22 Spelling Word Activities You Can Use All Year

I don’t know about you, but I can always use more spelling word activities. The tricky part is that so many activities use specific word lists … which may or may not coincide with the words you want or need to teach. That’s where spelling word activities, that you can use with any list of words, comes in!

Spelling word activities for any words

Spelling word activities that work for any list of words have to be versatile. I can’t give you a fill in the missing word worksheet for that, but I have some go-to activities that I use with my students throughout the year. These spelling word activities are broken down by thinking level, based on the 3 Story Intellect. This means you teach students critical thinking skills while also providing plenty of practice with spelling. 

Using these activities is most intensive at the beginning of the year, when students are learning each activity. But as the year goes on, students will already know how to do each activity. They’ll just apply it to a new list of spelling words. 

I use a spelling contract with students that has them work on a variety of tasks based on the 3 story intellect.

Students like having choices, and the contract provides this as long as they are doing spelling word activities from a variety of levels. 

Activities include:

Gathering tasks

• Word snakes
• Word search
• Spellamadoodle
• Word triangles
• How many steps
• Dictionary meanings
• Magazine words

Processing tasks

• Alphabetical order
• Syllables
• Guess my group
• Little words in big words
• Antonyms and synonyms
• Rhyming words
• Draw a picture
• Letter patterns
• Word sums

Applying tasks

• Mnemonics
• Riddle-mee
• Alliteration
• Word quiz
• Edit a piece of writing
• Use your words in a sentence

Using adaptable spelling word activities

Here’s a closer look at using some of these spelling word activities with whatever spelling words you are teaching. 

Word triangles

Students create a triangle by building up a word over consecutive lines.  They write the first letter on line 1. They then write the first two letters on line 2. They continue like this until the word is complete. The whole word will be the base of the triangle. Students can do this for any word they are practicing spelling. 

Guess my group

Students work individually to classify all of their spelling words. For example, students might make three lists like this: 

Then they trade with a partner and try to guess the categories for each group. In this case: 

Mnemonics

Explain that mnemonics are tricks, sayings, or rules that help you remember things. Then have students design their own mnemonics to help them remember how to spell difficult words. Have them start by writing the word and marking the part of the word they struggle with. Have them create a mnemonic for that part of the word. For example, students might choose the word separate. Identify the problem part separate. Then use the mnemonic: There is a rat in separate. 

Having spelling activities that you can use all year long, whatever words you are working on, is a huge plus. Use the 3 story intellect in your spelling center today by getting activity cards for all 22 activities listed along with posters and spelling contracts.

Spelling Word Activities for the Whole Year