Spelling Slap Jack

Materials:

• Spelling word index cards 

Last night I was trying to figure out my materials and lesson plan instructions. I did the lava experiment to make sure it works, gathered up all the ingredients, and started making a rough "script" for the lesson. Then I started to get stressed out. Even though I have 6 main activities (with activities within activities) I realized that if one thing goes wrong, we would have plenty of extra time at the end of the session. Finally, I just gave up and went to bed. I thought that maybe I'd ask my supervisor for another idea on Monday.

Thankfully, plop, an idea came to me as I was waking up this morning--Slap Jack Spelling! Specifically, long vowel pattern (with silent -e) slap jack. I can't take full credit for it because I remember watching another clinician with a similar idea last year.

Okay so here is the idea of the game:

• I will make 10 index cards with random grade appropriate spelling words
• I'll also make 10 index cards with long vowel pattern spelling words
• Mix them together
• After shuffling the cards, the student gets ten and I get ten
• We will both lay down one card each 
• If someone lays down a long vowel pattern card, we race to slap it first
• The person who slaps it first gets the whole pile of cards (the person also needs to read the word out loud as they slap it) 
• Whoever has all the cards at the end wins

Since I will still be trying to probe for what the child already knows, I will use this game to assess the child's identification of a specific type of long vowel pattern. For instance, I can choose 10 words that have a long u and a silent -e (cute, use, huge, etc.). That way, if the child identifies 8/10 long u words, I know that he/she has a pretty good understanding of the spelling pattern and so I don't need to reteach the concept later. I'm just excited that I figured out a way to test spelling without having to give a written spelling test, so much more fun!

This game can also be used for:

• Recognizing sight words
• A quick way to assess understanding at the end of a brand new spelling instruction (did the lesson actually work?)
• It would also be easy to use this in a large classroom setting: children can pair up and play the game to practice specific word work 
• A way to go over reading comprehension after reading a book 
• If the book was about pirates, mix pirate-themed cards in throughout the deck
• The student needs to recognize the pirate card, slap it, then tell a detail he/she remembers from the book