We all know the power of repetition in learning spelling. That’s why our teachers made us copy our spelling words ten times each. Unfortunately repetition can also become mindless as your brain disengages from the task. So the balance when teaching spelling is to give our children the power of repetition without the boredom that often accompanies it.
One key is variety! Copying your spelling words ten times with a pencil on notebook paper is boring. But when you change the pencil to a Vis-à-vis pen and the paper to a sliding glass door, then you’ve got something interesting. (Doesn’t that sound naughty to write on a glass door? Don’t you think your children would love doing that?)
So look in your craft cabinet. What unique media can you give your child to write or form letters? And what unusual surface can you write them on? Here’s a mix and match list to get you thinking.
Write With
- Dotters
- Invisible ink
- Oil pastels
- Paint
- Sidewalk chalk
- Window pens
- Eraser
Write On
- Sandpaper
- Chalkboard
- Whiteboard
- Sidewalk
- Windows or glass doors
- Bathtub wall
- Paper taped to the bottom of a table or to a wall
- Magazine Pages
Form Letters With
- String, twine, yarn, or ribbon
- Pipe cleaners
- Playdough or clay
- Toothpicks
- Packing peanuts
- Building blocks
What unique ideas do you have for copying spelling words?
Jimmie is a former public school teacher turned homeschooling stay-at-home-mom. A sense of humor, faith, and creativity keep her “pressing on” in her unique situation — living and traveling abroad with an only child in a bilingual environment. Visit her blog at Jimmie’s Collage.
Those are great ideas! My daughter also likes to spell her words with Scrabble tiles.
Jennifer R.´s last blog ..So Little Time…
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I love all these ideas!
Nikki´s last blog ..Menu Plan Monday ~ October 4
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Great ideas! I shared via Twitter.
Christina S.´s last blog ..Blog Carnival of Homeschooling #197
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Great ideas!! My oldest does Spelling Power, and one suggestion she enjoyed was to draw the letters of each word in bubble form, cut them out, mix them up, and then glue them onto a paper in order.
Angela Mills´s last blog ..Tea for Two: The discipleship of your sons and daughters
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Good ideas! We have found that typing words on the phone pad is fun. I don’t know why kids love to play phone when they’re so grown up, but they still do.
Rhonda´s last blog ..Kindergarten/1st Grade Math Lapbook
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Thanks for these great ideas. I’m always looking for something interesting to do with spelling since I don’t use a spelling curriculum. I use the words by daughter misspells in her daily writing to develop a list. Her favorite way to practice her words is to write them in shaving cream. I press out a large dollop of shaving cream on the table, she spreads it out and writes the words with her finger. The shaving cream will eventually disappear so I just wipe off the table. . .an activity that cleans itself up!
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My son hates “writing” so we do spelling different ways all the time.. I have magents tiles we use somedays, others he writes on the whiteboard, some days we work in his spelling book. Will have to try some of the other ideas too. We have even taken spelling test this way.
Rhoda´s last blog ..Monkeys… in my tree…
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