I remember playing ‘the floor is lava’ as a child and my own children adore playing it at every opportunity. Leaping across the sofa at home! Holding on to the side of benches when out and about! EVERYWHERE! So how can that help with spelling? By turning it into a fun spelling game of course!
My now 6 year old has started bringing home spellings. Now don’t get me wrong, there is a place for writing out spellings for practise. BUT we love to mix things up. Learning is best when it’s practical and as I have a particularly lively 6 year old, what better way to learn our spellings than with…
THE FLOOR IS LAVA – spelling edition!
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What will we need?
- Paper (or card)
- Colouring markers
- Stepping stones
- Tape or glue
How Do We Set Up Our Game?
- Cut out circles of card.
- Take the sounds from words you are learning to spell.
- Write one sound on each circular card (remember digraphs [e.g. ea, ay, ll] and trigraphs [e.g. ear, air, igh] count as one sound and would be on one card.
- Tape or glue the sounds to the stepping stones.
*If you are good with a needle, you could embroider your sounds to your stepping stones. - Place the stepping stones around a carpeted area (rugs count!).
How to Play FLOOR IS LAVA SPELLINGS
- Have your list of words handy. If you need help for certain phonic and spelling patterns, check out our list.
- Call out a word from your list.
- Your child must jump across the stepping stones to spell the word. They mustn’t fall into the lava.
- I am expected to be the lava monster – you may be asked to too!
How much fun is this?
How is this an effective method for learning?
Some children prefer to sit and write out their spellings over and over until they have sunk in. However, the bulk of children I have taught over the years could not think of anything more torturous.
Getting spelling practise to be active and engaging the whole body, means spellings become a whole body approach. If the activity is fun and different, then it becomes more memorable – which is exactly what you want to happen with spellings.
Not only this, but this activity is great for developing planning, observational, balancing and gross motor skills. AND IT’S FUN!
What’s not to love?
If you like the look of this spelling activity, check out our other engaging spelling practise ideas.
Equally, do you like the idea of Floor Is Lava as an approach to learning? Keep an eye out as we add more ways to incorporate this game into learning.