Table Of Contents
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k, by Richard S. Piccirilli and Todd A. Zuk
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New York • Toronto • London • Auckland • Sydney
Mexico City • New Delhi • Hong Kong • Buenos Aires
DEDICATIONS
This work is dedicated to the memory of Carl. J. Diliberto,
a real nice guy who is dearly missed by all.
And to my wife, our children, and their families:
you are always in my thoughts. Love you all! RSP
To Mair, Ben, Brian, and Tucker—I love you. TAZ
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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urc Not always seen, but always there, are my parents, my family, and my former
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hin Special thanks to Marianne Zuk for her literary skills and to my friend, colleague,
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e and master teacher, Mike Quigley, for his comments and suggestions, and to
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sti Virginia Dooley for her encouragement. RSP
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Scholastic Inc. grants teachers permission to photocopy the reproducibles in this book for classroom use only. No other
part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form
orby any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.
For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., 557 Broadway, New York NY 10012.
Cover design by Maria Lilja
Edited by Wendy Vierow
Interior design by Solutions by Design, Inc.
ISBN 0-439-57626-1
Copyright © 2004 by Richard S. Piccirilli and Todd. A. Zuk.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the U.S.A.
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Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 PART 3: Practice
Break the Code. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Valuing Spelling
PART 1:
Break the Code Reproducible . . . . . . . . 28
Yes! Spelling Is Important . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Spelling Break Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Spelling and You. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Spelling Breaks Reproducible . . . . . . . . 30
Spelling Posters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Riddled With Spelling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Yes! Spelling Is Important
es Reproducible. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Acronym Spelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
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es Spelling and You Reproducible . . . . . . . . 9 Riddled With Spelling Reproducible . . . 32
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chi Spelling Posters Reproducible . . . . . . . . 10 An Extemporaneous Spelling Speech . . 33
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astic PART 2: Visual Memory Finger Spell Your Spelling Words . . . . . 34
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ch The International Manual Alphabet. . . . 35
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k, Making Spelling Word Jumbles. . . . . . . 13
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& Z Slipping and Sliding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
cirilli MReapkriondgu cSipbelell.in.g. .W.o.r.d. .Ju.m.b.l.e.s . . . . . . . 14 Spelling Slip Maker Reproducible. . . . . 38
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ds Word Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Which Word Is Which? Reproducible. . 40
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g Grid Reproducible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Valuable Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
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Sp Config Your Spelling Words . . . . . . . . . 17 Word Value Chart Reproducible . . . . . . 43
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Ma Configs Reproducible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Spelling Counts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Can You Remember What You See?. . . 19 Spelling Counts Reproducible . . . . . . . . 46
Total Recall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Spelling Lotto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Scrambled Spelling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Spelling Lotto Reproducible. . . . . . . . . . 48
Scrambled Spelling Reproducible . . . . . 22 Using Coordinates to Make
Secret Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Missing Vowels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Using Coordinates to Break a
Spelling in the Air. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Secret Code Reproducible. . . . . . . . . . . 50
Bowl of Fortune Spelling. . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Spelling List Fill-Ins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Bowl of Fortune Spelling Cards. . . . . . . 25 G-u-e-s-s My Spelling Word. . . . . . . . . . 51
Bowl of Fortune Letter List . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Word Building Proofreading
PART 4: PART 6:
Picturing Plural Spelling Words. . . . . . . 52 Spotting Spelling Errors. . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Finding Hidden Little Words . . . . . . . . . 52 Hunting for Misspellings . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Finding Hidden Little Words Proofreading Newspaper Ads. . . . . . . . 69
Reproducible. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Detective Work: Find the
Fix With a Prefix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Misspelled Word. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Presto Change-o . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Be a Dictator! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Spelling Crossword Puzzle . . . . . . . . . . 55
Student Progress
PART 7:
Word Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
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ac My Personal Spelling List. . . . . . . . . . . . 76
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Funny Titles and Authors
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Sentence Expansions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Rhyme Time Spelling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Newspaper Ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Spelling Poetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Introduction
As teachers, we are responsible for making sure our students become—and remain—
good spellers. Therefore, our reason for writing this book is simple. It is to make this
task fun, interesting, and relevant for students as well as for you, the teacher. This is
achieved by presenting fifty practical, easy-to-use, and fun ideas. You may use your
own spelling words and imitate the ideas explained in each spelling activity in your
lesson plans.
