The Spelling Games and Activities series has workbooks for grades one through six that supplement a more comprehensive spelling program.They provide extra practice with spelling patterns and word studies, primarily using games and activities.
These 182-page workbooks include introductions that explain their features, a list of spelling words covered in the main lessons, eight themed units (with 10 pages per unit), Extra Practice Worksheets, seven or eight pages about spelling strategies, and an answer key. The themed units and Extra Practice Worksheets are the two largest sections. They work like two separate approaches to spelling and do not correlate directly with each other.
Themed Units
The eight themed units present the primary lesson material in Spelling Games and Activities. The units each focus on a topic, such as science, music, family roots, and heroes, providing cross-curricular content based on those themes. Rather than present a comprehensive spelling program, each 10-page unit focuses on a few concepts. For example, a first-grade unit, titled “In the Kitchen,” has activities for words with both hard and soft c; the vowel pairs ui and oo; and the consonant blends fr, sc, and sl. Jumping up to sixth grade, the workbook still has units focused on particular phonograms, but it also gets into Greek and Latin word roots and words related to international foods. Lessons teach spelling rules or patterns when applicable, and support that instruction with puzzles, exercises, activities, games, and some written work.
The activities vary by grade level, including more hands-on work, like coloring and cutting-and-gluing, in the early grades and more reading and writing in upper levels. Few of the activities are like those in traditional spelling workbooks. Instead, they feature activities such as creating a comic strip, solving riddles, tossing correctly spelled words (on wadded up paper) into a basket, playing board games, creating multiple shorter words from the letters of a spelling word, creating word art, and much more.
Every themed unit in each level of Spelling Games and Activities includes one group activity, such as playing charades with students acting out spelling words. Some of these activities won’t work without a group class, but some can be adapted or used with other family members.
Extra Practice Worksheets
The Extra Practice Worksheets in the second half of the workbooks correlate closely with the Building Spelling Skills series from the same publisher, with the Extra Practice Worksheets reinforcing and going beyond what is taught in the Building Spelling Skills workbook for the same grade level. Extra Practice Worksheets include two pages per week for the 30 weeks’ worth of lessons in the Building Spelling Skills series. These pages still include puzzles and activities, but they require more writing, like the Building Spelling Skills series. The Extra Practice Worksheets can be used to supplement Building Spelling Skills or on their own, although they don’t include instruction on spelling rules or patterns.
I mentioned that Extra Practice Worksheets (and corresponding lessons in Building Spelling Skills) and the themed units in Spelling Games and Activities are not correlated, and this is especially true for first grade. Past first grade, the differences in word lists for other grade levels are not so pronounced; the words taught in Building Spelling Skills are included in Spelling Games and Strategies, along with even more words. For instance, Building Spelling Skills 6 teaches 540 words, while Spelling Games and Activities 6 teaches more than 600.
Which Part(s) to Use?
Aside from the group activities in the themed units, students past first and second grade should be able to complete the pages in both parts of Spelling Games and Activities on their own. However, parents might use pages selectively from either section. For example, with a dyslexic child, you might skip pages that require them to unscramble letters and choose others with visual clues that help them spell words correctly.
I realize the Spelling Games and Activities workbooks are unusual, so it's important to note that the publisher’s website allows you to see 20 pages from each workbook before buying, so you can get a better idea of whether they will work for your situation.
Summary
Many students will appreciate the enjoyable ways to practice spelling in Spelling Games and Activities, and that might be an important factor for getting them to care about correct spelling.
