A couple of years ago, I was given a one-year subscription to Vocabulary Spelling City as a perk for a volunteer job with another online curriculum company. I went ahead and registered, bookmarked it, took a quick look-see, but never really did anything with it. Boy, did I miss out.
A few weeks ago, I was given another one-year Premium subscription in exchange for a review with the Schoolhouse Review Crew. The timing was perfect with the start of our new school year and I had just put together Ben’s first vocabulary list based on our study of the Civil War. I remembered that Spelling City allowed the option to enter in your own words for spelling practice, so I began with that option and began to check it out more indepth. I quickly discovered it offered so much more than I remembered!
With this online service, you do have the option of entering your own words and context sentences, or you can let the program generate a spelling and vocabulary list for you, according to grade level or subject matter. We practiced with the spelling of all the U.S. states! Either way, once you’ve got your list, there are 5 basic options for what to do with said list: “teach me,” “spelling test,” “vocabulary test,” “flash cards,” ” or “play a game.”
With the “teach me” choice, the computer will pronounce and spell each word aloud, and state a context sentence (one generated by the program, or the one you typed in yourself). With the “play a game” choice, there are several engaging games your student can play, including a type of “hang man,” a word search, crossword puzzles, spelling while racing against the clock, and a few others. There’s also quite a choice of printable worksheet options, including word scrambles, alphabetizing exercises, and sentence and paragraph writing. With the “test ” options, the program actually gives your student his spelling or vocabulary test. Ben really loved this aspect because he gets to type in his words, rather than writing them (boys!). Some of the program is available for free, but should you purchase the “premium” program, it will also grade your tests and keep a grade book online for you.
There is also a Teacher Resource page I found extremely useful. On this page are Language Arts Lessons (with video instruction, enrichment strategies, sample word lists and featured games for topics such as analogies, compound words, contractions, parts of speech and verb tenses. On this page, you’ll also find Useful Word Lists — Dolch sight words, Geography Lists (this is where we grabbed the list of States), Sample Word Lists by Grade and Subject, Science and Social Studies Word Lists, and Word Families. If you happen to use Sequential Spelling, the word lists for that program are there as well as helpful articles and other tips and strategies for teaching spelling.
Ben will continue using Spelling City to reinforce his spelling/vocabulary words. He asks to spend time there quite frequently, and his retention for the words is high. It’s amazing how much is offered for free. You will for sure want to go register for an account and check it out.
If you want access to everything, the cost for Vocabulary Spelling City’s premium membership is $29.99 per year per family up to 5 students. You can use this program for all of your students, grades K-12. If you have more than 5 students in your family, or wish to use Spelling City for a classroom or co-op, the annual cost is $49.99 for up to 25 students. They also have a FREE app for iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch, making it easy to take your spelling/vocabulary words with you!
Thank you to Vocabulary Spelling City for the chance to use (and review) your program. I won’t be crazy enough to waste this opportunity twice.
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Disclaimer: As a member of
the TOS Crew, I received this
product, at no cost to me,
in exchange for my honest
review. All opinions are those
of myself and/or my son.
