4th Grade Spelling Practice Ideas

Your 4th grade spelling students have lots of words to learn. Their science and social studies textbooks are full of new words.  Their spoken vocabularies are still growing quickly as well. So how can you help your fourth graders learn to spell all these new words?

I wish I could give you a magic formula, but as you already probably know, it all comes back to practice, practice, practice! Here are some practice ideas your fourth graders might enjoy.

4th Grade Spelling Practice at School

1. Ask the question: "Which are the toughest words for you to spell from this week's spelling list? (or from this chapter in science, etc.?)"  Allow a bit of discussion. Then ask each child to write 5 of his toughest words on paper.

2. Next, arrange students in groups of 5 or 6 students. Each student  hands her paper to the person on her left. Then she writes her five words under the five words that are already written on the paper she's received. Students continue passing papers around the group until each person has written all five words on every paper in the group.

3. Finally, ask students to look at all the words written on her piece of paper. How many of them are the same? Were they the words you expected to see?

NEW!  Fourth Grade Spelling Words & Activities for in-school or at-home use! You'll find 180 grade-level words arranged in 12 high-interest topics, including insects, music, detectives, U.S. states, frequently misspelled words, travel and more. A wide variety of engaging activities plus lots of extension activities help to boost learning, too!

Spelling Practice at Home

1. Use the FRIDGE as a BRIDGE to Learning. Ask your child to share his weekly spelling list (or other word list) with you at the beginning of the week. Keep it on the fridge. In spare moments while preparing snacks, emptying the dishwasher, etc. ask him to spell a couple of words.

Make note of the hardest words and quiz him on those most often. Be sure he knows the meaning of the words and how to use them.

2. Dinner Delights?  As you're having mealtime discussions (or chats at any time during the day), challenge the family to use your child's weekly spelling words in his/her conversation. As you hear each other using the words, one family member calls out "STOP" and asks the person using the word to spell it correctly.

Example: The spelling word is POWERFUL.   Dad says, "The weatherman says there's a powerful thunderstorm headed this way tonight."  The student says "STOP!" and asks his dad to spell POWERFUL.  Even if the child is not spelling the word each time, s/he is hearing it, and checking the spelling. 

Trust me, every child loves to catch someone else making a mistake! This activity is especially good during a road trip. :)

More Helps for Fourth Grade Spelling

Word Lists:

Fourth grade spelling words - Our list of 300 words most fourth graders should know or learn this year.

4th grade spelling bee words - When you want some tougher words for spelling bees and other competitions, try this list of 75 challenge words.

4th Grade Vocabulary Words - 200 words to help teach your students math, science, social studies and more! You'll find ten words in each of ten categories to interest your kids/students, plus 100 more! From earthworms to equations, this list is packed with fascinating words to help expand your child's vocabulary!

Fourth Grade Worksheets

Compound Word Search - Students will put picture pairs together to form twenty compound words. For instance, a COW plus a BELL equals COWBELL. Some of the words aren't quite so obvious. Once students have formed all twenty compounds, they will need to locate each  word in the word search puzzle diagram. Double the puzzles, double the learning, double the fun!

Put Words In Alphabetical Order with this pair of engaging worksheets. The first list features 25 fun foods that must be alphabetized by their first and second letters. The second page requires students to look at the third and fourth letters in a list of five letter words that all begin with W. Challenging!

Fourth Grade Find-a-Word Puzzles  Twenty-four words from my list of fourth grade spelling words are hidden in this 4-shaped puzzle. I chose words with silent letters. The directions on the printable page direct students to check off words as they find them, and to underline the silent letters. Learning is combined with FUN, as usual. 

Scrambled Animals Crossword - Unscramble the names of 15 well-known animals and write them correctly into the puzzle. It's more fun than a barrel of monkeys!

Creative Writing Worksheets - These fun pages incorporate spelling practice with almost any spelling words. Kids will design T-shirts, invent a video game, and write some awesome movie titles. Try some today!

For more fun spelling practice, try our AnyWord Spelling Practice Series. In these three eBooks, you'll  find word play worksheets, writing prompts and partner games and activities that work with almost any list of spelling words!

More 4th grade worksheets - Fill-in crossword puzzles using fourth grade spelling words. Lots of fun!

Puzzle Partners - Classroom match-ups lead to meaningful, fun spelling practice!

Compound Confusions! - This woodpecker  introduces your students to a great compound word challenge!  Can you correctly combine all the compound parts?

It Pay$ to $pell - Combine math and spelling fun!

Wacky packages! - Find the spelling errors on these whimsical boxes.  One of our most popular pages!

Mystery In the Attic Spelling Worksheet:  Kids read a humorous story about a mysterious attic as they choose correctly/incorrectly spelled words.

Yum-Yum! A delicious word scramble, full of compound food words. You won't find any doughnuts or fruitcakes here, but you will find 15 other foods. 

Spelling Word Games

More Spelling Fun for Kids - New games to play on a Scrabble game board. Mumbo-Jumbo, anyone?

Free spelling activities for two players - "Shady Spelling"  Printable game boards for two players.

Spelling Bee Games - Try one of our new Silent Spelling Bee variations. A fun--and quiet--twist on  a classic game! 

Another Spelling Bee Game - Students step up to victory as they help their team advance in this fun new game.

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Ann Richmond Fisher is a longtime published educational writer, a former classroom teacher and a former homeschool teacher. Ann's spelling bee resources, graded spelling word lists, spelling games, worksheets, and other language arts resources have become respected around the globe since she launched Spelling-Words-Well in 2010.

Ann is also the creator of www.word-game-world.com.

Visit my YouTube Channel for fun spelling practice videos!

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AnyWord Spelling Practice Series   Fun Worksheets, games & prompts that work with almost ANY spelling words!

Gigantic Spelling Bee Word Lists with definitions, sentences and languages

Spelling Bee Toolboxes for Grades 3/5 and 6/8   All the resources you need for a successful bee! 

Monumental Spelling Bee Word Lists for grades 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8 with definitions, sentences and languages

Mammoth Spelling Bee Word Lists  for grades 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8  with sentences, definitions, and languages

Young Spellers Spelling Bee Word List for Grades 1 & 2 only 

100 Difficult Spelling Bee Words with Definitions, Sentences and Pronunciations, Volumes 1 and 2

600 Spelling Bee Words & Sentences for Gr 3/5 & 6/8 Extra words & sentences at two levels

101 Word Play Puzzlers   Discover the FUN of letters & words as you solve each unique puzzle. Great vocabulary & spelling practice!