In a recent posting I shared a number of online resources that students could use to prepare for spelling bees. I have come across a couple of additional resources that could also be used to help your students become better spellers. I would suggest that students use these resources in combination with other resources I have posted in the past. Different tools focus on different aspects of spelling that compliment each other. Please feel free to share additional spelling resources using the comments function found at the bottom of this posting. You can also use the Spelling cloud tags on the left side of this blog to easily access previous posts that reviewed Spelling resources.

The BBC Skillwise site features a number of exercises and online quizzes that will help students understand how many words are built. There are three different levels of quizzes…great for differentiation. I must confess I found the expert levels of these quizzes quite challenging!

Students need to register to use the SpellBee.org site, but registration does not require an email address. In SpellBee, the goal is to gain as many points as possible in seven rounds of a spelling activity. Each student can gain points in two different ways. First, when asked to spell a word, a student will gain points if he spells the word correctly. Secondly, he (or she) will be asked to choose a word for another player to spell and can gain points based on the word he chose, and whether the other player spells that word correctly or not.

AAASpell.com features several simple activities that student can play to practice their spelling words. The downside to this site….students need to type their own lists of words. If they misspell any of their words they could be practicing with the wrong spelling. There are a number of word lists incorporated on the site already, however and the activities offer options to some of the activities that are available using different web sites. User tip….when you click on an activity you need to scroll to the bottom of the page to work with it. Initially, I had trouble finding the activities since the word list remains at the top of the page.

The National Spelling Bee Site also includes tips and resources to help students study for the Big “Bee.” I have also listed a few additional sites that include study tips below:

Make way for the upcoming National Spelling Bee Contest in May! There are many online resource sites that can be used to study for spelling bees. The following resources can be used to help your little (and big) busy bee students become A number 1 spellers (even if they are not officially enrolled for the National Spelling Bee)…

The set of activities found on Interactives Spelling Bee are similar in nature to the old spelling bees of years gone by. Students in grade 1-8 listen to three stories, one at a time, and then spell words from each story. Older student, grade 9-12 listen to separate sentences and then spell the words from each sentence. These online listening activities help build listening comprehension skills as well as spelling skills! I highly recommend this resource site to students all ages who are working to become great spellers.

The Dateline National Spelling Bee game site strives to imitate the National Spelling Bee we are more accustomed to watching…a word is pronounced. The speller can ask to here a definition of the word and the word can be spelled in a sentence. While the site certainly mimics the spelling bee we watch on television, I had trouble understanding the virtual mediators pronunciation of some of the words.

Spell It Scripps National Spelling Bee study site was created in cooperation with Merriam-Webster. Spell It! focuses on approximately 1150 words, divided into sections by language of origin. By studying language of origin students are better able to learn and remember several important rules, tips, and guidelines for successfully spelling words in English. Each section of the site also contains one or more “challenge words” in addition to the basic study list. You should study these words to prepare for classroom bees. All of the words listed are linked to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary with audio pronunciations. If a list word has a dialog bubble next to it, click on the bubble to see a spelling tip for that word. And don’t miss the general tips available under the Tips tab in most sections. The site also includes exercises that are intended to give further information about words that come from a particular language. Some of the exercises are pretty challenging!

I’ll be posting additional Spelling resource links in the near future. Keep studying and spelling!

Do You remember the days when spelling meant dreary memorization of lists of words and boring workbook exercises? Are those days still alive and well in your classroom? Do you wish you could cast a magic “spell” that would help turn every student into a stellar speller? Technology to the rescue! I have found some excellent sites that you can customize and share with your students to help enhance their spelling (and reading) skills.

My favorite spelling support site to date is SpellingCity.com, a site that could be used with students all ages. Sign up for an account as a teacher or parent so that you can input spelling word lists for kid-friendly practice, game-playing, and testing activities. Registration is easy and quick, but does require email verification. If you register as a teacher you will have an added option of printing spelling practice worksheets for students (you can select the following print options: Print, D’Nealian, Cursive, or Sign lanuage). Once you have verified your account you will see a URL address that you can use to direct students to word lists and you will have full access to a toolbox feature (at the top of the page) that will give you rights to develop word lists. You can input 5, 10, or 15 words using the input boxes or bypass the input boxes and batch your list of words (I preferred the batch option and discovered that you could create a longer list of words). I intentionally misspelled a word in my list to see what would happen. The program accepted my misspelled word, so you will want to check your spelling carefully as you develop your lists of words.

Once you have developed a list of words your students will be able to access your word bank using the link provided during registration (it also appears on your homepage when you login). Use this link to access my sample lists of words. Students do not need to login to access and work with the word banks you have developed. Once students select a list of words they have several options: View, Test Me, Teach Me, Play a Game, or Print. The Test Me option is really neat from the standpoint that students click on a button to hear the word read to them and also have the option of hearing the word in a sentence. There are a series of ten games students can play to further expose them to the words using different activities that include matching, alphabetizing, HangMouse, word search, unscramble, word match, Which Word, and more. When students test themselves they should wear headphones (or you will go crazy) as the spelling words are read to them over the computer. After the test is complete students can check their answers, type their name in an input box, and print the test to turn in for a grade. They can also print a certificate that indicates their name, the word list title, and their grade.

Please don’t feel overwhelmed by my lengthy description of SpellingCity.com. If you are comfortable using a computer you will find this program very intuitive and so will your students!

It was hard to find any program that came close to the caliber of the SpellingCity.com site, but I did find a couple of simple programs that would be appropriate for young students. The Look, Cover, Write, and Check site allows students to work from established word banks, or they can type in their own word list. Two other game sites that require student input are Scholastic’s ABC Spelling Wizard and Word Safari.

Keep in mind, some of the sites I have recommended in previous posts also lend themselves to spelling practice: