Teaching & Learning

Family Resources: Games That Involve Spelling

A variety of commercially-prepared games can provide fun and engaging ways to practice spelling skills.

Image of the board game Boggle

Boggle: the Hidden WORD Game (Parker Brothers)

  • 2 to 6 Players Ages 8 to Adult

  • Object: To list, within 3 minutes, as many words of the highest point value as you can find among the random assortment of letters in the cube tray.

image of Boggle jr.

Boggle Jr. (Parker Brothers)

  • 1 to 2 Players Ages 3 to 6

  • Object: A first Boggle game for your preschooler. A great ABC learning game that grows with your child. Match letter cubes to picture/word cards in 2 multi-level games. Builds word recognition, matching, spelling, and memory skills.

Image of the board game Hangman

Hangman (Milton Bradley)

  • 2 Players Ages 8 to Adult

  • Object: Be the first to guess your opponent's concealed word.

Image of the board game Probe

Probe (Parker Brothers)

  • 2 to 4 Players Ages 10 to Adult

  • Object: Each player selects a word which she/he keeps secret. The other players try to guess it, letter by letter. Any words are acceptable - nouns, adjectives, adverbs or any other parts of speech just as long as they are not spelled with apostrophes or hyphens, are not proper names, or are not abbreviated, and have no more than 12 letters. Be the first to guess your opponent's concealed word.

  • Note that this game is discontinued, but is a good resource if you can find one.

Image of the board game scrabble

Scrabble (Milton Bradley)

  • 2 to 4 Players Ages 8 to Adult

  • Object: Build crosswords for points, add to your score by building words on special spaces on the gameboard! Use up all seven of your letter tiles on your turn for an extra 50 points!

Image of the board game scrabble jr

Scrabble Junior (Milton Bradley)

  • 2 to 4 players Ages 5 to 10

  • Object: The beginner game is extremely simple. The letter tiles are turned letter side down and each player chooses 7 tiles. One person begins play by choosing a letter square on the board. Their letter tile is placed on the corresponding square on the game board. Each player follows in the same manner. Every letter tile is used in this version. As each word is completed, the player who completes the word gets a triangular scoring tile. The player with the most triangular scoring pieces at the end of play wins.

Image of the board game spill & spell

Spill and Spell (Parker Brothers)

  • 2 to 4 players Ages 5 to 10

  • Object:  Spill the 15 letter cubes and try to make words with all of the letters that appear on the top surface of the cubes... before the timer runs out.  Be the first to earn the highest score of 300 points or more.

Image of the board game upwords

Upwords (Milton Bradley)

  • 2 to 4 Players Ages 10 to Adult

  • Object: Players stack letters higher and higher to build layers of crosswords for the most points.