18 Easy and Fun Ways to Practice Spelling Words in the Classroom

Giving your students plenty of varied practice when it comes to learning the spelling of words is essential for their success and retention. Coming up with all of those activities though can be exhausting! I’ve compiled a list of easy and fun ways to practice spelling words that will help you provide effective and engaging practice all year long.

Use these 18 fun and engaging activities to help your students practice their spelling words while having fun at the same time.

Sensory Activities to Practice Spelling Words

Have students that love activities with sensory input? Or just want high engagement when practicing spelling, then sensory activities are the way to go!

1. Playdough

Using playdough is a simple and easy way to get your students to practice their spelling words. Most teachers have playdough on hand, so no special trips to the store are required!

Using playdough is a great way to get your students to practice their fine motor skills while also practicing spelling.

Give your students a printout of their spelling words and play dough. Have them roll and manipulate the play dough to make the letters of each word. For those students who might need some more support, you could provide laminated sheets with the words printed on them to follow as a guide.

2. Shaving Cream

I know you’re thinking about the mess of using shaving cream, but truly I don’t think I have ever seen students more engaged in writing out their words than when I placed trays of shaving cream in front of them.

Let students spell their words by writing in shaving cream for a fun and engaging activity that will clean the desks too!

For the least mess possible, set up a tray with a laminated set of words for each student. Have students roll up their sleeves and let the fun begin! Students use their fingers (or a paintbrush if they are averse to touching the shaving cream) and draw out each letter of their spelling words. And . . . you get a bonus of clean desks too!

3. Sand Writing

My guess is that you have heard of using sand trays to help students practice writing letters. The same principle applies to helping them practice spelling words.

Writing in sand, sugar or salt is a great way to provide students with spelling practice with extra sensory input.

Set up a shallow tray with sand and a stack of cards with the targeted spelling words next to it. Have the student turn over the card and use their finger or a paintbrush to draw each letter of the word in the sand. And . . . if you don’t have sand just substitute it with salt or sugar.

4. Pasta Words

Pasta words are sure to be a classroom hit when it comes to practicing spelling words. Grab a few boxes of spaghetti at the grocery store and place them in a container. Give students trays and their spelling words. Have them make each letter of their spelling words using the uncooked pasta.

Students can follow a template you give them or can create on their own. Just know that they will most likely need to break some strands of spaghetti to build words that have curves. Don’t throw away those pieces though! You can save them for next time.

As an alternative, you can also use pasta or cereal already in letter shapes. Really any chance to “play with food” will engage students.

Using spaghetti noodles, letter noodles or even letter cereal students will love practicing their spelling words.

Games to Practice Spelling Words

Playing games is a great way to get students to practice spelling words. Here are some simple and low prep games you can start using right away!

5. Concentration

Take the classic game of concentration and use it to help your students practice spelling words. Print each of the spelling words on card stock and cut them out to make individual cards. Then print out a matching picture for each word. Again, cut these out to make cards.

Have the students mix up the cards, and layout on the desk or floor and start matching! Students will work on finding the matching word and picture. This works really great when you have homophones on your spelling list.

6. Roll a Word

This game is perfect for students who love working with partners. Pair up students who are studying the same words. Give them a ball to roll back and forth. Play in partners or as a group for some whole class spelling practice.

Have students spell words by adding one letter at a time as they roll a ball back and forth to each other.

Arm them with a list of their spelling words. One partner picks a word and rolls the ball to the other saying the first letter of the word. The partner rolls the ball back adding the second letter. This goes back and forth until they have spelled all of their words!

7. Roll and Spell

Give each student a die and a worksheet with a key, like the one from my Back to School Spelling Activities pack. The student rolls the die and the number it lands on tells the student how they have to write one of their spelling words.

Some ideas include:

Writing letters with a simple picture in between (like an apple)
Writing the word in marker
Rainbow writing the word
Letting students choose how they want to write the word!

Make spelling a game with this Roll and Spell worksheet they will love.

Using a Roll and Spell activity is an easy way to allow all students to work on their particular spelling words without a ton of prep.

Colorful Ways to Practice Spelling Words

Have some budding artists in your room? They will love these fun and colorful ways to practice their spelling words.

8. Apple Tree Spelling

I love using this activity during Back to School season because it is a great way to have students practice the order of the letters in their spelling words.

Help your students practice the order of letter with this fun Apple Tree Spelling worksheet.

