As soon as I saw those mini whiteboards, I knew they would be ideal for spelling games. On the Isle of Wight, we discovered that daily word games improve children’s spelling and as a result, their writing. Rhyme It is an obvious game. Write a word that has many rhymes, such as train. The children have 30 seconds to think of other words that rhyme, organising them by spelling pattern (ainaneeign).
Muddles is a fun game that is based on sorting out anagrams. Provide the children with an anagram of a common tricky word (for example: see a cub), give them 30 seconds to work it out (answer: because) or try a word with a pattern in it that you are trying to teach. With less confident spellers, give them the word and let them sort out the spelling, using all of the letters.
Which One? is based on spotting errors. Write a common word that children often muddle - provide three ways to spell it, including the correct version (wos woz was). Who can spot the correct version and how do they remember it? A handy resource for spelling lists is Black’s Rhyming and Spelling Dictionary (A C Black)
Pie Corbett is a literacy consultant
