Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

FAQs

Troubleshooting

I can't register in AOL. What should I do?
The test never stops loading

General

What is SpellingCity? (top)
SpellingCity is a new and innovative interactive educational site that can help children of all ages improve their spelling skills and expand their vocabulary. It can also be used by teachers and parents to teach their students how to spell properly with their own spelling lists. Here are just a few of the many features SpellingCity offers:
- contains over 25,000 words, including plurals, contractions, 3^rd person tenses, and more
- uses a REAL human voice that says both the word and the word in a sentence
- 'Teach Me' function that spells out a word
- teachers and parents can enter their very own spelling lists to test their students/children on
- students can play games with the words they enter or with their teacher’s spelling lists
- and many, many more

How do I use SpellingCity? (top)
If you’re a student, you can start by entering words into the spelling test, and test your spelling skills. You can also play a game with the words you entered. If you’re a teacher or parent, you can register, which will allow you to enter your own spelling list, and test your students/children with your list. Students can also play several games with your spelling lists.

What does it cost? (top)
Nothing! SpellingCity is a free site.

I'd like to know about the story behind SpellingCity. (top)
SpellingCity is a labor of love by a group of web savvy educationally-minded parents who felt there was an opportunity to create a really useful educational site. These aren't parents with a lot of extra time on their hands so we need to keep all the communication on email. Initial design documents were circulated in 2005, programming started in Nov 2006, and the site went live in Jan 2007. Version 2.0 will be available in March 2008. The future includes many thousands of more words, a variety of new games, simplified list saving, definitions, synonyms, antonyms, maybe saving student records, a comprehensive spelling list/course and so much more. Stay tuned.

What does 'Test Me' mean? (top)
After entering words onto a spelling test, click the ‘Test Me’ button for the test to start.

What does 'Teach Me' mean? (top)
After entering words onto a spelling test, click the ‘Teach Me’ button to hear the words spelled out.

What does 'Play A Game' mean? (top)
After entering words onto a spelling test, click the ‘Play A Game’ button to play a game with the words.

How do I search for a list? (top)
Just type in your first OR last name (not both though – we will have that function working soon). You can also search by typing in the name of your lists. Right now, we only accept one-word searches (first, dolch), but we plan to expand the search to several words shortly. In the near future, you will also be able to do a search by city, state, country and zip code.

What are the sample lists? (top)
Sample lists are some of the most popular lists on the site, from dolch words to general grade-level words, divided by grade, to unique lists, like state capitals and big numbers.

How do I suggest a word? (top)
Just fill out the form on the ‘Suggest A Word’ page, and click ‘Submit’ Your entry will be reviewed by the SpellingCity staff, and if the suggestion is deemed valid, the word will then by recorded by our audio talent, and put into the SpellingCity database.

Who supports SpellingCity.com? (top)

SpellingCity.com is a labor of love which is supported by sponsors, advertisers, and affiliates. Please consider supporting them:

Some great books from Amazon: Scholastic Dictionary Of Spelling (Revised) , Spelling Made Simple , and You're Smarter Than You Think: A Kid's Guide to Multiple Intelligences .

Vocabulary.co.il is the fun way to build vocabulary.

Time4Learning is an online learning service for homeschool or enrichment to be used at home (we don't work with schools). Kids like that it's computer-based, fun and interactive. Parents like the quality curriculum, reasonable cost, and progress reports. Time4Learning includes a math , language arts, science, and social studies program. Time4Learning is helping thousands of children in preschool, elementary, and middle school.

Students

Do I need to register? (top)
You do not need to register. You can start doing the spelling test immediately on the homepage.

How do I find my teacher's spelling lists? (top)
You can find your teacher’s list by going to the ‘Find Your List’ page, and doing a search on your teacher by first OR last name. You can also search for your teacher’s list by list name. After you find your teacher’s list, you can test yourself on them, click ‘teach me’ to hear the words spelled out, or play one of several games with the list.

Can I enter my own list? (top)
You can enter your own lists, but at the time being, you are not able to save it. We plan on having that as a feature in the future.

How do I save a list? (top)
At this time, a student is not able to save a list they entered in the test.

How do I play a game? (top)
Enter as many words as you like, and then click the ‘Play A Game’ button, where you will be taken to a page with several different games. Click a game to play with the words you just entered.

What does ‘Print Certificate?’ mean? (top)
After you have completed the test, the Test Results page will open, where you can click on the ‘Print Certificate’ link in order to print out an official SpellingCity.com certificate with your name and your test results.

Teachers/Parents

How do I register? (top)
Click the ‘Register’ link in the upper right-hand corner, and follow the instructions. You will then receive a registration email, where you will need to verify your email address, and then you are ready to log in and enter your lists.

