Word search puzzles for spelling lessons

Over the holiday, my brother and sister-in-law visited quite a bit. My sister-in-law Jane is a special ed teacher in a Catholic school in Maryland. She works with children of all ages to help the school meet their special needs -- a rare thing in Catholic schools. She asked about my children and how school was going. We got around to Peach and her challenges with spelling. She's just not a natural speller the way the boys were, which is o.k., but also a challenge for me. It's hard to keep spelling fun. We use Scrabble letters (a la Jenn) one day, word triangles another, sometimes water coloring them on paper, sometimes just writing them three times each. Most of these activities are torturous for Peach, except the word triangles which she likes. Not that I'm against torturing my daughter -- "that which does not kill us..."

But, being a school teacher, my sister-in-law is about making it fun. She suggested word search puzzles and until I found this website, I thought that out of the question. You can simply put your word list in and create your own puzzle (no cost) -- it took me like 30 seconds.

Jane had some other suggestions (messy ones) like spelling them in a dish of dry rice, or spelling them with shaving cream -- you've heard those. She also suggested letting her use the piano to spell the words. Peach is a musical girl and would enjoy spelling them with one note per letter. Whatever gets it done, I suppose.

If you like online resources and let the children use the computer, spellingcity.com allows you to enter a spelling list and play games or take quizzes.