The Christmas Pack – A Reading and Spelling Activity Bundle

Robin E.

says: Customer Service

Tamara,
We don’t have spelling activities for every holiday, but we do have other fun spelling review games and activities. Check out:
Drag Race – A Reading and Spelling Review Activity
Popcorn Party! Spelling Game
A Treasure Trove of Pirate Activities for Reading and Spelling
10 Great Ways to Review Spelling Word Cards

Here are some other ideas that students have enjoyed:

– Sort Word Cards into piles such as nouns and adjectives or verbs and adverbs. Draw a card from each pile and make up random dictation phrases that way. You can end up with some funny phrases like “green bobcat” or “playful mailbox.” You could also let your student draw and read a card from each pile, and then have you write a phrase. Many kids enjoy the back and forth!

– Spell words while jumping on a trampoline, bouncing a ball, or playing catch. Yell out one letter for every jump, bounce, or toss!

– Another thing I used to do with my kids was to have them make up simple books. Choose some phrases or sentences (ones already in AAS dictation or make up your own from the word cards) and have them write one line on each page. Then they can draw a picture to go with and make up a story.

– Incorporate tactile and kinesthetic ideas to make review more fun. Marie has lots of great ideas in this article. Things like writing on a whiteboard, using a dry or wet erase marker on a window or mirror, writing with gel pens on black paper, going outside with sidewalk chalk, creating a pretty, special spelling notebook with artwork and stickers can also make spelling more fun.

– Use a favorite board game like Sorry. Each player spells a word or answers a card before taking his or her turn. If you have a Trivial Pursuit game, you can substitute the various spelling cards (red, blue, yellow, green) for the types of categories in the game.

– One of our AAS customers sent us a link to her free Spelling Battleship game.

– Junior Scrabble Cheese-Its: The student spells a word with the alphabet crackers, and gets to eat the crackers if the word is correct. This was a favorite with my kids!

– Using rewards like a mini Hershey bar for so many words spelled or M&M’s at the end of each dictation phrase or sentence.

– Kaboom! Write the word BOOM on several blank Word Cards. Mix up all your Word Cards and scatter them face down in a pile on the table. Players take turns selecting and reading cards from the pile, and the other person spells the word. If a player spells a word correctly, he keeps the card. If he misses a card, put it back in the pile. If a player picks up a BOOM card, he has to return all his cards to the pile. Play continues until all the cards have been collected.

– Snowball game. Practice phonograms with the snowball game, or use Nerf darts instead. Tape word cards face down to the wall and your student has to spell the one they hit.

– Use an online word search puzzle maker to create your own word search puzzle using your child’s spelling words.

– Flip the card: spell the word cards and then try to throw each into a hat or box. Vary the distance if it’s too easy/hard.

– Hockey or Soccer: one mom told us, “I tape cards all around our fence and have the boys kick a ball towards them. Whichever card they hit, they have to spell. We have also adapted this for hockey and basketball. Anything to keep the boys moving!”

– Set up a points system and give your student a small prize when he reaches 100 points. For example, you might give your student a point for every correct word spelled during each lesson time. Or, combine the system with phonogram card review too, for more chances to earn points. (My daughter used to make up her own points system, just to try to beat a previous high point score.)

Robin E.

says: Customer Service

You’re welcome, Mary!

Robin E.

says: Customer Service

Wow, Christy! Your child much such amazing progress in just a semester!

I don’t know where Marie got every idea, but we do have a few “Story Behind the Story” blog posts that your daughter may enjoy.

Robin E.

says: Customer Service

Thank you, Jayne!

Robin E.

says: Customer Service

I’m so excited to hear how well your daughter is doing with All About Reading, Mindy! Wonderful! Keep up the excellent work.