Sparkle-a spelling game

There are moments in the classroom of unexpected down time; an assembly is late, a guest speaker doesn’t show or recess is canceled. Other times, a teacher wants to give the students a reward for good behavior in the form of a game. One of my favorite activities for these moments is SPARKLE. When I first heard about it from my students, I thought they had made it up, but apparently it’s something that many classrooms play.

This is the way we play:

– Have all students sit on their desks.

-Using your spelling list, pick a word and ask a student to start spelling it

-Each student (in order) gives a letter of the word. If he or she picks a wrong letter, they have to sit back down in their chair.

-The word CANNOT be repeated by the teacher nor can any of the letters that the kids say-this guarantees that the students will pay attention even when it is not their turn!!

-after the last letter of the word is given, the next person says SPARKLE-again they can’t be prompted, they have to know that it is the end!!

-They can either Sparkle Up (which means they can pick anyone in the room who is in their chair to sit back on their desk) or Sparkle Down (both people on either side of them have to sit down in their chairs)

-Who ever is left sitting on their desk at the end is the winner!!

My kids would beg and beg to play it!! A great review game right before the Spelling Test as well!

Here’s another version of the same game.

Leif Erikson Day is celebrated on Oct. 9, and it’s a great time to learn more about the Vikings and why we still remember Erikson all these years later.

If you don’t know about Leif Erikson (sometimes spelled Eriksson), he’s believed to have been born in Iceland, and is considered the first European to set foot on continental America, more than 500 years before Christopher Columbus.

123 Homeschool 4 Me has a printable mini book about Leif Erikson and the Vikings for kids to read and color. It talks about who the Vikings were, what kind of ships they used, how they got to America and more. It’s a good overview for younger kids to use.

A good unit study is available from Simple Living Creative Learning, which includes a page where kids can write what they know, what they want to learn and what they learned through the unit, as well as information on the Vikings, longships, helmets, clothing and more.

Get a printable Viking unit study with reading passages, comprehension questions and other activities aimed at grades 4-8 from Creative Classroom Core at Teachers Pay Teachers. (And see more Vikings content from TPT here.)

Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus has some great unit study ideas, too, including suggested books and videos. The post includes information about the Viking voyages, society, mythology and ships, as well as some vocabulary and a list of famous Vikings. While you’re over there also check out her free printable lapbook, which includes mini books on ships, a timeline, a Viking women coloring page, draw your own Vikings, geography, ancient runes and more.

Piqolo Kids has a lesson on Viking women with (available for purchase) worksheets about a day in the life of Viking women. Even if you don’t grab the printables there’s some good resources on that page and a link to a video on Viking women.

Learn how to draw a Viking ship with instructions from Drawing How to Draw, or grab Vikings coloring and labeling worksheets from Kids Puzzles and Games.

There’s a Leif Erikson Festival annually in Norway, Michigan, which you can learn more about here.

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