Summer Spelling - Icy Alphabet or Spell It Before It Melts

How did I forget the V?

Looking for a way to cool down, and enjoy some summer spelling?  Yes, you read that right.  I typed "enjoy" and "spelling" in the same sentence. 

But, this game really is fun - really.

First, you need a set of frozen letters (or two).  If you have an alphabet ice-cube tray, your all set.  If not, letter cookie cutters in a metal cake pan full of water, will do in a pinch, with just a little more prep work.

Once you have your ice letters ready, give them to your children, outside (along with an extra sheet of wax paper, or whatever, to set them on), with instructions to make words, using each letter only once, with the goal of using up as many (or all) of the letters as possible - before they melt.

It's an impossible task...

...but it gets the brain humming, while testing spelling, and providing some fast pace, chilly, silly, slippery, summer fun.

Summer Spelling - Unexpected Word Finds (Perfect for the 4th)

Sometimes things are so simple, they can be easy to overlook.  So, here's a quick reminder - don't forget to take advantage of the 4th of July for simple spelling practice, with a patriotic word search or two.

Googling "Independence Day word search" will bring up any number of printable worksheets, and they're great, not only for spelling practice, but also for setting a patriotic mood for the holiday.  Worksheets in the summertime though...well, there's nothing fun about that.

I suggest placing your wordsearch somewhere unexpected:

•  a chalkboard, or with sidewalk chalk on the patio
•  written in window markers on glass doors or windows
•  set out in fun foam letters on the floor (you can use your finger to "draw" circles around the words on the carpet)
•  or in frosting on cookies (think white sugar cookies squares, with red letters, and blue frosting ready to be piped, on the side, for circling letters).

Like I said, it's simple, but effective - and too much fun to overlook.

Summer Spelling - Fruit Snack Challange

I picked up a few boxes of Kellogg's Froot Loops (fruit snack) Letters in the hopes of using them as a part of a VBS snack, I'm working up for later in the month.

I was hoping there would be at least one or two of the letters "A", "B" or "C" in each serving packet.  It turned out the letters were very random, and not good for what I had in mind for VBS, but perfect instead, for a quick spelling game or two, with the children.




To play, I gave each of the children:

• one packet of the letter themed fruit snacks
• a small piece of paper
• a pen
• and a dictionary (all I could find was our foreign language dictionaries, but they have lists of alphabetized English words one side - so good enough).

And, finally, I placed a napkin in the center of the table.

For the first round of play, the children opened their packets (when I said go)...

...and tried to use as many of their letters as they could, either spelling as many small words as possible, or (for the older children) the largest single word they could create.   Any letters used in a legitimate word were the players' to keep and eat.

Left over letters (those not used in words) were placed on the napkin in the center of the table.

Then for round two, the children wrote down the letters from the center, on their pieces of paper, and tried to use up each letter, making as many words (or the longest word) possible using each letter only once.

The player using up the most letters won all the fruit snacks from the center of the table (or they were divided evenly between players in the case of tie).

As soon as we had finished the first game, C (age 10) asked if we could play again.  She's normally a reluctant speller, so I'll take that as a success.

Cookie Spelling

I happened on bags of letter and number shaped animal-type crackers at the store...

...and decided if we (meaning me) are going to be stress eating this week anyway (we finally closed the sale on our old house, and have put in an offer on a new one - soooo much paperwork), we might as well get a spelling lesson out of it.

So, I sent the children to wash their hands, while I sorted the letter crackers (homemade sugar cookie letters would do just as well) out into a big bowl...

...ready for a Scrabble-style crossword game.  Our rules were pretty lax.

We each started with ten letters.

The first player spelled out a word, on which the other players played, moving around the table in turn...

...drawing new letters from the bowl to replace the ones played.

But, since we were playing with cookies, we added a rule.  If a player was not satisfied with the letters they drew, they had the option to eat one of their letters, and replace it with another from the bowl (only one per turn). 

And, since we were focusing more on spelling than actual game play, we allowed players to peek into the bowl, and choose whatever letters they wanted/needed as they drew them.  I was surprised how much the extra rules revved up the excitement of the game.

We had thought to play until we had used up all the cookies in the bowl, but there were a lot of cookies (maybe one bag would have been enough).

After about a half an hour, D (age 12) spelled "The End"...

 ....and it seemed like a good time to stop, at least until after dinner.

"Make Your Own" Sudoku Spelling Puzzles

Sudoku puzzles are a lot of fun - challenging enough to feel educational, but simple enough for children to solve.
With their 4x4, 6x6, 9x9 or greater grids, they are also a great way to sneak in a little spelling practice.

