Alternate spelling activities    

 If you pass a spelling pretest with a score of 90% or higher, you are excused from the week’s regular spelling activities and the final test. Choose from this list of alternate activities.

Using New Words                

   1.  Working with a partner who also passed the pretest, find 10 unfamiliar words from glossaries of books in our room. (You choose 5 and your partner chooses 5.) Learn their meanings and spellings. When the rest of the class is taking the final spelling test, you’ll test each other on your personal spelling list. Here’s how:

        a.  Partner A dictates words 1–5 to Partner B, one at a time. Partner B gives a meaning for each word before writing it down.

        b.  Partner A dictates words 6–10 to Partner B, who writes them down (no meanings needed).

        c.  Partner B dictates words 1–5 to Partner A, who writes them down (no meanings). d.Partner B dictates words 6–10 to Partner A, who gives a meaning for each word before writing it down. In other words, Partner A defines 5 of the words, Partner B defines the other 5, and both partners spell all 10. Words are counted wrong if either spelling or meaning are not correct.

   2. Keep track of words you misspell in your own writing. When you have collected 5 words, learn them.

Keep a list of any words you don’t master in activities 1 and 2. Learn them the next time you get to choose your own spelling list. 

Using Regular or Alternate Words

 

   3.  Use all the words to create as few sentences as possible.  

   4.  Create a crossword or an acrostic puzzle on graph paper. Include an answer key.

   5.  Learn the words in a foreign language. Use the words in sentences.

   6.  Group the words into categories you create. Regroup them into new categories.

   7.  Create greeting card messages or rebus pictures.

   8.  Create an original spelling game.

   9.  Create riddles with the words as answers.

10.  Create limericks using the words.

11.  Write an advertisement using as many of the words as you can.

12.  Use all of the words in an original story.

13.  Create alliterative sentences or tongue-twisters using the words.

14.  Using a thesaurus, find synonyms for the words and create Super Sentences.

15.  Use the words to create similes or metaphors.

16.  Create newspaper headlines using the words.

17.  Using an unabridged dictionary, locate and describe the history of each word (its etymology). Create flow charts to show how the meaning of each word has changed over time.

18.  Create a code using numbers for each letter of the alphabet. Compute the numerical value of each word. List the words from the highest to lowest value.

19.  Take pairs of unrelated spelling words and put them together to create new words. Invent definitions.

20.  Create your own activity. Get your teacher’s permission to use it.

                 Vocabulary builders             

 1.  ACRONYMS: Words made from the first letters of a list of words you want to remember. Example: HOMES for the Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior.

 2.  COINED WORDS: Words created to fill a need that no existing word serves. Many trademarks are coined words. Examples: Kleenex, Xerox.

 3.  DAFFYNITIONS: Crazy definitions that make some sense. Examples: Grapes grow on divine. A police uniform is a lawsuit.

 4.  ETYMOLOGIES: The histories of words, including their origins and changes through time and other languages. 

5.  EUPHEMISMS: More gentle ways of saying things that sound too harsh. Example: “He passed away” instead of “He died.”

 6.  FIGURES OF SPEECH: Expressions that mean something different as a whole than if you take each word literally. Example: There are many skeletons in our family closet.

 7. Malapropisms: Words misused on purpose or by accident. They sound like the words you mean to say but have different, often contradictory meanings. Example: “Complete and under a bridge” instead of “Complete and unabridged.”

8. PALINDROMES: Words and phrases spelled the same forward and backward. Examples: Otto, Madam, “Madam, I’m Adam.”

 9. PORTMANTEAUS: Words made by blending parts of other words. Example: “Brunch” from “breakfast” and “lunch.”

 10.  PUN STORIES: Stories that include as many puns as possible. Puns are plays on words. Example: The pancakes were selling like hotcakes because they didn’t cost a lot of dough.

 11.  SLIDE WORDS: Words slid together from abbreviations. Example: “Jeep” from “GP” (a general purpose vehicle during World War II).

 12.  SUPER SENTENCES: Sentences made from very difficult vocabulary words.

 13.  TOM SWIFTIES: Statements that combine a word with its related adverb. Example: “I just cut my finger!” cried Tom sharply.

 14.  TRANSMOGRIFICATIONS: Simple thoughts expressed in sophisticated or challenging words. Example: “Scintillate, scintillate, asteroid minific” for “Twinkle, twinkle, little star.”

 15.  ROOTS: Study the Latin roots of 10 words. Find words in other sources that have those roots.

      acceptable student projects    

For primary students:          

  1.  Draw or trace pictures that represent learning onto transparencies. Show them to an audience and narrate them.

  2.  Show your learning on a graphic map or chart. You might use a story map, character chart, or advance organizer.

  3.  Survey others. Transfer the information to a chart or graph.

  4.  Create a game that others can play to learn the information you researched.

  5.  Create a mobile, diorama, display, or other visual representation of your learning.

  6.  Create dictionaries for specific topics. Or translate words into another language.

  7.  Draw attribute webs. Write brief topic ideas on the spokes of the web.  

For students in all other grades:

  1.  Choose an idea from the primary section above.

  2.  Make a filmstrip on blank filmstrip material. Narrate your filmstrip.

  3.  Create and present a puppet show.

  4.  Create a radio or television broadcast,video production, or Web page.

  5.  Hold a panel discussion, round-robin discussion, or debate.

  6.  Write a diary or journal of an important historical event or person. Write a speech a person might have made at the time.

  7.  Create a time line of events. They might be personal, historical, social, or anything else you choose.

  8.  Working with several other students, create a panel discussion about a historical topic. Or play the roles of historical figures reacting to a current problem of today.

  9.  Create an invention to fill a personal or social need.

10. Present biographical information about a person from the past or present, dressed as that person.

11. Write a song, rap, poem, story, advertisement, or jingle.

12. Create a travel brochure for another country or planet.

13. Create an imaginary country from papier-mâché. Locate essential features.

14. Make a model. Describe its parts and the functions of each.

15. Create a chart or poster to represent synthesis of information.

16. Write a script for a play or a mock trial.

17. Write a journal of time spent and activities completed with a mentor.

18. Collect materials from a lobbying or public service agency. Summarize the information. (Tip: Use the Internet or the Encyclopedia of Associations found in the reference section of most public libraries.)

19. Write to people in other places about specific topics. Synthesize their responses.

20. Create a learning center for teachers to use in their classrooms.

21. Rewrite a story, setting it in another time period, after researching probable differences.

22. Gather political cartoons from several sources. Analyze the cartoonists’ ideas.

23. Critique a film, book, television show, or video program. Write a letter to the editor and send it to your local newspaper.

24. Write a how-to manual for people who need instruction on how to do or use something.

25. Contact publishers to find out how to get something you’ve written published.

26. Come up with your own ideas.