Spelling Activities for Primary School and ESL Students - Teacher's Zone

A  fundamental skill in learning, understanding, and speaking English is  spelling. When students know how to spell words, they have a stronger  grasp on how to pronounce, read, and write words. This is crucial for  their English development. For both ESL students and pupils in primary  school, it is essential to give the skill of spelling a strong  foundation.

There are many ways to make  spelling interesting and engaging. Moving away from rote learning words  and bland spelling tests, teachers have the potential to get creative  with ways they help students spell. Words, letters, and spelling can  become much more exciting in the ESL and primary school classroom with  some of these handy tips and tricks.

 

Students  are more engaged when their brain and hands are doing something  together. For younger learners especially, it can be much more  productive to visually see the letters they are spelling and have  something physical to hold. This taps into kinaesthetic learning and  engages them on another level.

Spelling  puzzles are a great idea for this. These puzzles can involve any type  of picture and the letters featured on each piece. Students need to join  together the picture and put the words in order at the same time. These  zoo animal spellers are a great example of this. They are perfect to  use as a warm up exercise or a brain break activity. Spelling puzzle  using any word and picture are easy to create and go a long way in a  classroom setting.

Consonant  Vowel Consonant spelling exercises are highly useful. These are great  for sight word practice, sound it out spelling, and helping students  identify the vowel sound in the middle of the word.

These  simple flashcards with an attractive visual piece can help students  with spelling. The letters are designed in block format so students can  spell them out individually. It is also important to help students hear  the sound each letter makes in CVC spelling.

 

Using  CVC words as a basis again, it is good to expose students to a range of  words that have the same beginning and ending. This exercise helps  students to understand the important of vowels in spelling. Focusing on  the way different words can be created using different vowels, this  exercise is also good for kinaesthetic and visual learning.

As  students place the vowel in the middle of each card, they can try and  sound out the word. Guide students to hear the sound the word makes with  different vowels and help them decide if it is a real word or not. This  activity can be extended by writing down the words created. This helps  students to further visualise the spelling words.

 

All  these spelling exercises and activities were created on recycled  materials. Spelling can be fun and exciting for students as well as  helpful for the planet! Find more ideas and inspiration on how to create  your own spelling activities at www.ecoesl.com