How to Use Vocabulary Spelling City
Teachers: Getting Started
- Step One: Download the app from the app store. Make sure to search "Spelling City". If you type "Vocabulary Spelling City" the app will not come up!
- Step Two: Register: the app will take you to their webpage to create an account. Create a username and password and select your school.
- Step Three Make sure to note your classroom homepage so that you can give it to students and parents.
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Students: Getting Started
- Step 1: First the teacher must purchase a premium membership. The teacher then inputs his/her students' names and creates a username for each student.
- Step 2: The student should log in using the username the teacher provides. Then the student can visit the teacher's homepage, OR the student can search for their teacher by pressing "More Lists" at the bottom of the home screen and then searching for the teacher's name.
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Teachers: Creating Word Lists
- Step 1: From the home screen, the teacher taps "Create Lists".
- Step 2: This will take the teacher to the website to create a list. The teacher starts typing words into the list.
- Step 3: The teacher can keep pressing "Add 5" or "Add 10" to make their list longer.
- Step 4: When the teacher clicks "Save" at the bottom of the list, the website will provide the teacher with the definition, part of speech, and sentence for each word on the list.
- Step 5: The teacher looks over the words and definitions and then clicks "I'm Finished" at the bottom. The list is now on that teacher's homepage for students to access and play games with the words on that list.
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Students: Completing Activities with Word Lists
- Step 1: From the home screen, the student first selects what list he or she wants to use, then selects an activity from the list of choices. (Note: Read-A-Word and Test-N-Teach are only available on tablets. Once a student clicks an activity, a pop up box will appear teaching the student how to do the activity. This is a quick overview of each activity. Make sure when you complete these activities that the sound on your device is turned on.
- Unscramble: A student has two choices in this activity: Sentence Unscramble or Word Unscramble. In Sentence Unscramble, students must drag the words from the sky into the box to arrange the words into the correct order for the sentence. If a student is stuck, they can press "Hint" and listen to an audio recording of the sentence. If they order part of the sentence incorrectly, it will highlight that part of the sentence in red as a cue to students to reorder. In Word Unscramble, the letters are scrambled in the sky and the student must move the letters into the box to arrange them in the right order to spell the word correctly.
- Spelling TestMe: The speaker plays an audio recording of the word and the word used in a sentence. The student spells each word. Students can click "Say It" and "Sentence" to have the word or the sentence repeated. At the end, the app shows the student his/her performance.
- Audio Word Match: This is basically your classic "Memory" game. Students have cards that are face down. They flip over one card, the computer reads the card aloud, and then they try to find a matching card in as few turns as possible. The game is timed and the student gains points for matched pairs and loses points for wrong guesses.
- Alphabetize: In this game you simply drag the words to put them in alphabetical order.
- HangMouse: One of the most popular games on the app, this is just like Hangman! The student guesses letters to spell the word (the mouse nibbles some cheese). The student gets 7 guesses per word-- if the student uses all their guesses, the cat gets mad and gives away the answer and students cannot earn points for that word!
- Missing Letter: Pick the letter that completes the word. An audio recording also tells you each word and its sentence in order to hep you.
- Spelling TeachMe: The word list appears. The student clicks "Teach Me." The audio recording shows the student how to spell the word. This is not a game so much as it is a review/teaching activity.
- Read-A-Word (tablets only): Four words appear on the screen. The audio recording reads one of the word and uses it in a sentence; you have to choose which word she said. You can click to have the word or the sentence repeated.
- Test-n-Teach (tablets only): Spell all of the words correctly to help carve out "Mount Spellmore". The audio will dictate words and sentences to you, and you can choose to have a word or sentence repeated if you need. If you spell a word incorrectly, it will give you the correct spelling, and you'll see that word again, and have to spell it correctly, at the end of the list. "The better you spell, the better your monument!"
Teachers: Using the other Resources on the Website
- Step 1: To access the huge bank of teacher resources available on spellingcity, com, from the top of the mobile app the teacher should click "Toolbox" and "Website Login".
- Step 2: On the website, click the tab that says "Teaching Resources"
- Step 3: Then click the topic that interests you.
- Step 4: You will see a huge list of videos, activities, and free printables.
- Step 5: This is an example of a figurative language printable.
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