Print off black and white clip art apple trees (or grab a done for you version here). Have students write a spelling word in the trunk of the tree in brown. Then in red, write each letter of that word in the tree-like apples.

9. Bookshelf Spelling

This activity is a great way to practice spelling words and alphabetical order, plus is beautifully colored! Students write each of their spelling words in alphabetical order on the spine of each book.

Students can create a custom spelling word book shelf with this fun activity.

Then the fun begins. Have students color each book. You can give them parameters like all words that start with “p” are purple, all words that are people, places, and things are blue, or each book gets its own color (this is a great excuse to break out those mega crayon packs!).

Don’t worry about making your own handouts because you can get this Bookshelf Spelling activity here.

10. Chalk to the Rescue

Take spelling practice outdoors with some sidewalk chalk. Have students choose different colors for each word or even for each letter. The playground will be decorated with beautiful word rainbows, and your students will appreciate the extra fresh air as they practice spelling words.

Take spelling practice outside with some sidewalk chalk.

11. Apple Words

Again, this is a great activity for Back to School or fall but can be fun all year round. Students will get some repetition in with this activity.

getting in lots of spelling practice is easy with this Apple Words worksheet which requires students to write each spelling word four times.

Students write a spelling word 4 times in each apple. They then can color in each section. They could choose to color the apple all one color or make their own creations!

12. Crayon Spelling

This is definitely the most colorful of the activities. Students pick a color of crayon, write each letter of the spelling word spaced across a line (or a curve) and then write the whole word. Each word gets a different color.

This rainbow writing spelling practice activity will have your students engaged and practicing those important words.

Students will write out the word twice, and they are paying special attention to each letter as they put it on the line with Crayon Spelling.

Craft Activities to Practice Spelling Words

Get out the scissors and glue and start crafting for some fun ways to practice spelling words!

13. Magazine Words

Gather up some old magazines. If you don’t have a stash of your own, I bet your art teacher does and if all else fails, you can grab some free newspapers from the grocery store.

Let students use old magazines to find the letters they need to spell their words.

Have students find letters from their spelling words, cut them out, and then paste them on a large piece of chart paper. They get to practice spelling while creating a fun and unique collage!

14. Stamped Words

Pull out some letter stamps and ink pads and let the practice begin. This activity can be as simple or elaborate as you would like.

Your students will love practicing their spelling words by spelling them with letter stamps.

Here are some ways you can do this activity with your students:

Have them use a different color for each letter
Give them fancy paper to stamp their words on
Have students who are practicing the same words do this activity in a group. After stamping a letter, they switch papers and the next person has to continue the spelling

Practice Spelling Words with Multiple Intelligences

15. Sign Your Words

This is a great way for kinesthetic learners to practice spelling words. Students use sign language to spell out their words to each other. You can give them a handout with visuals of each of the letters in sign language and then pick a word to sign.

Engage different learning styles by trying different ways for students to practice like using sign language.

This can be a great partner activity. The partner can follow along and repeat back to their partner the word they just signed.

16. Sound Words

Auditory learners will love practicing their spelling words using Sound Words. Grab some old recorders or teach students how to record their voices on their devices. Have them say each of their spelling words, spell each of the words and then replay the recording to help practice them.

have students record themselves orally spelling a word - then play it back and write what they hear.

You can even have students practice writing the word as they listen to the replay for extra practice.

17. Telephone Words

Struggle to find ways to help your logical-mathematical learners with their spelling? Telephone Words is the answer!

Use a telephone to turn words into numbers or even math problems.

Grab an old landline phone and have students punch out their spelling words. They can record the words in letters and then in numbers. You can even have them add the numbers together to find the total value of the word.

18. Type your words

This is a classic but also a perfect activity for your linguistic learners. Set students up with a word document and have them type out their words.

Typing is a great way to get your students excited about practicing their spelling words while also getting in some tech practice at the same time.

You can change up this activity by:

Having students type their spelling words in all caps
Having them type them in all lowercase letters
Having them type each word in a different font
Having them type each word in a different size

If your district has a typing program, you can also have students use this program to practice spelling their words.

Back to School Spelling Activities (For Any List!)

All of these activities are easy and fun, but if you want (or need) to skip the prep, I’ve created a packet of engaging spelling activities that can be used with any list of words. The handouts are formatted and directions are written. No guesswork on your part. Simply print and go or use the included digital spelling activities too! Though they are Back to School Spelling Activities you can truly use them throughout the whole year!