Print out a few blank grids (like these from www.sudoku.com.au).  Choose a 4, 6, or 9 letter word, depending on the size of the grid you are using - one without repeating letters (find appropriate word lists here).   And, grab your favorite sudoku book or website.

Copy out the numbered puzzles onto the blank grid, replacing the numbers with the 1st through 9th (or whatever) letters of your chosen word.  So for instance, for the word w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l, wherever the numbered puzzle had a 1, you would place a "w" into the blank grid, an "o" in place of each 2, an "n" in place of each 3, and so on.

Print the word across the bottom of the page for reference, and hand the puzzle over to an unsuspecting child - who after filling out each square, row and column of just one puzzle, will have practiced spelling the word 27 times...

...without even realizing they were spelling at all.

It's great to be homeschooler.

Summer Fun Day 66 - Sight Word Sewing Cards

Just because it's summer, doesn't mean we can't throw some second grade spelling practice in with the fun.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Summer Fun Day 24 - Word Searches on the Windows

C (age 7) received a couple of packs of window markers for her birthday - precisely what we (maybe I) needed for the giant word find I had planned, using vocabulary words from...

 ...the girls' favorite summer book find.  Did you know Fancy Nancy has grown up into chapter books?

Beginning chapter books, really, but chock-full of fabulous "fancy" words...

 ...sublimely suited for a smidge of summer spelling fun.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Dandelion Spelling

While looking for pretty paper printouts for the girls to use for letter writing, I found some dandelion stationery that was too perfect to pass up as inspiration for a family spelling challenge.

First of all, I printed a few full sheets of the stationery (at least I guess it's stationery, I found the image - here).

I saved the image to my computer as well, and cropped it, so I could print out an individual flower (I found wallet size worked best) to spell out the word "dandelion", with one letter per flower.

I "laminated" the flowers with contact paper, so they'd hold up...

...and then called each child to the table, one at a time, and gave them a sheet of the stationary to list out all the words they could spell from the letters of "dandelion".  The Man of the House even gave it a try.  After we had eliminated all the duplicate words, Boggle-style, the one with the most, correctly spelled, words remaining was the winner.

It's an old game...

...but the dandelions added a fun "almost summer" twist.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Vocabulary Spelling City Review

I thought it was probably about time to share some thoughts about SpellingCity.com. Somewhere around three weeks ago I signed up for a free premium membership (normally $24.99/year for up to 5 students) in exchange for a review.

To be honest, I'm not sure where to begin. I like the website, but find it a little busy and disorientating, even with the "getting started" video clips. So, it's going to take me more than three weeks to really give a good evaluation.

A lot of SpellingCity.com is accessible for free already. You can check it out at any time, at the link above. There are games, printable worksheets, and tests for spelling lists. You can enter your own spelling lists, or take advantage of lists already on the website.

The premium paid membership adds an element of tracking and record keeping. Students are given their own log-in, and teachers can view their logs to see how often they've played games, or taken tests and which words need more work. There is also more of a vocabulary component to the paid membership, which is nice for older students. To the right is a checklist from the site, comparing the memberships.

My oldest (age 14) protested that it is a "baby site". I think that's mainly due to the slow but upbeat voice used to spell out the letters, and the cute animated mouse used in many of the games. He has however, been passing the tests. And G (age 12), the only one of my children who has been using a workbook for spelling help, says she likes the website's "play to learn" approach better than what she was doing before.

The games alone don't work for everyone. D (age 8) has been faithfully playing two games a day using the same spelling list, but has yet to learn how to spell the words. However, there are printable worksheets, and flashcards to bridge the gap.

All in all, I'd say it's a worthwhile website to check out, if you're looking for additional spelling resources for your children. Let them experiment with the free games and printables for a while, and then if they find them helpful, you might consider upgrading to a paid membership for the score keeping, and organizational benefits.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Candy Corn Alphabet Memory

Keeping the candy corn theme going, I presented the girls (ages 5 and 6) with an alphabet matching challenge. It's a pretty standard game of memory. The only catch was I had to draw and color the candy corn myself, because our printer finally gave up working once and for all. Luckily I had the patterns from the candy corn finger puppets to use as a guide.



Once I had 52 candy corn colored and cut out, I printed the alphabet in lower and upper case, on the backsides of the pieces, for the girls to match up into pairs.


I let them play once with the entire set, and then pulled out the letters I thought C needed more work on, so they could play a few shorter, more focused games with just those letters. It wasn't much of a challenge for E, but she appreciated getting to be the "teacher" for her younger sister.


It's great to be a homeschooler.