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30 Non-Boring Ways to Practice Spelling Words

December 20, 2016 By Jimmie Quick 31 Comments

30 Non-Boring Ways to Practice Spelling Words

Spelling is not one of the most exciting of subjects, but it can be fun by using a variety of these thirty ways to practice your words. (This post contains affiliate links.)

WRITE IN

1.  write in sand, salt,  sugar, or flour (best with a bold background beneath)

2.  write in shaving cream

3.  write in pudding

4.  write in finger paint

WRITE WITH

5.  write with chalk on sandpaper

6.  write with water on a chalkboard

7.  write with eraser on dark magazine pages

WRITE ON

8. write on rainbow scratch paper

9.  write on photo-sensitive paper

FORM LETTERS

10. form letters with playdough

11. form letters with string or yarn

12. form letters with pipecleaners

13. form letters with lego blocks

14. form letters with toothpicks

USE

15. use alphabet rubber stamps

16. use foam alphabet stickers

17. use printable scrabble tiles

18. use alphabet pasta or cereal

19. use letters cut from newspapers or magazines (ransom note style)

20. use alphabet cookie cutters in salt dough

21. use alphabet magnets

22. use letter tiles

DO

23. draw pictures to illustrate the words

24. use sign language

25. jump from letter to letter

26. trace the letters on a partner’s back for him to read

27. draw letters in the air with a flashlight in a dark room

28. use Morse code

29. play at Spellingcity.com

30. use an old typewriter or label maker

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Filed Under: language arts Tagged With: hands-on, practice, spelling

Comments

  1. Susan says

    January 29, 2011 at 8:14 am

    great ideas! thanks for sharing them!

    Reply
  2. Sparklee says

    January 29, 2011 at 9:07 am

    Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

    Reply
  3. Maureen says

    January 29, 2011 at 9:39 am

    Great ideas! Tweeted & shared on Facebook 🙂

    Reply
  4. Teri says

    January 29, 2011 at 9:50 am

    Thanks for all of the great spelling suggestions! My daughter is in 1st grade and spelling practice with a pencil and paper is torture to her. These look more fun!

    Reply
  5. Jamie says

    January 29, 2011 at 3:10 pm

    I LOVE this! So helpful!!! Reminds me that THIS is the kind of homeschooling I want us to do, i.e. getting away from just pencil and paper and getting our hands dirty. Sometimes I just need a little nudge with numbered list for suggestions! Perfect! Thank you, thank you!

    Reply
  6. jenn says

    January 29, 2011 at 4:56 pm

    thanks for the ideas! when my older daughter was younger, she loved to write on the fish aquarium and the windows with dry erase markers. i would tell her to teach the fish or the birds to spell and she. she also enjoyed writing each word in a different color–we called that “turning the list into a rainbow.” (i don’t recommend writing each letter of a word in a different color, though–we tried that, too. there was too much time spent deciding on colors and words weren’t learned.)

    Reply
  7. Dawn says

    January 29, 2011 at 9:22 pm

    What a lovely list. We mostly use shaving cream or tile letters. I should mix it up a bit.
    Blessings,
    Dawn

    Reply
  8. Paula says

    January 29, 2011 at 11:25 pm

    Thanks! I needed some more ideas!

    Reply
  9. Melissa says

    January 29, 2011 at 11:58 pm

    Brilliant multi-sensory approach. Targets many learning styles. FUN!

    Reply
  10. Nadene says

    January 30, 2011 at 7:35 am

    Great ideas here! A variety adds fun to the mundane – so we’ll try some new practices to our mix!

    Reply
  11. Deedee says

    January 30, 2011 at 9:55 am

    Thanks Jimmie! I needed some ideas for Butterfly to use with the spellings they send home from school. She is very right-brain so visual should help her LOADS!! You’re an answer to prayer!

    Reply
  12. Bethany says

    January 30, 2011 at 3:44 pm

    I love the photosensitive paper idea!
    Thanks

    Reply
  13. Dana Wilson says

    January 31, 2011 at 10:56 am

    So many kids, especially younger ones, do SO much better MOVING while they are learning! Great suggestions, Jimmie!

    Reply
  14. Dana Wilson says

    January 31, 2011 at 12:27 pm

    Anytime we can add an large motor or kinesthetic activity to school it is a good thing! Thanks for the creative suggestions, Jimmie!

    Reply
  15. Cara says

    February 1, 2011 at 8:11 pm

    My students’ favorite way to practice their spelling words is by using “Vocabulary and Spelling City.” http://www.spellingcity.com. This site offers free, fun games, resources, and printables. They especially love to play Hangmouse on our interactive white board.