The concept behind Making Spelling Words Stick! is best described by listing other
titles we considered while writing this book:
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Ideas to Brighten Up Your Spelling Lessons
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ola Spell Well, Well After the Spelling Test
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k, Fun With Your Weekly Spelling Words
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ccirilli W Using Your Spelling Skills in Writing
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s Teaching Spelling So That Students Will Remember What They Learned
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A fact of life is that our written work, and therefore the worthiness of our ideas, is
partly judged by correct spelling. Our knowledge, education, and integrity are also
judged. Consequently, valuing correct spelling goes to the heart of creating better
spellers.
Doing well on weekly spelling tests does not guarantee good spellers. Good spellers
use correct spelling in their written work long after the weekly spelling tests. This is our
challenge as teachers—to take our students beyond their spelling tests. To this end,
this book can make a worthy contribution.
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How This Book Is Organized
The spelling activities in this book can be used with any spelling list. We present
models, but you can substitute your own spelling words. The models are flexible and
suit any teaching situation. They have simple, clear directions. The word lists are used
merely to demonstrate the learning activities. In some cases reproducibles are
provided to simplify teacher duplication of the learning activity.
The spelling activities are grouped in sections that focus on one or more related
aspects of spelling. These include:
Valuing Spelling—creating a class ethos to recognize and appreciate
spelling’s contribution to the clarity of ideas and its overall importance in
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c Developing Visual Memory—training to remember what one sees. This
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& Practice Using Spelling Words—opportunities to see, write, and
cirilli develop an intuitive sense about the word. Practice is related to visual
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d Word Building—expanding spelling to different forms of a word. It can
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Applying Spelling Words in Writing—using spelling skills on a regular
basis. Using correct spelling in written work gives meaning and purpose to
the study of spelling. It also demonstrates the diverse situations that require
spelling skills.
Proofreading Spelling Words—finding spelling errors and correcting
them without assistance. These activities point out the value of spelling and
underscore the idea that proofreading requires patience and a discriminating
eye.
These activities can be used in any order. Selection can be based on teacher and/or
student interest and class need. This book is meant to be a flexible teacher tool.
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PART 1: Valuing Spelling
Yes! Spelling Is Important
Purpose: Explain that correct spelling is important in life, that
all livelihoods depend on correct spelling, and that there are
consequences to incorrectly spelled words.
Materials: copy of page 8, scissors sugar
What to Do: Cut a copy of page 8 along the dotted lines. eggs
Divide students into three groups. Give each group one milk
scenario from page 8. Ask groups to discuss their scenario and butter
to be prepared to talk about it to the class. Or if groups prefer, flower
they can act out their scenarios for the class.
Use the situations below as a basis for further discussion. Invite
s appropriate adults who can attest to the following situations that
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ng Purpose: Reflect on the importance of correct spelling and its effect on daily life.
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them to share their answers with the class. As an alternative, you may wish to call on students for
their answers.
Spelling Posters
Purpose: Students create posters to remind the class about the importance of spelling.
Materials: copies of pages 10–12, scissors, poster board or drawing paper, markers
What to Do: Copy pages 10–12, enlarging the pages if possible. Cut out the four posters on each
page, and post all twelve around the classroom. Ask students to create a poster based on one of the
models. As an alternative, use the models as a springboard, and ask students to create their own
original spelling posters. Encourage students to decorate their posters.
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Yes! Spelling Is Important
Your mother gives you a shopping list. She wants
you to buy flour, but instead she writes f-l-o-w-e-r.
What will happen when you get home? What will
your mother say? What will you say?
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You are reading a classmate’s story. What happens
when you come to a misspelled word? What do
you do? When you read someone else’s work, does
the writer have an obligation to the reader? Explain
your answer.
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Name ______________________________________________ Date ________________________________
Spelling and You
1. What happens when you read something that someone wrote and it has misspelled
words in it? What does it tell you about the writer and his or her work?
______________________________________________________________________________
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2. List three jobs that depend on correct spelling.
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c 3. What would happen if any of these jobs had products with misspelled words on them?
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5. Why do you think it is important to spell words correctly?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
6. Have you written something that made you think about correct spelling? What was it
and when did you write it?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
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