Teachers often want students to become familiar with commonly used words, or sight words, and be able to read and spell them automatically. Students can practice these words using stamps to spell them. Provide children with cards labeled with sight words, letter stamps, blank paper and an ink pad. Students will choose a card and read the word on it. They will then choose the letter stamps they need to spell the word and stamp the word onto their blank paper. Ask students to challenge themselves by stamping the word without looking at the card. They can use the card to check their work after they have stamped the letters.
Stamps can also be used to make the impressions of letters in play-dough without using an ink pad. Provide students with play-dough, rolling pins, stamps, and cards with words you want your students to practice spelling, such a word with the vowel sound they have been learning about. Have students roll their play-dough out so it is flat and choose a word card. Let them use stamps to press the letters into the play-dough. Students can even use more play-dough to make a model of the word they spelled. For example, if the word is "cat" students can use play-dough to make the shape of a cat. After each word, children can use their rolling pins to roll out the dough again and choose a new word card.
When children are learning to spell words, they need repeated practice to know them well. Using a list of words, such as a spelling list for the week, create a 3-column worksheet labeled "Read It," "Stamp It" and "Write It." Write the list of words in the column labeled "Read It." Students will then use the letter stamps to spell the word again in the column labeled "Stamp It." Last they will use a pencil to write the word again in the third column, labeled "Write It."
Acrostic poems use the letters of a word to start each line in the poem. Students can use stamps to create a word vertically on their paper, such as their name. Then they write sentences or phrases that begin with each of those letters and describe the word they chose to stamp. For example, if they stamped out their name vertically, the first letter of the name would begin the first line of the poem and the second letter of the name would begin the next line. You can then create a display of these poems that describe the students in the class.