Word Building Spelling Game for Years 3 and 4: Letters Round
This word building spelling game for Year 3 and Year 4 is Word Builder, a Letters Round interactive whiteboard game by Teach This aligned to the Australian Curriculum. Students use sound and letter relationships and letter patterns to spell words. The game has three rounds, and each round shows 8 letters for 90 seconds on a timer that moves on by itself. Students write as many words as they can, then circle their longest word. The answer slides reveal the 8-letter words monsters, treasure and lemonade, with shorter words sorted by length. Three rounds take 12 to 15 minutes.
It opens in Microsoft PowerPoint on any interactive whiteboard, panel or projector, with no macros, no student logins and no student data collected. Students need only paper and a pencil or a mini whiteboard. Run one round as a literacy warm-up and keep the other two for later in the week.
Learning goals
- We are learning to understand how to use letter-sound relationships and less common letter patterns to spell words.
- We are learning to understand how to use letter patterns, spelling generalisations, morphological word families, affixes and word origins to spell more complex words.
- We are learning to understand how to use letter-sound relationships and less common letter patterns to spell words.
- We are learning to understand how to use letter patterns, spelling generalisations, morphemic word families, prefixes, suffixes and word origins to spell more complex words.
Curriculum alignment
Australian Curriculum covers QLD / SA / WA / NT / TAS / ACT.
Differentiation
Modifications
Write the 8 letters on cards so students can move them around on their desk. Ask students to aim for three-letter and four-letter words before looking for longer words.
Extensions
Ask students to sort their words by spelling pattern or by number of syllables. Challenge them to find real words that are not on the answer list and check them in a dictionary.