Spelling with popsicle sticks (or tongue depressors)

I like to keep changing up the games that the kids play, so they don't get bored with any one particular game. Using tongue depressors with letters on them gives the kids a challenge to spell some of the words on their "word list," words they are learning how to say correctly. Sometimes I set my timer on my phone for 5 minutes to see how many words they can spell in that amount of time, or I'll set the stopwatch to see how long it takes them to spell a predetermined number of words that I've picked out. 

For example, Elliot is learning to spell "no," "it," "big," and "at."

Elsie's words are "there," "who," clip," "end," "saw," etc. 

And then there's Robert. He is ten years old and I need to give him 9th grade words for his lists. 

Right now he's learning how to spell "inhibit," "nemesis," and "rhapsody." I also treat them as vocabulary words so he knows what each word means. Sometimes we play "matching" with squares of construction paper, some with words on them, others with definitions on them. The way to win is to match the word with its definition. 

But the tongue depressors do come in handy, and the kids seem to enjoy the challenge of having to use them to spell words from their word list. They'd just rather not be timed on it. ☺