For a traditional spelling bee, assign the students a list of words or inform the students that they will be tested on a certain pool of spelling words that they may study. Order the words into several lists according to level of difficulty, saving the most difficult words for the last list. Line up the students. Beginning with the first student, ask each individual to spell a certain spelling word. That student may inquire about the origin of a word, ask for a definition or request that you repeat the word again. The student then must say the word, spell the word perfectly and then repeat the word. If he or she misspells the word, that student is out of the spelling bee. This continues through the whole line of students. Once all of the students have attempted to spell a word, move to the front of the line and begin the second list. The last student left wins.
Choose a list of words to use for the spelling bee. Arrange students into equally sized groups ranging from three to 10 students per group. There should be at least three groups for this spelling bee. Each group selects one player to start. Starting with the first group, ask the students to spell a word. The starting player of that group must pronounce the first letter of the word. The order continues clockwise, and the next student must pronounce the second letter. The third student must pronounce the third letter, and play continues like this until the word is spelled. If a word is spelled correctly, that group gets a point. If a word is spelled incorrectly, the second group gets a chance to spell the word. If it spells it correctly, it receives two points. If the group misspells it but the third group spells it correctly, the third group gets three points. The group with the most points at the end wins.
Obtain a list of important spelling words. Divide the students into two teams, Team X and Team O, and draw a Tic-Tac-Toe grid on the board. Choose one student from Team X and ask that student to spell a spelling word. If the student spells the word correctly, that student goes to the board and places an “X” anywhere on the grid. If the student spells it incorrectly, a student from the next team is chosen to spell the word. Play continues until one team wins Tic-Tac-Toe.