draw a large three-by-three tic-tac-toe square on the board. Divide the class into two teams. Give a spelling word to the first player of the first team to write on the board in one of the tic-tac-toe slots. The player can choose any slot to write the word. If the player spells the word correctly, another player from the same team gets a turn to spell a new word in another of the slots. If a player writes the word incorrectly, a player from the opposite team gets a turn. The game is won when one of the teams correctly spells three words in three consecutive squares, which can be vertical, horizontal or diagonal.

Spelling Detective

Review a list of spelling words with your class then, to quiz them, try this game. Write all of the spelling words on the board with correct spelling. Then, instruct students to put their heads on their desks so that they cannot see what you are doing. Choose one of the words on the board and change its spelling so it is incorrect. Instruct the students to look up and to the find the word that is spelled incorrectly and without saying it out loud, write the correct spelling of the word on a piece of paper. You can make obvious spelling changes or, for older students, more subtle spelling mistakes.

References

• Spelling Games
• Spelling Activities and Ideas