Seton's Third Grade Spelling, Hands on Style

Every family has one. You know? That child that isn't auditory, the child that isn't visual. They are the kinesthetic learner.  The hands on learner. The one thing I've found after twelve years of homeschooling and having four daughters is they all learn differently. They don't always learn in the way I wish they could. You know? My way. 

So when we got our Seton spelling book I found my youngest was having a very hard time with the third day activity when they had to put their words in ABC order.  I would write them down. we would talk about where to put what, but she just wasn't getting it. At all. 

So, in came index cards. Now before you say " Yawn, bore." They really do have their place in helping to teach spelling. 

The first thing I did was write all of her spelling words on the index cards. Thankfully these are so inexpensive.  I wrote them all down and then sat them all down , not it order of course.  We were able to sit on the floor ( you can sit where you are comfortable ) and we start going through the alphabet. We would start with A and work our way through. If she had words that started with A she would pull them out of the pile and we would figure which one would go first and she would add  them back into the pile, at the top and we would just shift the other cards over as we put them in order. This very act has really help solidify the concept and she no longer gets frustrated with it anymore. 

Maggie putting her cards in order

After we are finished putting them in order Maggie records them in her workbook. This has solved our issue of having to flip pages back and forth to see words.  No fuss , no muss. 

                                               Maggie writing her words in ABC order 

The next activity that has helped in learning to spell her words is Go Fishing.  Yes, we go fishing for our spelling words and spell them. This game is as easy as putting those index cards you wrote for the ABC Activity ( so keep those cards , don't throw them out! )  on the floor and using a 'fishing rod' which can consist of a wooden spoon, yarn at the end of it, and a magnet. Or  we used a play fishing rod that went to a game Maggie had gotten a long time ago for one of her birthdays.  Oh, yes, be sure to put paper clips on your 'fish' (index cards) so that they can catch them.  The rules of the game?  Catch the 'fish' (index card) with the rod, hand it over to the  parent or person they are playing with , and spell the word correctly. Spell it right, keep your 'fish' , spell it wrong and it goes back into the ' pond' (floor). They have to catch a different fish the next turn around if they miss it.  My daughter will usually play this game at least twice before she's done.  This is called sneaking in practice without them knowing it. 

                                                          Maggie 'catching her fish' 

The third activity that we do  is really fun too( remember keep those index cards you wrote up on the third day) . I had been Googling on the computer to find file folder games. When all else has usually failed I've found that file folder games usually save the day. So when I did. I found a really good website that had several file folder game boards you could print out for spelling from The Measured Mom  .We chose The Great Pumpkin Challenge to go along with our theme of November to use and my girls love using this file folder game to play.  They roll the dice, move their piece and spell the words. Can't get any easier than that. 

You can have your student spell them out loud

                                                  Or write the words on paper

                                                    The Great Pumpkin Challenge Game

                                                      Hey, one is fun, but two's a game! 

My last plan on action has been Colorful Words . This isn't so much as a game but just a hands on activity. It's almost like magic for words.  When we finally do Day 4, which is a pretest in the book , I have my daughter take her pretest and whatever words she missed we write them in colors. That's right. We have fun writing them in crayons. Each letter with a different color. I know when we did this particular lesson she had a very hard time remembering how to spell the word Catholic. By the time we were done doing this , she could easily spell the word with no problem. See?  Like Magic. 

 For younger children I write down the words , each in different colors. This was the first time my daughter did it so she just wrote them all in the same color the first time around. No big deal, it worked just fine.  Older children can do this activity on their own with minimal ( if they've never done it before) to no help at all. 

                                Amazingly enough she still remembers how to spell Catholic, 

So there you go. If you find that " just doing the workbook" isn't cutting it enough for your elementary aged hands on  child. These activities really have been helpful to use in getting them to remember how to spell their words.    Anyone out there with any more ideas? What has helped you with your hands on child with spelling?