Advanced Search: Need a little help? Find it here
Organizations: Competitions

The Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee

This spelling bee is the nation's largest and longest-running educational promotion, administered on a not-for-profit basis by The E.W. Scripps Company and 238 sponsors in the United States, Europe, Guam, Mexico, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, The Bahamas, and American Samoa.

Printed Materials: Books

All About Spelling

All About Spelling is a series of seven books matching seven levels of learning. The lessons are multisensory involving sight, sound, and touch. Spelling concepts are taught in a logical, understandable order. Each lesson builds upon the previous lesson, and are mastery-based, not grade-level based, so when students master a specific concept, they move on.

Building Thinking Skills Book 1: Critical Thinking Skills for Reading, Writing, Math, and Science

This workbook contains activities in verbal and figural similarities, and differences, sequences, classifications, and analogies. Skills addressed include reading comprehension; describing shapes, things, and words; following directions; antonyms and synonyms; several types of analogy; deductive reasoning; parts of a whole; mapping and directionality; logical connectives; spelling and vocabulary; overlapping classes; pattern folding; tracking, rotation, and reflection; mental manipulation of two-dimensional objects.

Spelling Power, 4th Edition

The latest edition of this award-winning spelling program includes a digital tutor, new DVD seminar and a number of other updates to accomplish it's goal - to teach solid, basic spelling skills. Geared toward homeschoolers, Spelling Power can be beneficial for gifted students because it allows them to work at their own pace and accelerate through curriculum when needed.

The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way

This book mines the rich ore of English. It covers the history of English, origins of rules of grammar, and vagaries of the language. There are chapters on spelling and Americanisms, wordplay, pronunciation, word origins, names, usage and dialects.

Word Roots

Word Roots are workbooks for ages 8-11 or ages 12 to adult. By teaching kids to recognize the prefixes, roots, and suffixes that can reveal a word's meaning, you'll help your students expand their vocabulary, as well as their comprehension and spelling skills. Wonderful for warm-ups or word-of-the-day exercises, each activity introduces Greek or Latin roots, then builds understanding with their English counterparts.

Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction

This is a comprehensive curriculum guide for developmental word study. This phenomenon in word study has always been extremely popular for its developmental approach and hands-on methods for teaching children phonics, vocabulary, and spelling skills. The revision offers a new laser sharp focus on assessment, organization for word study, research, and teacher-friendly word sorts and games.

Websites & Other Media: Commercial

Cool School with Ms. Maria

This mixed-media program is a fun, educational, entertaining upbeat music CD and video series for kids ages 3-8. These CDs and videos feature Spanish songs, counting songs, spelling songs, songs about manners, and a poetic story. They also feature everyday children from local communities interacting and learning with Ms. Maria. COOL SCHOOL WITH MS. MARIA is a program that offers children an opportunity to learn while providing entertainment to captivate their attention. It’s a fun, musical, educational tool for parents and teachers.

eSpindle

This website is an excellent resource for students seeking to improve their spelling skills. Some features of eSpindle include personalized quiz sessions, catered to each student's skill level, and a database of over 100,000 words. The fee is $79.80 for an annual self-renewing membership, $99.80 for an annual non-renewing membership and $599 for a lifelong membership; a free 10-day trial period is also offered.

VerbalAdvantage (Student Edition)

The Verbal Advantage Student Edition was specifically developed to help junior high and high school students and is also great for adults who are well on their way to learning English as a second language. There are 16 lessons, two per audio unit, which introduce new vocabulary words using fun, dramatized stories, typical English paragraphs, and unique "top twenty" word categories.

Verbocity

This program promises to increase one's vocabulary by 15 minutes per day. There is a one-week free trial; the continuing program is $10 per month.

Websites & Other Media: Informational

Word Finding Difficulties

This site provides information about Word Finding for professionals, parents, and learners with word finding difficulties. Topics include definition, characteristics, assessment, intervention, and available course work.

Websites & Other Media: Learning Tools

I Love Spelling!

This CD-Rom has a lot of fun games that can teach you to spell more than 5,000 words.

Reader Rabbit Kindergarten Series

The Reader Rabbit Kindergarten Series is a group of interactive computer adventures in which the child is tasked with accomplishing a "big-picture" effort (rebuilding a carnival, cleaning up a park, etc.) by performing a series of educational tasks such as spelling, math, and sorting. The software is designed to advance your child when they master a task, but also properly review areas where more work is needed. It makes learning fun through humorous but challenging exercises.

SpellingCity.com

SpellingCity is an online spelling program that makes practicing for spelling tests fun.

Zaner-Bloser - Educational Programs and Services

Zaner-Bloser is one of the premier publishers of research-based reading, writing, spelling, handwriting and vocabulary programs, all represented on this website through online programs segmented into different grade and ability levels. The company also publishes award-winning programs including Strategies for Writers and Read for Real, Nonfiction Strategies for Reading Results. Zaner-Bloser's mission is to make a significant contribution to the education of children in Pre-Kindergarten through eighth grade by publishing materials of the highest quality. Its handwriting program has been a national institution for several generations.