10 Spelling Activities for Any Word List

Looking for a method to the madness of learning to spell? Take a look at Scholar Within’s spelling program. We teach spelling through spelling patterns with systematic step-by-step video lessons and hands-on activities. Learn More

Spelling activities can make spelling practice a bit more fun and can help with spelling problems. Spelling problems can happen because of auditory and visual processing problems. These areas impact your memory of spelling words, phonics, and reading vocabulary.

Spelling activities that incorporate multiple senses (hearing, seeing, and doing) help improve your spelling and memory skills much faster and more efficiently.

Try the following spelling activities with your child. These spelling activities will help you improve your spelling, phonics, sight words, and memory skills at the same time. Do you have any favorite spelling activities? Let us know in the comments below.

10 Free Spelling Activities

1. Mind’s eye spelling activity

• Place your hands next to your eyes as though it is a camera. Look at your spelling word and then snap a picture of it with your eyes. Close your eyes and see your word in your mind’s eye. Visualize what the word looks like completely in your mind. Spell it out. Check to see if you got it right.
• Air write your spelling word.
• Write your word on a sheet of paper.

This activity specifically helps build your visual and tactile-kinesthetic memory skills.

2. Post your spelling words

Post your child’s spelling list on the bathroom mirror as well as next to their bed so they see them frequently throughout the week. Have your kids read their words every time they are in the bathroom as well as before you go to sleep and when you get up in the morning.

3. Color code your spelling words

Have your students write all the consonants in your words in blue and write all the vowels in red. This will help you remember your spelling words. Color coding can improve memory skills by 25%.

4. Look for your spelling words on street signs

If you don’t see the complete word, look for the letters in order in a news article, magazine, or on street signs. For example, if my word was bike, look for the letter /b/, then look for an /i/, then a /k/, and finally an /e/.

5. Use ABC pasta noodles and make your spelling words with them

You can often find alphabet pasta at your local supermarket. Yes, you can find the letters of your words as you eat a delicious soup you have made, but before they are cooked, you can arrange them on a piece of colored construction paper. You can even glue them onto a sheet of paper. Just don’t use the glued pieces for soup!

6. Using a magazine or newspaper, look for your spelling words

If you don’t see the complete word, look for the letters in order in a paragraph or in an ad. Cut the letters out and paste them on a sheet of paper. For example, if my word were bike, look for a /b/ in a sentence or paragraph and cut it out, then look for an /i/ and cut it out, then a /k/ and cut it out, and finally an /e/ and cut it out. Paste the letters in order on a sheet of paper.

7. Jumping with your spelling list words

Draw a 5 x 5 grid on the sidewalk with chalk. Place each letter in one of the squares. You will have 1 extra square at the bottom center row.

Toss a bean bag to the first letter in your word and jump over to it. Then toss the bean bag to the next letter in the word, and so on, until you have finished spelling the word. Be sure to say the word aloud when you finish spelling each word.

Jump from one letter to the next that is in each word, spelling the word completely. Go back to the start and do the same for each subsequent word.

8. Bounce a ball while spelling your words out loud

You can do this by bouncing a ball on the floor for each letter in the word or by bouncing the ball against a wall, one bounce for each letter in the word. Say each letter as you are bouncing the ball.

9. Draw a picture with your spelling words hidden in it

Make sure to take out the colored pencils or crayons! See if someone else can find the words in your picture.

10. Do an Add-On-Story with your family, incorporating all of your spelling list words

An Add-On-Story is a story where one person starts by setting the scene and then has the next person continue the story. You can keep the story going until all the spelling words have been used.

Here is one story starter you can use:

It was a dark and stormy night. We saw flashes of lightning and heard the thunder booming. All of a sudden we were in darkness… What happened next?

11. Bonus Spelling Activities

Just like with sports and learning a new skill, practice makes perfect. What are some other hands-on spelling activities?

• Word search
  Students love word searches! This is a quick way to improve visual processing skills in addition to learning your spelling words. These help students identify words quickly in a sea of letters.
• Magnetic letters
  Magnetic letters are the perfect hands-on spelling activity. You can get letters where consonants are blue and vowels are red. This helps students clearly visualize as they spell the word in their list.
• Practice spelling test
  A day before the test, give your students a practice spelling test. This will help them see what words they need help with.
• Flashcards
  Flashcards can help tremendously with learning sight words. You can also draw pictures on the sight word cards and use colors to help.
• Matching memory games
  Concentration, also known as Memory, is another great way to learn sight words. This is where you place all cards face down and flip two cards over at one time to try to find a match. If you find a match, you keep the cards, if you don’t, you place them back face down.

Spelling instruction does not have to be boring and pure memorization! When you are working on spelling words, make sure that students read the word aloud. This will help them with their auditory processing, phonemic awareness, and phonic skills.

A Better Way to Learn to Spell

Does your teacher seem to group a random set of spelling words together to learn each week?

As a homeschool parent, are you looking for a method to the madness of teaching your kids to spell?

At Scholar Within, we’ve taken the secret out of learning to spell.

We organize spelling lists systematically according to their spelling pattern. Almost all words follow 8 primary spelling patterns. When students learn to spell according to spelling patterns, it makes spelling a lot easier.

Our online spelling program integrates auditory, visual, and tactile-kinesthetic processing skills.

What does this mean?

Students learn through hearing, seeing, and doing. We start with a video lesson where students follow along with a worksheet while listening to a sound at a time to improve their phonemic awareness skills (this is your ability to identify individual sounds in words).

Your child will learn to spell 10 new words each week according to their spelling pattern. The video lessons are engaging and tell stories about why we spell the way that we do.

Students then do different puzzles, card games, and worksheets related to their list words or spelling pattern that they are learning that week.

At the end of the week, students follow along with a video spelling test.

We take the guesswork out of teaching your kids how to spell. This is not a scripted program. Students are able to do the program independently, but you’ll want to join them for the card games!

We teach spelling in a sequential systematic way that strengthens your child’s memory and makes learning easier overall. We start each level with the most basic spelling pattern and methodically introduce new patterns in subsequent weeks.

We have different spelling curricula for different grade levels (kindergarten all the way through eighth grade). We teach the same spelling patterns since there are only 8 primary spelling patterns, but the difficulty of words varies from level to level.

The spelling program is loaded with puzzles, worksheets, and hands-on spelling activities to make spelling fun. Your kids will love the card games in the program.

By learning the spelling patterns, your kids will learn to spell not only the words in the program but thousands of words that all follow the same patterns. Your child will learn to spell accurately and confidently!

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