Activities for the Book: The Spelling Bee Before Recess
The Spelling Bee Before Recess by Deborah Lee Rose gets children excited about spelling! The little boy refers to his experience with the game of baseball as he is “up to bat” at the spelling bee. The main character doesn’t actually win but learns a great life lesson about words and the importance of reading. Here is a link to the book on Amazon if you missed this BookRoo Box. If you haven’t heard of BookRoo check out my REVIEW and use CREATINGHH for a 15% off discount <3
The ages of children who enjoy these Picture Book BookRoo Boxes range from anywhere age two and just talking to children in Kindergarten and older. So In light of that I have tried to gather activities that range form letter recognition to spelling sight words to get our little ones excited about letters and reading! Look through the activities and decide which would be the best fit for your emerging reader. You can also adjust the activities to make them appropriate for your child’s reading level.
Principal Wordsworth’s List
At the very end of the book there is a page for Spelling Words: Principal Wordsworth’s List and More Words from the story. Read the list through with your child defining any words that they do not know. Have your child choose 3-5+ words off the list. Depending on the child ability choose which activity below to do:
Help your child learn how to spell the words they have chose. Have them practice for their “spelling bee” by writing the words down, learning a definition, how to use it in a sentence, etc..
When they are ready hold your pretend spelling bee. Have a pretend microphone that they can use and award them with a ribbon or sticker when they are able to spell them all correctly. Talk about how fun it is to know how to spell tricky words. Point out that they could do it! They can learn to spell anything!
Use the words they have chosen to make up a silly story. You can expound on this by having them draw a picture of their story and labeling the picture with the words they chose. This will help them remember the words meaning by labeling the picture and give them practice writing. If your child is too young to write just take their hand and help them trace out the letters. Make sure to praise any efforts made!
Magnet Letter Play
Bust out the magnetic letters, slap them on the fridge and let them explore!
- You can spell out some of the words from the story and see if they can find the letters to make the words.
- Call out a letter and see if they can find it. upper/lowercase
- Ask them to sound out simple words, cat, bat, hat, fat, map, nap, pop, top, dog, dig, etc.. help by modeling each sound, C-A-T, say which letter makes the C sound? Continue on through the word. Make a HUGE DEAL of it when they have spelled out the word!
If you are in need of Magnetic Letters these are wonderful! LINK HERE TO AMAZON
Paper Towel Tube Letter Recognition
-Clean Paper Towel Tube
Write letters randomly around the paper towel, write corresponding letters on your labeling stickers. Have your child match the letters on the stickers to those on the paper towel. They will LOVE it! Stickers are always a win!
Sensory Letter Writing or Spelling
Engaging your child’s senses will help them learn and retain information so much better! So roll up your sleeves and get ready for a hands on learning experience!
There are SOOO many materials you can use to create that sensory experience! I will list a few from least messy to pretty messy and you can decide what you are willing to tackle! Once you have chosen a material put it into/onto a cookie sheet and have them make the letter(s) out of it or draw them with their finger through it. Depending on their ability you can have them draw one letter over and over or give them words to spell. One way to help them be successful is to write the letter or words on a piece of paper so they can see how to do it and have an example.
Ideas of Materials:
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