How do I find my school on the registration page? (top)
You can find your school by entering its zip code, or by clicking the proper country, state (if one), city, and then school. If you cannot find your school, click the ‘add it to our database’ link, and fill out the ‘Add A School’ form. If you do add a school, a SpellingCity moderator will have to verify it before it is added to the site.

What is the Teacher Toolbox? (top)
After you login, you are automatically taken to your homepage, where you will notice a Teacher Toolbox in the upper right-hand corner that has several links. Below is an explanation of each link:
- My Homepage – shows your school information and your lists. You can also create a new list here
- Edit Profile – you can edit and update your profile, including user name and school
- My Lists – shows all the lists you’ve created

How do I create a list? (top)
First, log in to your account. NOTE - If you have not yet registered for your free account, you need to to this first. For instructions, scroll up the page three paragraphs and follow the instructions for: "How do I Register?". So, log in to your account and your homepage automatically shows up. Now, you can create a list. Just type in a name for your list (you can always edit the name later), and click the ‘Create New List’ button. You may want to give each list a different unique name, so you know what they are about. You can also create a list under the ‘My Lists’ link in your Teacher Toolbox.
You will then be taken to a page where you can start entering your words onto the list. Enter as many words as you like, and click the save button. If you enter a word that is not in our database yet, a warning will appear on the next page where that word will be reviewed by a SpellingCity moderator, and, if deemed a valid word, will be added to the site at a later date. If you click the list name or the view/edit option, you will notice that the word in question does not show up your list. If the word is deemed valid and added to the site, the word will then appear on your list.
To add more words to the list, either click the ‘add more words’ link, or hit the enter key on your keyboard.
You can also delete a word from the list by deleting the word from the box, or clicking the red x next to the box, which deletes the box itself.
If you make any changes that you didn’t mean to make, you can either click the cancel button, which will take you back to the list page, or the revert button, which will take you back to the list before you starting making any changes to it.

How do I edit a list? (top)
You can edit your list by clicking on the list name or the view/edit link. Then click on the edit link on the notepad. To add more words, either click the ‘add more words’ link, or hit the enter key on your keyboard. To delete a word, click the red x next to the box. Make sure to click the save button to save any changes you make.

How do I unpublish a list? (top)
After creating a list and saving it, your list is automatically published. To unpublish it, on the List Management page, click the list name or the 'edit' link, and uncheck the 'publish list' box at the bottom of the list. When you are ready to publish it, go back into the list, and check the 'publish list' box.

How do I import a list? (top)
While logged in, go to either the Sample Lists page or the Find Your List page. You will then notice the ‘import’ link under the ‘What do you want to do?’ column. Click the ‘import’ link of the list you would imported to your lists. When you click on the ‘My Lists’ link on your Teacher Toolbox, you will notice that the imported list is now appears, where you can edit it to your own liking, and that list will show up under your name.

How do I play a game with my list? (top)
Click the ‘Play A Game’ link in the list table on the ’My Homepage’ page or the ‘My Lists’ page. Then choose a game to play with your list. That game is then ready to play with your list.

How do I view the forum? (top)
To view the forum, click the red ‘teachers’ button on the right-side of the homepage, and then click the ‘Forums’ link. If you are not logged in, or a registered user, you are only able to view the forum, but not post on it.

How do I register for the forum? (top)
Click the ‘register’ link at the top of the forum, and fill out the forum form. You will then receive a registration email, where you will need to verify your email address, and then you are ready to log in and post on the forum.

How do I enter a post on the forum? (top)
Click on a forum subject, and then either post to an existing topic or start a new topic. If an existing topic is clicked, click ‘Post Reply’ and type in your reply. To start a new topic, click the ‘New Topic’ button, and type up a message with a subject heading.

How do I sign up for the newsletter? (top)
When you register, you have an option to sign up for our newsletter. If you decide to sign up for our newsletter at a later date, click the blue ‘newsletter’ link at the bottom of a page, and type in your name and email, and then click ‘Yes’ under Subscribe, and then click the save button.

Troubleshooting

I can't register in AOL. What should I do? (top)
For whatever reason, our site doesn’t work very well in AOL. Try using Internet Explorer instead. We are looking into this AOL issue, and we will post any new developments.

The test never stops loading (top)
If the loading screen never stops, close the site, and open it in a different browser. (If you have a dial-up connection, it will take longer to load). If this doesn’t work, you may need to go to http://www.adobe.com/ to download the latest version of Flash player. On the Adobe website, click the ‘downloads’ link, and then click ‘Get Flash player’.