My son loves spelling because like math it’s either right or wrong. However I want to find dynamic ways to work on spelling especially making words not just memorizing how to spell words. His Connect Four game caught my eye and I decided to transform it into a spelling game. The way we played is not the only way you could play this game and we are missing a bunch of pieces so we had to account for that as well. I may hit up some garage sales this summer to find extra ones for more spelling games like this. This is part of our Learning After School series that is packed with posts that are fun and playful ways to learn after school.
Gather your materials. You will need a Connect Four game, some masking tape, a marker, and a sheet of paper and pencil if you want to keep score of what words you each made.
Cut small pieces of masking tape and pop them on the game pieces.
Add letters. I did a random mix of consonants and had some extra vowels on hand too.
I invited him to play and let him think up some words before we got started.
And we were off. The smart little bug started with oat… which turned into boat… and then boats. Smarty pants.
We kept score of what words we created. In our version you could NOT use the other color’s letters for your words but plan to play that way later. I think that would be a much faster paced game and probably would have been even more fun. This was good but slower paced and more thoughtful.
When you can’t make any more words, clear the game and play again!
More Spelling Activities
Here are a bunch of spelling activities for kids to browse.
PragmaticMom says
Your idea to convert Connect 4 into a spelling game is GENIUS!!!
Allison McDonald says
Thanks!
Third Culture Family says
What a fun way to practice spelling ladders. Love this!
Ilana m says
Love this! Wondering if you could tell me which letters you included and the amounts of each letter? Did you end up playing a version where you use each other’s pieces? Did it work out better?