How to Teach Spelling Without a Curriculum

Find Spelling Words

The first goal is to find the spelling words you will use to teach spelling without a curriculum. These words can come from almost anywhere.

One of the best places to find spelling words is your child’s writing. Most kids misspell quite a few words. Use these words to create a list of spelling words for your child to study.

Another good place to find spelling words are phonics programs. Most phonics programs begin with simple 3-letter words such as ant, cat, and dog. There’s no reason you shouldn’t take your child through phonics again focusing on spelling this time around.

If your child is a stronger speller, consider using dictation to find spelling words your child needs to study. In this case, take a sentence or paragraph from a book your kid is reading. Dictate it to your child as they write the sentence on a sheet of paper. You’ll soon see all the spelling and grammar mistakes your kid is making.

You’ll have a list of spelling words.

How Many Spelling Words

Don’t overwhelm your child with spelling words. A first grader only needs 5 words to study each week. A second grader can usually handle 10, while older kids usually get 20 words a week.

Remember to be flexible. Kids aren’t the same. Some kids can whip out math sheets by the dozen but break down seeing 5 spelling words. Other kids will adore spelling and can’t get enough of it.

Use the recommended spelling words as a guideline, follow your instincts, and adjust to fit the needs of your child. After all, we’re homeschooling to give our kids a excellent personalized education!

Study the Words

Now comes the fun part. Let’s study the spelling words!

You can use the list of words to create word searches and crossword puzzles. Hand the lists to your child for them to create the word searches and crossword puzzles.

Pull out play dough, rice, and magnetic letters while you’re cooking dinner. Encourage your child carve the words in the play dough, trace the words into rice, or spell the words on the fridge with magnetic letters.

Call the words to your kid and order them to spell the words as loud as they can. Yelling is encouraged!

Have spelling bees where the kids line up and you call out each child’s spelling words. The child who can spell their entire list wins.

Pull out letter beads, so your child can make necklaces while practicing their spelling. Encourage your kids to make rainbow words with crayons.

Practice the spelling words in the house and out of the house. Spell in the dirt. For that matter, why not head to the beach and write in the sand!

Be imaginative and find creative ways to practice spelling such as these 10 ways to practice spelling words.

The advantage to teaching spelling without a curriculum is that you can personalize the spelling words to the ones your kids needs to study, the words they love to write, and the words they can’t spell.

And your kids won’t complain about a boring spelling curriculum.

Do you teach spelling without a curriculum?

The post How to Teach Spelling Without a Spelling Curriculum first appeared on True Aim.

1. Make words out of play dough.

Play dough provides a fun sensory experience, and a chance to really think about each letter before sculpting it!

2. Let them type

In our technology-driven world, typing is an important skill to have, and younger kids love to be part of it! Learn spelling words by typing them on the computer. The more often, the better; and the higher likelihood that they will stick!

3. Use magnetic trays

A popular budget-friendly trend includes using Dollar Store magnetic trays with magnetic alphabet letters. (or, you can hot glue magnets to ordinary letters) Jenae at I Can Teach My Child offers a great build-a-word magnetic tray tutorial!

4. LEGOs

LEGOs are a staple in nearly every American household. Use them to craft out spelling words!

5. Sing it!

You learned the alphabet to Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star, why not memorize sight words by song? This works especially well if you are switching up the lyrics to a well known song.

6. Get up and move!

Whether it be jumping jacks, hula hooping, bouncing a ball, jumping up and down, or running across the room – getting up and moving to different spelling words can help younger kids still be active in learning while releasing some energy!

7. Cheerios, beads, and other small objects

Spell different words with small objects, like Cheerios or beads. Creating letters provides a sensory experience on memorizing the different letter shapes.

8. Rainbow words

Grab a pack of crayons and write spelling words multiple times in different colors!

9. Shaving cream

Shaving cream is a favorite among early elementary teachers and parents alike – since it is relatively inexpensive, and has a soft, foam-y texture. Grab a bin, dump shaving cream inside, and let kids form letters with it!

10. Cut up magazines

Grab some old magazines (sometimes your local public library might let have old copies for free) and cut out individual letters, and paste them into your spelling words!

The post Top 10 Ways to Practice Spelling Words first appeared on True Aim.

I use this activity to change up our regular spelling and writing practice.  Kids love making these “Rainbow Words”.  In fact, I find my children practicing on their own and making pictures around their words.

Rainbow Words Spelling Activity

Making rainbow words is easy.  We use crayons so the colors don’t bleed together and turn brown.  Colored pencils might work too, but crayons seem to be best because the lines are thicker so the rainbow really shows through.

First, I pick my children’s spelling words.  For my younger daughter, it is her name.  I write the words down for my children and they trace them with a crayon, spelling the word out loud as they write.  After they go over the word with one color, they repeat the process a few more times with different colors until they get a word rainbow.

 For my older daughter Audrey, I use words she is struggling to read and try to group them so they go together.  For example, sometimes she has trouble with the “ight” sound.  So I’ll pick the word “light” and try to find words that go poetically with it like “rays” “sight” “colors” and “bright”.  Other times, we’ll do a sentence so the practice is more meaningful and she can draw a picture with it.  You could even do Bible verses to help your children memorize scripture.

I love this activity because it not only helps my children develop their writing and spelling skills, it turns into beautiful artwork that I proudly display.  Audrey likes to give hers out to people she cares about.  There are lots of ways to practice writing and spelling, but if your children like art this might be the perfect activity for them!

For more spelling and writing activities for kids, follow me on Pinterest.  Thanks for your support!

The post Spelling and Writing Activity for Kids: Rainbow Words first appeared on True Aim.