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Spelling Games

Animal Words Play Animal Words 145,139 Plays Grade 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Animal Words
Color by Letter Play Color by Letter 357,132 Plays K Color by Letter
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Scrabble Multiplayer Play Scrabble Multiplayer 102,465 Plays Grade K - 5 Scrabble Multiplayer
Space Typing Play Space Typing 529,939 Plays Grade 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Space Typing
Spellathon Play Spellathon 140,705 Plays Grade 1, 2 Spellathon
Spelling Words Play Spelling Words 69,164 Plays Grade 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Spelling Words
Typing Aircraft Play Typing Aircraft 880,037 Plays Grade 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Typing Aircraft
Vocabulary Crossword Play Vocabulary Crossword 93,937 Plays Grade 1, 2, 3 Vocabulary Crossword
What Letter Is It Play What Letter Is It 97,232 Plays K What Letter Is It
Word Ladder Play Word Ladder 913,356 Plays Grade 1, 2, 3 Word Ladder
Word Scrabble Play Word Scrabble 81,250 Plays Grade 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Word Scrabble
Word Scramble Play Word Scramble 537,706 Plays Grade 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Word Scramble
Word Unscramble Play Word Unscramble 367,909 Plays Grade 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Word Unscramble
Write Lowercase Letters Play Write Lowercase Letters 215,115 Plays K Write Lowercase Letters
Write Uppercase Letters Play Write Uppercase Letters 427,521 Plays K Write Uppercase Letters

Spelling Games

Turtle Diary's spelling games for kids come with a host of awesome benefits for children, parents, and teachers alike. It is no secret that a gamified approach to spelling can have an enormous impact on the learning process and through online spelling practice children will gain from the repetition and the excitement that comes with playing games.

Parents and teachers also gain valuable insight into the strengths of the children playing, as well as areas that may require further development. Another important thing about playing our spell games is that kids learn & gain exposure to popular content that coincides with core standards and teaching programs that they are familiar with from their schools.

Whether you are looking for options to practice early literacy with sight words, critical thinking skills with crosswords, spelling conventions, or anything in between, you can always find the best activity for your needs. There are spelling games for grade 1 students that focus on site words and phonics, while older children can play games that are a bit more advanced.

Playing games that are suited to the level of the child helps develop essential skills for academic readiness. Load up some of our popular spelling activities for grade 3 students, for example, and you will see the benefits from the additional practice surprisingly quickly. The benefits also lead to a greater propensity to enjoy spelling activities in a wide range of contexts, both in an online environment as well as offline.

As a result, kids take a greater degree of ownership of the words they see in their reading & writing attitude and it is all thanks to the elevated levels of motivation and commitment that they get from succeeding in the games they play.

A Variety of Fun Spelling Games

Many kids get bored with the simple spelling test & drills. This is why our free spelling games include word searches for various age groups, word scrambles, and interactive spelling games for the younger kids. These games allow them to quiz their new spelling skills without feeling overwhelmed.

You can start children as young as five years old on our spelling games online to help them improve their spelling skills, and learn to love spelling words the right way.

All the spelling quiz games we offer enable you to tailor the level to your child's learning ability. This is important in any game or worksheet your child uses, to eliminate the risk of getting overwhelmed or frustrated. When children feel frustrated, they can easily give up on this lifelong need.

Although there are 1000+ Language arts games, spelling activities offer learning in a fun, non-threatening way to enable them to learn the importance of spelling.

What games help with Spelling?

Though there are many word lists and word games on the internet, the ones that help the most with spelling are those that have either missing letters you need to fill in or ones where you must unscramble the words.

While it’s true that the more you read, the better a speller you will become, often kids lean more towards educational games than they do spending time reading books. This is a problem in itself, because kids should obviously be spending at least 30 minutes of independent reading time each day which will increase their exposure to new words and improve their vocabulary and spelling skills.

The more they encounter words, the more their mind’s eye will be able to recognize them as “looking” correct. Spelling games, however, can help to reinforce these concepts and aid their brain in unscrambling the letters to know which naturally fall in line with others.

How do you practice Spelling words?

Spelling rules are a great way to teach students how to check for correct spelling. In the beginning, students should look for several basic spelling rules:
  • All words need at least one vowel - a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y.
  • Every syllable within a word must have one vowel (a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y).
  • Certain letters make different sounds depending on their location and paired vowel sound.

C
  • C makes a /s/ sound before the vowels e, i, or y, as in central, cinnamon, or cylinder.
  • C makes a /k/ sound before a or u (cast or cup), or when paired with a consonant (cloud).

G
  • G makes a /j/ sound before an e, i, or y, as in gentle, giraffe, or gymnastics.
  • G makes a /g/ sound before a or u (gap or guppy) or when paired with a consonant (glass).
  • The letter Q is always followed by a u, for a /kw/ sound (quail).
  • The Consonants F, L, and S are doubled at the end of a one-syllable word with only one vowel (puff, spill, & mass).
  • Use ck or k to make a hard /k/ at the end of a word. CK after a short vowel, like pick, and K after the rest, like mask or shark.
  • All proper nouns - names - must be capitalized.

Once they get the basics of those basic rules and are able to use them all the time, they are ready to move onto more advanced spelling situations. Here are some examples of more complex spelling rules:
  • The vowels A, E, O, and U are long at the end of a single syllable (me, go).
  • English words do not end in V or J. We add a silent -e to the end. (save).
  • Contractions are when a letter or letters are replaced by an apostrophe to join two words together, such as I and have become I’ve.
  • The letters I and O may be long before two consonants, as in wind or fold.
  • The /j/ sound is made by the letters -dge after a short vowel, as in lodge or ledge.
Practicing these rules with lists of words that apply to each are a great way to begin spelling instruction, as is using lists of words that are commonly misspelled as well. Otherwise, students will begin to acquire the correct spellings just by reading them frequently in texts. In addition, making the list of words a game or providing incentives for each word correct can make practice fun.

How can I make Spelling fun?

Obviously, finding online spelling games is a great way to make spelling fun. Often, you will be able to practice high-frequency words in a variety of online games on our spelling website, including those commonly misspelled words. Games also use words in categories frequently, so students begin to associate a group of words around a single category.

Playing spelling games together as a family or doing word searches or crossword puzzles are a great way to reinforce spelling rules and get students thinking outside the box.

Another interesting way that you may not have considered is typing practice. As students work on their muscle memory to gain speed and accuracy in typing, their fingers will learn the frequently used letter combinations, creating pathways in the brain that will help them to succeed in spelling in the future.

Some students just don’t have the knack for spelling, however, so encourage them to read more and also teach them to use spell-check on the word processing program as a last resort.

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