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Educators and parents have been asking us for more School SCRABBLE^® activities. Here they are! Every two weeks, a new page will be posted. We welcome your questions and suggestions. Send them to Cindy McCaffery.

Alternate Spellings

April 9-20, 2001

In the late 1700s, the United States won its independence from Britain. America was a new and independent nation. Americans wanted to separate and distinguish themselves from the English in every way possible. One obvious way was to Americanize the English language. Ben Franklin, a statesman, inventor and printer, had already done away with the "u" in many spellings, feeling it was a wasted letter. The British words colour, armour and honour were now more thriftily spelled color, armor, and honor here in America. In 1783, Noah Webster published Webster's Elementary Spelling Book. In it, Webster differentiated American English from British English in terms of spelling, grammar and pronunciation. "Plough shall be spelled plow, kerb shall be curb, tough shall be tuf and women shall be wimmen," he declared. Most of Webster's new words were adopted, although some were not. This trend resulted in alternate spellings for many words -- spellings that are acceptable in SCRABBLE® game play. Challenge your students to find alternate acceptable spellings for the following words:

Create a bulletin board display entitled Alternate Spellings. Post alternate spellings for these and other words students might find in their readings. Remind students that knowing these words can come in handy when they play the SCRABBLE^® game, especially if they have a "wasteful" U on their rack.

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Browse our archives for back issues from 2000 (issues #1-8) and 2001 (issue #9 and on).

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