Sharpen listening skills while promoting quick spelling through a game of Musical Spelling Words. With each student sitting at her desk with a pencil and a blank piece of paper, write a challenging spelling word on the chalkboard. Turn on some appropriate music and encourage the students to write the spelling word on the board as many times as they can before you turn the music off. Have each student count the number of times she wrote the word down and check the winner's paper for correctness. If there is a tie, award first place to the student who wrote the most legibly. Rewards for the winner can include a piece of candy, stickers or simply the pride of winning.
A game of Sparkle adds a little suspense and a lot of laughter to the classroom. Line the students up single file and slowly pronounce a spelling word. Have the first student in line say the first letter of the spelling word and continue down the line with the next student saying the next letter until you reach the last letter of the word. The student who says the word's last letter turns to the student behind him, makes a funny face and says, "Sparkle!" The "sparkled" student is then out and sits down. Continue playing until only one student is left in line and offer a small reward.
Spelling Stomp not only improves spelling skills but encourages teamwork and physical activity. Write or tape each letter of the alphabet onto plastic disks. Take the class outside and arrange the disks about 1 foot apart from each other on the ground. Have the students form a circle around the disks and announce a spelling word. Tell a student to race to and stomp on the appropriate disks one at a time to spell out the word correctly. Classmates can help the student by gesturing and pointing but cannot offer verbal clues. Give each child a turn using a different word.
Write several words from the spelling list on the chalkboard. With the students sitting at their desks, tell them they are now spelling detectives and ask them to put their heads down on their desks and cover their eyes. While their heads are down, change the spelling or tense of one of the words on the chalkboard. Ask the students to lift their heads and uncover their eyes and raise a hand if they know which word was changed. Have the student who provides the correct answer spell the changed word correctly. If the student's spelling is indeed correct, award the class one point. If the spelling is wrong, the teacher receives a point. Continue until you have changed each spelling word. If the class beats the teacher, it receives a class reward.