Since this is my birthay month, every Friday I will be highlighting one of the FREEBIES in my TPT store. This first Friday, I am sharing one of my favorites, a year of monthly-themed spelling practice.
Many years ago, when my kiddos were still in elementary school, we used All About Spelling to learn spelling rules (and the exceptions). Each lesson included a list of spelling words. I came up with a weekly rotation that seemed to work pretty well for us:
Monday we would go over the lesson and the words, spelling them out on the whiteboard with the All About Spelling letter magnets
Tuesday through Thursday we would practice spelling the words using activities from the monthly-themed sheets (free in my TPT store)
Fridays they would play free games on SpellingCity.com to review before I gave them the spelling test. (I would spend a little time entering the lists at the beginning of the year so they were ready to go each week.)
The predictable routine helped the kids be somewhat independent with their spelling practice during the week. Since they chose their activity from the monthly themed sheets on those days, I felt they were more invested in the activity.
There are a few things that are needed to do the activities (links are to my preferred brands):
Markers (washable preferred)
Crayons (make sure there is a white)
Plain white paper
Scissors
Glue
Chalkboard with chalk and paintbrush
Construction paper
Letter tiles (Scrabble tiles or Bananagrams, or printed on cardstock)
Computer for typing words
Magazines to cut up
Room to jump, bounce, march, pretend to swim/fly/row a boat, etc. while spelling out loud
Back-to-school sales usually start mid-summer and great deals can be found on many of these items. I have also had luck finding barely used school and office supplies (even an almost full pack of construction paper) at thrift stores.
These activities can be used with ANY word list or spelling curriculum. With a little preparation and planning, a whole year’s worth of spelling practice can be easy, fun, engaging, and effective!
Find this year-long resource with twelve months of spelling practice HERE.
North Star Homeschool Resources 