🔤 How to create a Spell the Word activity

The Spell the Word template is an interactive spelling and phonics game that challenges students to spell out targeted words. It presents a prompt, definition, or audio/visual cue alongside a mixed pool of individual letter tiles, helping students practice spelling paths, phonics patterns, and vocabulary construction.

In this article:

• How is the Spell the Word activity played?

• How and what do you type into Edit content for Spell the Word?

• Where can I find some more examples?

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How the activity is played

The game displays a prompt and a dedicated tray for arranging letter components.

• The prompt: An image, a written definition clue, or an audio sound clip plays to tell the student what word needs to be spelled.

• The interaction: Students click, tap, or drag the loose letter tiles into the correct linear slots to complete the spelling configuration.

• The challenge: Extra distractor letters can be blended into the pool, forcing students to rely on their phonetic knowledge to ignore the unnecessary tiles.

• Completion: Once the word is arranged accurately, the game moves the student to the next prompt. At the end, users can view their completion time, total score accuracy, and add their names to the Leaderboard.

  

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Creating your Spell the Word activity

1. Click Create Activity and choose Spell the Word.

   
    

2. Add your content:

   • Target word: Enter the exact word you want the students to spell (e.g., "Elephant"). The system will break this word down into letter tiles automatically.

   • Clue (Optional): Add a definition, context sentence, or hint question to guide the student.

   • Image/Audio (Optional): Click the image icon to upload a picture cue or link an audio recording to let students hear the word pronounced aloud.

3. Click Add an item or press Enter to build out the next spelling term in your lesson list.

4. Click Done. Wordwall will process your target entries and arrange the letter scrambles.

   
    

5. Scroll down to Visuals style to add a creative style to your activity, or tailor the difficulty in the Options panel below the activity:

   

   • Timer:

     • None: No time limit is enforced, allowing students to focus on spelling rules and letter placement at their own pace without clock pressure.

     • Count up: Displays a stopwatch that tracks exactly how long it takes for a student to spell through the entire list of words.

     • Count down: Sets a strict time limit (e.g., 5 minutes). The activity ends automatically if the countdown clock reaches zero before all words are completed.

   • End of game:

     • Show answers: Gives students the opportunity to review the correct spelling configurations at the conclusion of the activity, making it a useful tool for self-correction.

   • Random:

     • Shuffle item order: When enabled, your word list is shuffled into a completely random sequence every time the game is launched, ensuring students cannot simply memorise the progression.

   • Number of extra letters:

     • Use the slider to determine how many decoy distractor letters are added to the letter pool. In the screenshot, this is set to 4 extra letters, which challenges students to filter out unnecessary letters when constructing the target word.

     • Advanced settings:

       • OPTIONS_INPUT_AUTOSUBMIT: Toggles whether the game automatically submits and validates the word the instant the slots are filled (set to 0 for off, meaning students must manually submit or verify their final letter sequence).

   • Saving your options:

     • Apply to this activity: Saves these choice configurations only for the active game file you are currently editing.
     • More: Click this drop-down to find:
       • Set as default for template: Remembers these rules as your standard configuration for every future game you build using the Spell the word template.
       • Revert to default: Clears temporary changes and returns the panel to your previously saved personal defaults.
       • Revert to author's setting: Restores the activity parameters back to the original layout configured by the initial community creator.

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Creating Spell the Word with AI

You don't need to be a prompt expert to use our AI. It is designed to be intuitive and accessible directly from the activity creator.

1. Click Create Activity and select Spell the Word.

   
    

2. Look for the ✨ Generate with AI button at the top right of the content table.

   
    

3. Enter your content:

   • Topic: Type a subject like "CVC Words for Early Readers" or "Irregular Past Tense Verbs."

   • Text / Notes: Paste a vocabulary list or reading target text. The AI will isolate key nouns, verbs, or spelling targets and format them into clear spelling rows.

   • File: Upload a PDF or Word doc. Wordwall AI will analyze the document text and instantly compile a list of core structural terms paired with matching text clues.

4. Click Generate. Review the target terms and clues, refine any individual word lists if necessary, and hit Done.

   

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Need inspiration?

Some examples of Spell the Word activities have been created by our users and shared with the Wordwall resource community.