On a chalkboard draw a hangman's scaffold. Underneath the hangman image draw blanks for each letter of a word. The word should be simple and age appropriate. Have the children take turns guessing the letters that are in the word. Every time they guess the correct letter, fill in the letters of the word or phrase. Write down letters they have already guessed so they can keep up with it and avoid repeating a letter. When they miss a letter add features of the man to the hangman's noose. Start with his head, body and then his four limbs. You can get as detailed as you want. Stop after every letter is added and allow kids to guess the word.
Give children a sheet of paper that has a poem printed on it. Leave some of the words of the poem blank. The poem should be a four line rhyming poem. Let kids fill in the blanks with words that rhyme. They will have fun making up their own poems using rhyming words. Spend some time before the activity saying and spelling rhyming words. Have kids hand in their poems and make a game of reading the poems out loud. Let kids guess who wrote each poem. Make it a group game and allow groups of children to work together to create their own poems.
Write words on a chalkboard or poster board leaving the vowels blank. Give your kids 3 x 5 cards with the individual vowels written on them. Let children put the cards in each empty space and try to pronounce the word. This is a good game to use when teaching your children how different vowels can change words. Kids will have fun making up silly words of their own. Mixed up vowels will teach children how important vowels are to learning how to spell.
On a chalkboard write a large word at the top of the board. Underneath it your students should write smaller words made from letters of the large word. This spelling game will challenge children to write as many words as they can. Alternatively, you could print the word on paper and allow your students to write the smaller words underneath. Give a prize to the child who writes the most real words.