· 2 min read · Ages 6–11 · Grade 1 through Grade 5
Type the spelling list once, print a week of word work
Monday's list comes home, and by Tuesday you want five different things to do with it that are not writing it out three times. This prints them.
Ten spelling words, five school nights, and a child who has already done "write each word three times" more times than anyone should. By Wednesday I was inventing activities on the back of an envelope and she was inventing reasons to be elsewhere. Now I type the ten words once.
What the sheet looks like
The spelling word work generator takes a list of 2 to 15 words, yours or a built-in one for Kindergarten through Grade 5, and prints any of ten activities for it. Rainbow write and pyramid write are copying with a twist. ABC order and word shapes, where each word fits into tall, short and tail boxes, make the child look at the letters. Scrambled words, missing letters and crack the code with A=1 numbers are puzzles with answer keys. Count it, tic-tac-toe and sentence it round out the ten, and a menu of 3 or a menu of 5 prints several pages at once.
Why it works
- Word shapes is the sleeper activity. Fitting bright into boxes that are tall for b, short for r, i and g, and tailed for g makes a child notice letter shapes they usually skim.
- Pyramid write builds s, sn, sna, snak, snake. By the fifth row the word has been written in pieces four times, and the child has not noticed they were practicing.
- Five activities on the same ten words is as many exposures as writing them five times each, with none of the boredom.
Who it suits
Rainbow write, pyramid write and word shapes work from grade 1. Crack the code and count it suit grade 2 and up. This tool is for words the child is already supposed to be learning, not for teaching a phonics pattern; the phonics word sort does that. When the week is over, the spelling test sheet is the natural end to it.
Save the word list somewhere. Next month's review week is the same ten words, and it is already typed.