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In late November I wrote a blog post outlining five resources for free spelling games. That blog post was among the top twenty most read posts of 2008 therefore I am sharing some more online spelling games for elementary school, middle school, and high school students. 1. Spelling Wizard from Scholastic.com lets students, parents, and teachers create their own word search and word scramble games to play online. Each game can have up to ten words. To use Spelling Wizard simply enter ten words into the list field then select word search or word scramble. Spelling Wizard is probably best suited for students in Kindergarten through second grade. Scholastic also offers a free tool for creating online spelling flashcards. 2. Read Write Think has an online activity for young (K-2) students based on four childrens' books. Read Write Think's Word Wizard asks students to select one of four books that they have read or have had read to them. After selecting a book the Word Wizard creates a simple online spelling exercise based on the words in the book chosen by the child. 3. Spell Bee was developed at Brandeis University with funding from the National Science Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Spell Bee allows students to play spelling games in a head-to-head format. Spell Bee allows teachers to create accounts for students so that teachers can track student progress. 4. MSNBC has an interactive spelling bee based on the words from the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. There are three games to play and the words get progressively more difficult the longer you play. The words are read to students who then type the word into the spelling box. Just like in a real spelling bee, students can get the definition and or hear it used in a sentence. The difficulty of the words in the game make it best suited for middle school and high school students. 5. Spelling Bee The Game is an online spelling bee similar in style to the MSNBC game mentioned above. Aft

An interesting site that provides webs of related words. To use type any word into Graph Words to see a web of alternative word choices. Click on any word in the web to generate a new web of more related words.

Phrays is a simple site that publishes a new word-of-the-day every day. Each word is published with its definition and part of speech. Visitors to the site are encouraged to write and submit a sentence using that word. Registered users can read the sentences submitted by others and vote for their favourite sentences. If you're in need of a quick writing prompt or vocabulary challenge word for your students.

From Mashable 10 free iPhone Word games, (most of them tasters or lite versions). The list comprises Crostix, Hangman, WordJong, Jumbline, Word Scramble, Moxie, 2 Across, Word Solitaire, Alexia and Words With Friends. The article has a synopsis of the games.

Post discusses an extension writing activity using a comic site. The Six Word Memoir activity allows your to discuss the virtues of editing and concise writing. Using six words narrows your frame of vision as you have to make every word count.

Confusing Words is a collection of 3210 words that are troublesome to readers and writers. Words are grouped according to the way they are most often confused or misused.

"Can you perform good PDF to Word/Doc/RTF conversions for free? Absolutely. This posting will present and compare a number of different ways to convert PDF files into Word .DOC or .RTF formats, for free and without any watermarks or restrictions. Options discussed include both free programs and free online conversion services."

"Nowadays, I get the same feeling of dread when I open an email to see a Microsoft Word document attached. Time and effort are about to be wasted cleaning up someone's archaic habits. A Word file is the story-fax of the early 21st century: cumbersome, inefficient, and a relic of obsolete assumptions about technology. It's time to give up "

A webtool from  The American Heritage Dictionary. It enables users create a self-portrait using their words.  You can link to places where you have already written (Facebook or Twitter) or write something unique specifically for the portrait.  The unique image can be shared, saved and printed.  It works best in Firefox, Google Chrome, or Safari Internet browsers. Pictures with high contrast generally work better than pictures with similar coloring and low contrast. You can adjust the colors, contrast and font after you have created an image.

"EzineArticles Editors have compiled a list of 100 words they recommend every Expert Author should know to be more concise, descriptive, and engaging."

Here is an example of one of the 100 word stories that are currently being wriiten by a R.E class. They will shortly will be turned into another magazine.

Wordle is a toy for generating "word clouds" from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.

Syllabus outcomes, objectives, performance bands and examination questions have key words that state what students are expected to be able to do. A glossary of key words has been developed to help provide a common language and consistent meaning in the Higher School Certificate documents.

Very clever site that creates a word cloud from text, and finds images for the most frequently occurring words.

WriteOnline is the innovative new writing tool for schools and colleges. Word prediction, great quality speech and the unique Wordbar help students of all abilities to achieve their full potential.

Have you ever really listened to young people conversing and wondered if they were speaking in the same tongue you were used to? If you want to make some sense of the colloquial conversation of many of today's youth then Word Up will give you an in. This site is basically a living dictionary, drawing on user input to record. In the Resources section is a great pdf looking at the most common of these words along with a neat discussion of how communication is constantly changing. The ongoing research project is an initiative of McCrindle Research.

Downloadable A4 writing aid for quick reference - words to describe someone's voice

A text editor is a simple & plain online word editor software. It supports to edit your word files in Mac, Windows, and Android platforms for free

Word Map is mapping Australian regionalisms - words, phrases or expressions used by particular language groups. Add your regionalism or search to see what others have contributed.

This is great! Perfect for my English Language class as we are studying 'Aussie' English at the moment. Thanks for sharing!

"NGAMBRI. Now there's a name for Australia's capital city. It has a bit of music in it and means, apparently, ''a woman's cleavage''. It's the name the city should have been graced with all along. Instead, we're saddled with Canberra, a word with all the melodic qualities of a Treasury official poring over tax figures. The thing is, Ngambri and Canberra are - or were - the same word, and they've travelled a long path, as will be revealed."