Spelling Games That Make Learning Fun

Learning to spell doesn’t have to mean long lists and boring drills. In fact, some of the best spelling practice happens when kids are having so much fun they forget they’re even learning. Whether you’re a parent supporting your child at home or a teacher looking for fresh ideas, here are some creative ways to make spelling fun.

1. Use RocketSpelling.com for Game-Based Learning

If you’re looking for an interactive, self-paced, and research-backed way to make spelling fun, RocketSpelling.com is the place to start. Kids work through over 1,200 words across 120 levels, unlocking avatar items, earning points and badges, and mastering spelling patterns through interactive game play.

The site is packed with features that make spelling click: - Engaging visuals and audio reinforce correct spelling. - Instant feedback helps students learn from their mistakes. - Built-in review cycles ensure that learning sticks.

Silent letters can be puzzling for young spellers. These are letters that appear in the spelling of a word but aren't pronounced when speaking. Understanding these can boost spelling confidence and accuracy.

🤫 Common Silent Letter Patterns

1. Silent 'k' in 'kn' Words

When 'k' precedes 'n' at the beginning of a word, the 'k' is silent.

• Examples: know, knife, knock

These words are featured in Rocket Spelling's Level 6.5, helping students recognize and practice this pattern.

2. Silent 'w' in 'wr' Words

In words starting with 'wr', the 'w' is silent, and only the 'r' sound is heard.

• Examples: write, wrong, wrestle

These are also part of Level 6.5, reinforcing the silent 'w' concept.

One of the first big leaps young spellers take is learning how to turn a singular word into a plural. While some plural spelling rules are straightforward, others can leave kids (and adults!) scratching their heads.

In this post, we’ll break down simple plural spelling rules, share common exceptions, and offer kid-friendly tips for practice—perfect for parents at home or teachers in the classroom.

Here at Rocket Spelling, we believe in the power of differentiated spelling instruction and practice. Students enter our classrooms each fall with widely varying levels of phonemic awareness and spelling prowess. We believe that teachers' spelling instruction and the students' spelling practice should both be differentiated to meet their individual needs. But managing and documenting all of that can be time-consuming if not downright impossible.

That's where we come in. With 1,200 high-frequency words sorted by pattern, Rocket Spelling is designed to provide students with independent spelling practice that they can move through at their own pace, freeing the teacher up to provide small-group instruction to students as needed.

Our final planet begins with four levels focusing on prefixes. Level 11-1 consists of words with the prefix re-, un-, or pre-: return, preview, undo, unlock, preschool, unhappy, rewind, unplug, preheat, and restart. Level 11-2 contains words with the prefix in-, im-, il-, or ir-: impossible, irregular, illegal, invisible, immature, imperfect, incapable, improper, illiterate, and impatient.

Levels 10-3 through 10-6 contain 30 high-frequency contractions. The words in level 10-3 are don't, didn't, can't, won't, wasn't, isn't, wouldn't, doesn't, shouldn't, and aren't. Eight of these 10 words simply replace the 'o' in 'not' with an apostrophe. The word 'can't' is an exception, as it also drops an 'n'. The word 'won't' is the real oddball in this set. You might point out to your students how it would seem like this word would be 'willn't' instead!

Levels 9-3 and 9-4 deal with verbs ending with -ing and -ed, some of which double their final consonant before the -ing or -ed ending. The words in level 9-3 are swimming, running, winning, throwing, washing, mailing, kicking, listening, hopping, and sitting. The words in level 9-4 are mixed, covered, enjoyed, compared, planned, tapped, dropped, tagged, stopped, and tipped. The general pattern here is that verbs which end with a short vowel + a single consonant will tend to have that final consonant be doubled when an -ing or -ed ending is added to the word.

Planet 9 focuses on verbs. Level 9-1 begins with present tense verbs that are also high-frequency words (touch, leave, represent, describe, pull, laugh, suggest, decide, climb, and finish). Level 9-2 moves to verbs that end with a silent e which drops when an -ing ending is added. The words in this level are dancing, driving, making, loving, caring, hoping, riding, smiling, saving, and serving.

Levels 8-5 through 8-8 focus on homophones.

These levels, ideally, would be a resource for teachers to use alongside some instruction about homophones. Although the fact that we always put words in context with a sentence to support their meaning is especially helpful when it comes to homophones, we still encourage additional vocabulary work on these tricky words. An art project like the one shown below, where each student illustrates one homophone pair, would work beautifully alongside these Rocket Spelling levels!

Levels 8-1 through 8-3 all focus on plural nouns. Level 8-1 focuses on words that either add -s or -es to the end when they become plural. Level 8-2 focuses on two types of plural patterns: y --> ies and f --> ves. Level 8-3 focuses on irregular plurals. Finally, level 8-4 reviews all of these types of plural nouns.