Spelling Practice Ideas

I was recently talking to Sharon, Will's mom, about her tutoring efforts, and I was sharing some ideas about fun ways to study spelling. I'll pass along a few here in case some of these ideas might be useful to someone else. Most of them involve using large muscle groups or manipulatives and some sound downright silly. But don't knock 'em til you've tried 'em. Some of them work when nothing else seems to, and besides they're more fun than the standard "you say them, they write them" method.
#1 Make a fun writing table. Fill a cookie sheet with sand,flour, shaving cream, or anything else you can use your finger to write in. The kids use their fingers to spell the words, then erase them and spell the next.
#2 Write it in the air. Point your finger out with arm fully extended and write the words in the air, then turn and write them in the other direction. Use the other arm, and try it with eyes closed.
#3 Sing it. Make up any song, to any tune, that uses the letters. BINGO is a great tune to use for 5 letter words. Or do the hokey pokey- put the "C" in, put the c out.... It takes a while, but it's fun and it works.
#4 Say it, whisper it, scream it. It's amazing what changing the volume accomplishes, and it's exciting for kids to have permission to yell inside, they're getting away with something.
#5 Spell with your whole body. This is usually better with 2-3 kids. Lay in the floor in the shapes of the letters, some letters need 2 -3 people to work well.
#6 Write the word in glue or pen, then let them lay beans or something over the top and cover it up. This can be time consuming.
#7 Use tiles, cards, magnetic letters, or other manipulatives. I don't like this one as much, but you can't always be big and exciting.
#8 Relax and think of ways to make it fun and not tedious. The world won't end if everyone isn't a perfect speller. Spelling makes it easier to communicate and get good grades, but it doesn't make you a wonderful caring person, so it isn't worth making any child feel small over.