My house is full of kids who want to know how to spell everything. So far I am keeping up but as you may know, spelling is not one of my strengths. I struggle and because it’s such a struggle for me I try hard to make spelling enjoyable for my kids. I want them to associate spelling with fun not fear. This is a super simple spelling game, my daughter loves it and she is learning how to spell all the names in our family. You don’t have to stick to names this could be used with any spelling words. How are you going to play?
Gather your materials. You will need some sentence strips, a marker, some masking tape, some dice ( I used two but you might need 3-4), and pom poms. Wearing a tutu is optional and fabulous.
Start by writing out your family names on the sentence strips. If my son had been home I would have requested his aid for this. I am always trying to sneak in more writing since it’s something he ( and most kids) can use practice with. He wasn’t home so I did it myself.
Next cover your dice in masking tape. I had to cut the tape in half lengthwise. I was going to use little labels but they didn’t stick to the dice at all!
Add the letters in your names to the dice. Our little family has short names with the same letters popping up all over so we only needed 2 dice. You may need many. If one person has a much longer name you could use middle initials or even adding in middle or last names to the shorter ones to even things out.
Get your pom poms and get ready to play.
Roll! Place a pom pom on a letter when you roll it. If you roll more than one letter in your name you must choose only one to cover with a pom pom. If you have two of the same letter like I do ( Allie) you can only cover one letter at a time.
She had three letters covered and two to go.
Finally she spelled her dad’s name before I managed to roll all the letters in mine.
We played with four players later and it was a blast! We even made my sister her very own name plate when she came for a visit and she joined in the play.
Melissa D says
This looks totally FUN!
Sherry Rivera says
I am so happy that I came across your site. I teach the SDA Adventurer’s at church and this week’s theme was the ABC’s. This sounds like the perfect game for them so they can earn their badge. Thank you for your help.
Philippe says
What do you propose if the number of letters are very different. Tom vs Donovan for example.
Allison McDonald says
Instead of having it be a competition have the children try together to spell both names together.