Running a Spelling Bee Club
A great way to help students study for the spelling bee is by creating a spelling bee club or integrate club activities into one's current English curriculum. The goals of these clubs are to prepare students for the competition, to increase students’ English usage, and to engage students in interactive learning activities.
How to Run a Spelling Bee Club
1. Find a time and place to hold your spelling bee club. How often your club meets depends on your schedule, available spaces, and your students’ needs and interests.
2. Announce your club to students. Encourage any student who wants to compete in the local spelling bee to attend the club.
3. Record the names and grades of students who attend each club meeting.
4. Make sure that all of your students have the grade-appropriate word list and the word list of one grade above their current grade level. These lists can be found here.
5. Each time the club meets, engage students in one or more spelling activities. Club activities should
be interactive, rather than focusing on memorization of the words.
Ideas for Club Activities
These ideas can be easily integrated into one's current English curriculum as an interactive way to learn English.
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Board Races: Divide the students into 2 or 3 teams. Read a spelling word. One student from each team walks to the board and spells the word. Students who spell the word correctly gain a point for their team.
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Hangman: Select a word from the Word List. On the board, markout spaces for each letter of the spelling word. Students should guess letters to fill in each space. For each incorrect guess, draw a body part of a stick figure. If students complete the word before a full body is drawn, then they win. How to play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGOeiQfjYPk
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Missing Letter: Write a spelling word on the board or a worksheet but leave a blank space for missing letters. Students write the missing letters in the blank space. Make the activity more challenging by leaving multiple blank spaces for missing letters. Example
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Word Unscramble: Write the letters of a spelling word in the incorrect order. Students must unscramble the letters to spell the word correctly. Example
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Practice Tests: Read 10 words for students to spell on paper without erasing or crossing out letters.Have students keep track of how many words they are spelling correctly.
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Crossword Puzzles: Create a crossword puzzle for students to complete.The clues for each word would be the translation in Albanian/Macedonian/Turkish.
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Wordsearch Puzzles: Create a wordsearch and have students find the words within the puzzle.
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Online Games: If computers are available, students can choose from a variety of spelling games at SpellingCity.com
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Practice Spelling Bee: Practice an actual spelling bee competition. Conduct your own spelling bee following the format and guidelines on this website for the Local or Regional bee.
*Please adapt these activities to meet the needs of your students and your available resources. Many of these activities can be adapted for teams, for pairs, or for individual work and can be completed with only a chalkboard, notebook paper, or a worksheet.
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