Spark Student Motivation: Post It Notes and Spelling!

I am linking up with Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching for her Spark Student Motivation Saturday!

My son has always struggled with learning his spelling words. We have tried all different "tricks" over the years to help him. This year he has two weeks to study his words and his test are on Mondays. Ugh! There always seems to be so much time to master the words and then before we know it, it's Sunday night and he has barely mastered a third of the list.

So when my son came home with a few study suggestions from his teacher, I knew I just had to share.

My doorways and cabinets now look like this.........

The idea is to put the spelling words in high traffic areas. Each time your child passes the word, they stop and spell it. This way they are constantly reviewing their words.

My son's teacher also taught him to use an aerobic component. When he stops at a word, he spells it aloud and does hand signals based on how the letters fall on the line.

He raises his hands up for letters that touch the top line (b, d, f, h, etc).

Hands on hips for letters that only reach the middle line (a, c, e, m, etc.).

Hands touch toes for letters that go below the line (g, j, p, q, etc).

I can't recommend these two methods enough. Even before he arrived home with the scored spelling test, I knew it had been successful. Monday afternoon after his first spelling test using this method I arrived home to find new post-it notes replacing the old ones. He felt so confident after his test, he wanted to get started on his new list immediately.

Days later he arrived home with his spelling test - 100%!

How do you spark motivation when it comes to studying vocabulary words?