    Reply
  16. Michelle Breum says

    February 2, 2011 at 9:26 am

    Great ideas! My favorite is using magnetic letters, mix them up, and have a child put the word back together making the sound of the letter or group of letters while making the word.
    My last post on my blog has two videos with my son demonstrating this very thing.

    Reply
  17. Nancy says

    February 15, 2011 at 4:59 pm

    Thanks for sharing this list of ideas. I am reminded to get out my scrabble tile stamps with my daughter.

    Ring true,
    Nancy

    Reply
  18. Carmen says

    February 17, 2011 at 2:43 pm

    Thank you so much! I was stuck in a rut…write each word 2 times, write words in ABC order. These are great ideas!

    Reply
  19. Nicola says

    April 12, 2011 at 12:29 pm

    Awesome ideas. My 7 year old loves spelling… not sure where he gets it from (definitely not from me). Twisty Noodle might be useful for spelling practice too… check it out and let me know what you think.

    Reply
  20. Agnes Tong says

    September 17, 2011 at 2:23 pm

    Hello! Jimmie, Thank you so much for your sharing, it’s really useful for me, and I’ve 2 daughters. May God bless you!

    from Hong Kong

    Reply
  21. Krysta says

    June 10, 2012 at 5:21 pm

    Thanks for the ideas! My father taught me fingerspelling (sign language) to help with my dislexia and very poor spelling. I am now conversational in ASL (late 20s), I kinna took it and ran with it 😛
    My husband likes to use the military phonetic alphabet (alpha, bravo, Charlie, delta, echo, foxtrot, etc.) as a game in the car. We plan on using it as a car game when our kids get older.

    Reply
  22. Monica Schroeder says

    June 11, 2012 at 5:33 am

    FUN! FUN! I love your hands on ideas. I use Lakeshore’s Spelling Stamps like you cookie cutters. My 2nd Graders are so much more involved in practicing their spelling words when the practice is hands on. Thanks so much for sharing your ideas. A favorite of my students at school and my kiddos at home is http://www.spellingcity.com so glad it made your list. It is a great way to bring technology into spelling and vocabulary:)
    ?Monica
    The Schroeder Page

    Reply
  23. Tiffany says

    September 18, 2012 at 3:34 pm

    Thanks for these ideas! Just a note: I love the printable scrabble tiles, but did you know that “W” is missing?

    Reply
    • Jimmie Lanley says

      September 19, 2012 at 10:29 am

      I did not! Maybe you can flip the M?

      Reply
  24. Lisa says

    December 8, 2012 at 9:45 pm

    Hi jimmie. I like your blog. I also wanted to tell you that my mom is Jimmie too! She is Jimmie June. Her mama named her after a bride in the paper back in 1937! This was in Oklahoma. Years later she met the bride, Jimmie, in California! Yeah Jimmie’s!

    Reply
  25. Christieann says

    January 20, 2013 at 1:30 pm

    Thank you! Great ideas!!!

    Reply
  26. Kristina says

    March 21, 2013 at 2:36 pm

    We’ve done many of these ideas before and just printed out the Scrabble Tiles– Thanks!

    One of the grocery stores around here sells letter cookies so we did an Eat Your Sight Words activity that I blogged about here: http://schooltimesnippets.blogspot.com/2012/03/eat-your-sight-words.html

    Learning + food = FUN!! : )

    Reply
  27. Mary says

    April 3, 2013 at 1:45 pm

    I am loving this blog. I’m getting all sorts of ideas to implement when I get to stay home with my daughter and hopefully homeschool.
    I currently teach and I wanted to add my 2 cents on the spelling…
    Someone mentioned not doing “rainbow spell” with each letter because it takes too much time. I get around the wasted time by having them pick their two favorite colors and alternate the colors as they wrote. I would also have them write the consonants in one color and the vowels in another. I used Words Their Way program and the focus was always on patterns within words. I would have the students write the word then highlight the pattern as well. Seemed to work great.
    Of course, at the school I’m at now, we don’t do spelling. Ask me how I feel about that!! (Can you see now why I’m considering homeschooling?? 😀 )

    Again, I love your blog. This is how I wish my classroom could actually be!

    Reply
  28. Ellie says

    December 20, 2016 at 1:55 pm

    Great ideas! I’m always on the lookout for writing skill builders that don’t involve actual writing. These look really fun.

    Reply
  29. Cindy Magee says

    December 24, 2016 at 5:11 pm

    I’m going to pin this for sure! My kids are just starting elementary school and have spelling tests every week! We were struggling with one of them and I’m going to start using some of these ideas. THANKS!

    Reply
  30. Pearl says

    September 24, 2019 at 8:43 pm

    Thank you for this list of ways to keep spelling interesting. Just started homeschooling and I’ll be saving this for reference!

    Reply

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