Today regular contributor Jodie of Growing Book by Book shares a fun and festive way to engage children with spelling revision, inspired by the upcoming Easter holiday!
Does your child get bored practicing their spelling words? Is it a chore to get them do their spelling lessons? Children need lots of repetition when learning how to spell new words. All that practice can be fun!
We created a spelling game that will provide lots of practice disguised as lots of enjoyment. The game uses all those plastic Easter eggs that you already have in a bag somewhere in the house or that you have purchased just for the holiday.
You will need:
- Various colored plastic eggs
- Markers
- Writing paper
- Plain white paper strips
- Scissors
- Die
- List of spelling words your child is working on learning
- Pail or container
To make:
1. On a paper strip write each spelling word. Cut the word into individual letters. Place each letter set inside a plastic egg and close it. Repeat until you have finished the spelling list – one word in each egg.
2. Place the eggs in a pail or container, or hide them around the house or yard.
3. Gather together a set of colored markers (one color to match each egg color), writing paper and a die.
Ready to play:
1. Let your child find the hidden eggs if you have decided to hide them in the house or outside.
2. Have your child select an egg and “crack” it open. Arrange the letters to spell a word from the list. The child should read the word and spell it orally. Have her check that the letters have been arranged in the right order by referring to the spelling list.
3. Roll the die to figure out how many times to write that word.
4. Use a colored marker that matches the color of the egg to write the spelling word on the paper the correct number of times. Some of our eggs had patterns on them. It was fun to recreate the same pattern on the letters as they were written.
5. Repeat the steps above until all the eggs have been used.
This is a fun and festive way to get lots of practice spelling words! You can even use this activity weekly between now and Easter as new spelling lists are given.
For more Easter egg fun check out these related posts!
What spelling games do you like to play with your child?
Jodie Rodriguez has a passion for helping caregivers nurture our youngest readers. As a former National Board Certified early-childhood, elementary teacher and administrator, she has worked with thousands of
families and educators providing best literacy practices. She lives near St. Louis, Missouri and now stays home with home with her two young
sons.
What a great idea! My son would love this, but sadly at the moment is having nonsense words sent home to test his phonic knowledge, and they just have to be said aloud for him to write. Once he starts getting real spellings again this will definitely be adapted to the season and used.
Thank you Melanie! I’m glad it will be useful to you!
Oh, this is great fun! We love anything that involves a hunt so even more perfect!