Monday, February 21, 2011

Cereal Box Spelling Game



I've been working on ways to help the children pay better attention to the spelling of words they see all around them everyday, but don't necessarily think about how to spell - like the words on their cereal boxes.

So, this morning, when they got up for breakfast, I had a spelling game ready for them, cut from some empty boxes.

After I cut the words off of the boxes (and a few fun pictures)...


...I cut them apart...


...and marked them on the back, with numbers and symbols, so they could be easily sorted out, later.


I had them in order, as words, for the children to see when they came up for breakfast.


Then, after they had looked at them, I scrambled the individual words up, for them to unscramble...


...using not only the letters, but also the clues in the size, and colors of the letters, and how they fit together, or how they are use to seeing them on the boxes.



Once, they are completely comfortable with the spelling of the words, we can scramble all the letters, and make the old words, and some new ones.


My plan is to leave the letters, and pictures on the table, so they can play, and explore words with them, throughout the day. Then gradually change, and add new words, as more boxes are emptied.

For more writing related games, and ideas, check out this week's Writer's World link up at Giggles and Crayons.



It's great to be a homeschooler.

11 comments:

Pebblekeeper ~ Angie said...

This is Fabulous!

Christy Killoran said...

I really like this idea!

April said...

Great "free" idea! I remember that I used to love finding little words out of big words or phrases :)

Thanks for linking up!

Ticia said...

That looks super fun!

phasejumper said...

fun activity!

Debbie said...

I like this idea.

Phyllis said...

I bet they will pay more attention when they are reading their cereal boxes in the morning from now on! :)

Sarah said...

Have you ever seen Big Words for Big Kids? It's a letters/word/vocab activity I did when I was teaching 4th grade. It was really great and I'm excited to use it with my kids when they're a little older (the oldest is 4 now). It's the same idea as what you have here. They get letters and have to make words as well as uncover the "big word" (aka the word using all of the letters..usually like 7ish letters)

It's a great activity!!! Love your idea of recognizing the words around you!

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Sarah - No, I haven't seen that, but I'll look into it. Thanks!

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

Cute idea! You clearly eat a lot of cereal in your house :)

Livin’ The Yeh Life’s said...

SO clever... you are amazing! I love it! Thank you. :)