About the Project

Google Sheets is a surprisingly effective way to teach elementary students basic spelling and number patterns. The clear division of the sheet into cells and the ability to move around the page using the arrow keys make these lessons easy for PK-K students to learn math, spelling, and basic technology skills.

Lesson Overview

Create a Google Sheet with content that you want your young students to work with. You might ask them to count by 1s, 2s, 3s, etc by filling in the missing numbers. For spelling, you can ask students to type out spelling words to practice letter recognition and keyboard literacy. You can also ask them to highlight the correct word, change the text color, etc. These activities can be easily adjusted for complexity over time and make great station activities.

Tips and Suggestions

Delete unneeded cells to minimize the potential for students to get “lost” in the spreadsheet. For spelling practice, you can use conditional formatting to automatically turn a cell green for a correct answer or red for a wrong answer.

Use Google Classroom to distribute a copy of your Sheet template to all of your students. You can also let students work collaboratively. If using this lesson in a station setup, use revision history to quickly reset your Google Sheet back to its original state.

Lesson submitted by Kunio Ouellette, Essexville, Michigan.

Lesson Resources

• Math Number Assignment Template
• Spelling Assignment Template
• Conditional Formatting in Google Sheets