Adventures in a Messy Life

Hands on learning for active learners

homemade tools: spelling board

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We use All About Spelling and it has 100 or so spelling tiles.  They encourage you to get a magnetic board that is about 2 foot by 3 foot for this.  The problem is I have problems knocking the magnets off and losing them.  Enter my solution, a homemade spelling board.
mow to make a spelling board for All About Spelling

Supplies needed for a spelling board

laminated file folder (for durability), All About Spelling letter tiles , velcro (bought at Feiner supply [thanks to Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations for giving me the heads up of where to buy]), scissors

Edited to add: consider using a legal size folder for extra space

how to make a letters board for All About Reading

How to make a spelling board

This is fairly self explanatory, but I figure I’d give you the tips I learned in making three spelling boards.

1.  Measure out the space between velcro strips and figure out the right distance.  I figured out it was roughly an inch space.

2.  I figured out it worked best for me not to have all of the multiple letters out at this time.  There might come a day someday when the kids need them, but right now there are no double letters out, and only the 3 digraphs we’ve started on.

Edited to add: they need both sets of letters about halfway through Level 2.

3.  I used rubber cement to put on the labels for the different phonemic segments consonant blends, vowel teams, etc).  I had originally used packing tape, but that makes it harder to pull up if I need to rearrange, which I’ve already had to do once.

4.  Figure out roughly how much space you need for each section before gluing down any labels (see above comment on the packing tape).  I figured out the primary alphabet needs 3 rows with some extra space left over.  The vowel teams needs about 2 rows, and the consonant blends needs a row (maybe 2, wasn’t real sure yet), and the other two categories can pretty much split a row).

Edited to add: Once you add in the second alphabet set the alphabet takes up about 6 rows, for now half of the alphabet is on the top and the other half is on the bottom.

5.  I’ve got the extra letters and such in ziploc bags right now and squirrelled away, hopefully somewhere I can find them again.

I got this idea from something I saw on pinterest, but I just spent 20 minutes scouring my boards and can’t find the original post.  If you pinned this idea or have seen it, could you let me know the source so I can credit it.  Also, they had a printable to some plain alphabet tiles if you don’t want to buy the AAS ones (though the AAS tiles are much more durable).

 

Other posts about All About Reading and All About Spelling that use the spelling board

Organizing All About Reading

Teaching Reading to Multiple Kids

Comments

  1. MamaTea says

    Good idea!

    I've not been to pinterest before but I'm thinking I should get there because it seems as though everyone is posting things “I got this idea from pinterest…”

    Reply

  5. Rebekah says

    Great idea!

    Do you also use the “All About Reading” program? I haven't bought a reading program for my daughter because I haven't liked how they don't incorporate all the different skills that go into reading, but this seems like a more holistic approach. Does it incorporate sight words into it?

    Reply

  6. Ticia says

    I don't yet because currently they only have the pre-reading one, but I'm eagerly looking forward to other levels coming out because it seems to fit my kids learning styles, very hands on and lots of doing/moving not so much with the workbooks.

    The spelling doesn't incorporate sight words, and as we've been doing their spelling I've noticed how most sight words fit one of the rules of spelling, but it's usually a rule taught later on (say 2nd or 3rd grade).

    Reply

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