Word Challenge Activity
This activity was created as a quick transition game for teachers to use in class. You can simply display one of the slides to the class and set a timer to give your students a finite amount of time to complete the activity.
They need to use the letters presented to create the longest word possible. You could even challenge students to use the word in a sentence, which gives you the opportunity to assess understanding, particularly if they’ve used a homophone.
For younger students, you might want to stretch it out to 3 minutes whereas older students might have only 1 or 2 minutes to complete the challenge.
This activity is fantastic for online learning or remote learning as well. It’s perfect for all classroom teachers, including casual relief and specialist teachers.
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Learning goals
- We are learning to use most letter-sound matches including vowel diagraphs, less common long vowel patterns, e.g. ight, consonant clusters and silent letters, e.g. knife, thumb, when reading and writing words of one or more syllables.
- We are learning to use digraphs, long vowels, blends and silent letters to spell one and two syllable words, including some compound 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-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 patterns, spelling generalisations, morphemic word families, prefixes, suffixes and word origins to spell more complex words.
Curriculum alignment
AC9E3LY11
9
Use phoneme–grapheme (sound–letter) relationships and less common letter patterns to spell words
AC9E4LY10
9
Understand how to use knowledge of letter patterns, including double letters, spelling generalisations, morphological word families, common prefixes and suffixes, and word origins, to spell more complex words
AC9E2LY10
9
Use phoneme–grapheme (sound–letter/s) matches, including vowel digraphs, less common long vowel patterns, consonant clusters and silent letters when reading and writing words of one or more syllables, including compound words
ACELA1471
8.4
Understand how to use knowledge of digraphs, long vowels, blends and silent letters to spell one and two syllable words including some compound words
ACELA1485
8.4
Understand how to use letter-sound relationships and less common letter patterns to spell words
ACELA1779
8.4
Understand how to use knowledge of letter patterns including double letters, spelling generalisations, morphemic word families, common prefixes and suffixes and word origins to spell more complex words
EN1-5A
old
Uses a variety of strategies, including knowledge of sight words and letter–sound correspondences, to spell familiar words
EN2-5A
old
Uses a range of strategies, including knowledge of letter– sound correspondences and common letter patterns, to spell familiar and some unfamiliar words
EN1-PHOKW-01
new
Uses initial and extended phonics, including vowel digraphs, trigraphs to decode and encode words when reading and creating texts
EN2-SPELL-01
new
Selects, applies and describes appropriate phonological, orthographic and morphological generalisations and strategies when spelling in a range of contexts
EN2-RECOM-01
new
Reads and comprehends texts for wide purposes using knowledge of text structures and language, and by monitoring comprehension
EN2-REFLU-01
new
Sustains independent reading with accuracy, automaticity, rate and prosody suited to purpose, audience and meaning
EN2-VOCAB-01
new
Builds knowledge and use of Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary through interacting, wide reading and writing, and by defining and analysing words
EN1-SPELL-01
new
Applies phonological, orthographic and morphological generalisations and strategies when spelling words in a range of writing contexts
VCELA239
Identify all Standard Australian English phonemes, including short and long vowels, separate sounds in clusters
VCELA263
Understand how to use letter–sound relationships and less common letter combinations to spell words
VCELA249
Understand how to apply knowledge of letter–sound relationships, and blending and segmenting to read and use more complex words with less common consonant and vowel clusters
VCELA295
Understand how to use spelling patterns and generalisations including syllabification, letter combinations including double letters, and morphemic knowledge to build word families
VCELA226
Understand how to use digraphs, long vowels, blends, silent letters and syllabification to spell simple words including compound words
VCELA218
Recognise most letter–sound matches including silent letters, trigraphs, vowel digraphs and common long vowels, and understand that a sound can be represented by various letter combinations
Australian Curriculum covers QLD / SA / WA / NT / TAS / ACT.
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