This non-competitive game reinforces letter-sound recognition, a skill that should begin being taught during the preschool years and one that must be mastered for successful spelling. On index cards, draw pictures of different items that have simple spellings -- cat, dog and fox, for instance. Underneath each picture, write out the word, but omit the first letter. Write the missing letter in each word on individual index cards and give them to students. Hold up the picture cards and students hold up the card that displays the missing letter on the picture card.
Use this game to teach children how to spell their names. Write out each child's name on two sentence strips. Lay one of the sentence strips on a table and cut out each letter from the second strip. Provide children with the cut up letters and on your mark, they must match the cut up letters to the letters on the whole sentence strip. The first student to correctly match the letters in his name wins the game.
Children match the spelling of sight words in this non-competitive game. Draw or cut out pictures that depict different sight words on index cards -- shapes, numbers, colors and common objects, for instance. Spell out each word underneath the object. On another set of index cards, write out the different words without the pictures. Children have to match the word cards to the picture and word cards.
A game of bingo will help children acquire an understanding of the spelling of different words. Print out or purchase blank bingo cards and place a picture of an image of a sight word -- a pig, a cat and a ball, for example. Write the name of each item underneath the picture. When you randomly call out the names of different objects, students must try to locate the mentioned object on their bingo cards. If they have the mentioned object, they should mark it off with a pencil. The first child to fill in a horizontal, diagonal or vertical line wins the game.