Ransom Letter Word Studies

by Jimmie Lanley on February 4, 2011

ransom spelling dispense measure

No, we’ve not kidnapped any vocabulary words, but Sprite did use the stereotypical style of a ransom note to create some language arts notebooking pages.

In our spelling lessons, there were a few words that Sprite kept misspelling over and over. When that happens, I know to stop repeating the same teaching methods and instead choose something different.

We had a stack of Sunday newspaper sale flyers which had colorful letters, perfect spelling out those troublesome words. I had her spell the root words so that this could be both a spelling lesson and a vocabulary lesson.

After the cutting and taping was done, we talked about other words that these three root words form. As she added those words with suffixes and prefixes, I asked her questions about the spelling, trying to draw the spelling rules out of her (drop the -e and add -able, for example).

I also asked her to highlight the added parts, the suffixes and prefixes, so she could see the root words clearly and note their spellings.

ransom vocabulary

They do make for some colorful notebooking pages. We’ll see on her next spelling quiz if this method worked.

{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }

Elizabeth February 4, 2011 at 11:50 am

Great idea! I may try this (or substitute stamping/scrapping, since that’s a craze here!) with some of my ‘spellers with problems’!
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Julie February 4, 2011 at 1:55 pm

Love this!

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Sparklee February 4, 2011 at 6:09 pm

What a fun idea! We are just beginning a study of root words, so we’ll have to try this!
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Giggly Girls February 4, 2011 at 8:43 pm

I love this!!! I am going to put this in my tumblr archive so I can remember it.
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Amber Pamper February 5, 2011 at 6:47 am

OOh what a nice idea. i’ll have to try that unless of course you tell us Sprite did badly on her quiz. which i doubt! ;)
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Susan February 6, 2011 at 2:21 pm

Always such good ideas! Thank you for sharing them so freely. I will tuck this one away for a bad spelling day . . .

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Cheryl February 8, 2011 at 8:51 pm

Looks like fun…for me too! Thanks for sharing.
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ZELDA February 11, 2011 at 2:57 am

Loved this idea – just did it with my 8yo and linked it to your blog.
Thanks for the great ideas
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Barbara February 22, 2011 at 2:26 pm

Jimmie,
You are amazing! I wish my son and I could tag along with you and your Sprite in your homeschool!!! Thanks for the idea…I may just have to use that one here!
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