Plant-a-Word Spelling Activity

Some(most)learners need more than just a paper and pencil to get them motivated for spelling. That is why I come up with all kinds of fun ways to practice spelling. Like this Plant-a-Word Spelling activity.

I used it with basic CVC’s,CVCC, CCVC words, one phoneme per grapheme words. The idea is to get the child to realize which sound can be heard first(adding the stick letter opposite the flower), then which sound is in the middle(add stick letter) and which sound do you hear last(add last letter). This is a phonetic way of spelling that aids younger or struggling learners to spell.

What you need:

Alphabet letters of some sort(I used foam ones, using two of each vowel), sticks, foam or polystyrene, markers(to make it pretty).

Color the foam and add the sticks to the letters.

The actual activity can go like this: give the word(depending on what you want the child to focus on, you can provide the word or use only auditory instruction), let the child choose the letter sticks and “plant” it. It is important to stress each sound by stretching it out when saying it. The learner must also say it out loud when he/she spells it. Involving more senses(seeing and hearing) while spelling is the best way to learn to spell.
One could add on to the activity adding in phoneme manipulation too: taking away the first/middle or last sound to change the word. The ability to manipulate sounds in words aids one to spell better by trying out various graphemes for a specific phoneme/sound when one starts reading and spelling more intricate words.

Here the word CAT was changed to RAT, where the first sound(R) only was changed. The learner needs to realize which letter changed and to make the word(and sound) change.
My 5 year old only recently started to get interested in letters and sounds. Here she is copying some words I wrote down for her. We did do some sounding out of short words and she enjoyed it.

You have to see these posts about Spelling with building blocks and CVC Dominoes. Both activities are fabulous, that is why they were added to two fab books!
You might like to see these post about spelling and writing too:

Alphabet Soup
Phoneme Manipulation with Sticky Sticks
Popsicle Sticks Sight Words
Low Prep Conjuctions Lesson