Spelling Games

All in the Family: Students are given a word and asked to think of words in the same family, such as play-plays, played, playful, replay, player, etc. Give each player the word, set the timer. How many words does each player come up with in a certain time limit?

Compound Staircase: The last small word in the compound word becomes the first small word in the next compound word. Sunlight-Lighthouse-Housework-Workshop

Letter Fill: Provide the first and last letter and let children make as many words as possible by completing the middle letters. b __ __ d

Hop To It: Help your child to write the spelling words on sheets of paper, one word per sheet. (Sheets of computer paper or grocery bags torn apart with words printed in colorful marker would be good for this activity.) Arrange the sheets in a cluster in the floor, words facing up. The sheets should be spaced to allow your child to jump or hop comfortably from one to another. Explain that you will make up a sentence, leaving out a word and have your child should jump to the sheet and spell the word that best completes the sentence. After the word has been "landed" on and spelled correctly, your child can pick up and hold onto the sheet. Continue in this way until your child has collected all of the words. Reverse roles: the parent hops and the child composes the sentence!

Rhyming Ping-Pong: Play in pairs. The object is to name as many rhyming words as possible within a given time. The player who calls out the last word when the time expires is the winner. For example, the first player says play, second player says stay, first player says hey, second says weigh, etc.

Hocus-Pocus: Play in pairs, with children inventing two-word rhyming phrases within a given time; for example, night-flight, fat-cat, golden-holden, great-mate. The player who calls out the last rhyming phrase when the time expires is the winner.

Concentration: Two players compete. First, make a set of word cards: half of the cards have a common prefix or suffix written on them, such as re-, non-, -er, -ment; the other cards have base words that can be combined with affixes to create real words you want your child to be able to spell such as rebuild, nonstop, teacher, or entertainment. Of course, not all stems will combine with all the affixes to make real words. Shuffle the cards together and lay them face down in horizontal and vertical rows; the more cards, the more challenging the game is. Players take turns turning over a specified number of cards, like four or six at a time; if any two cards turned over can be combined into a real word, the player removes and keeps those two cards. The player with most pairs at the end wins.

Last update: 03-29-00/mgl