Sparkle is a game of chance where students line up at the front of the room and the teacher recites the spelling words for the week. She says one word and the first student in line repeats it. The second student says the first letter of the word, the third student says the second letter, and so on. If a student misses a letter, he sits down. Once the word is spelled, the child standing next to the final letter reciter yells "Sparkle," and the student next to him sits down. The kids have great fun with this game and enjoy seeing who is randomly out, based on where he stood when the game began.
Fourth graders put a new spin on the old game of Memory by writing their spelling words twice on construction paper, cutting them out into squares, and placing each square word-side-down in random order on a table or floor. They turn each one over and back again until they make a match. They can also use construction paper to write the words once. Parents help by forming sentences, but leave a blank where the spelling word belongs. Students glue the words in the correct blank, and learn sentence formation and spelling at the same time.
Online sites like Funbrain.com offer educational games for all subjects and grade levels. In the game of Spell-a-Roo, fourth graders can choose from beginner or intermediate level spelling words. They are presented with sentences on a variety of educational subjects, like history, geography and science, with words in bold. The student clicks the bold word he thinks is spelled wrong and the system tallies the answers and lets him know if the answers are correct or incorrect as he plays.
Teachers throughout the country use SpellingCity.com to store their spelling lists each week, rather than giving out a paper list. Students log in on the home page and can find their class' list, searching by their school or teacher's name. Once their list is found, a variety of games can be played each week, including word searches, filling in missing letters and unscrambling words.