Help your pupils’ spelling skills soar with Busy Things’ Sky Larks

September 16, 2025

Introducing Busy Things' new Sky Larks spelling games

If you’ve used Busy Things for any significant amount of time, you’ll undoubtedly have come across the Miner Birds suite of games, which are among our most popular maths games. A mix of maths and strategy, they’ve been a firm favourite since their launch in 2013, and now, Busy Things has gamified spelling in the same way with its new Sky Larks games in the Literacy/English area.

What is Sky Larks?

Sky Larks is a series of multi-player spelling games, featuring the same quirky avian characters as the Miner Birds games, each designed around different National Curriculum word lists. Players compete against up to 3 other ‘pupils’, which can be classmates or computer stand-ins and are verbally given words to input using the physical keyboard or if they’re working on touchscreens and tablets, an on-screen one.

When an additional challenge is required, timers can be added, meaning players have a maximum of 15 seconds to respond!

Answer correctly and gnats are deposited in the player’s jar; give an incorrect answer and the correct spelling is shown underneath the player’s attempt. Children learn from actively spelling their own words but also passively from their competitors’ efforts.

What do your pupils need to know?

The rules, which are…

The first player to gain 20 gnats wins!
The more gnats offered, the harder the word to spell will be
Golden gnats are valuable and worth triple points
Treasure boxes offer bonus surprises!
To move 2 spaces or to avoid a monster, you have to pay 1 of your gnats.

What do you need to know as a teacher?

As a teacher, we know you’ll want the detail behind the game, to understand how it can fit into your lesson plans and the benefits it brings. Read on for these and more!

There are four games in the suite (see below), which all link to the National Curriculum and are age appropriate.
The word lists the games use can be printed or saved for practice away from the screen.
- Word lists can be viewed from the player settings screen. Click on the spelling bank spanner icon of a human player, then the blue magnifying glass. You can sort the words alphabetically or by difficulty and then print them out by clicking the printer icon in the top left-hand corner.
If players competing together are working at different levels, you can discreetly adjust the questions asked by changing their spelling bank.
If players need to hear a word again, click on the loudspeaker icon.
If you assign the game to your whole class, all pupils will be asked to spell the same words, making it great as a formative assessment tool and for highlighting common mistakes!
At the end of the game, the players are given a summary of the words they’ve been asked to spell, their difficulty level and if they were answered correctly or incorrectly. This can be saved by printing the screen.

Why use Sky Larks?

First and foremost, Sky Larks makes spelling engaging! It takes learning new words beyond simple memorisation and ‘look, cover, write, check’ exercises, and transforms it into an interactive and stimulating experience that boosts the pupils’ confidence, as well as their spelling capabilities.

Whether playing against bots or peers, it challenges pupils to put their spelling skills to the test, making learning and practising spellings fun. Pupils can practise quietly against the computer or engage in a serious head-to-head competition with peers – the choice is theirs!

What are the different games?

The different games within the suite are outlined below, and there are several ways to use them in the classroom. They can be fun starter activities before English or SPaG lessons or daily spelling practice tools. They’re also ideal for homework as the children won’t mind at all and they’ll get the targeted spelling practice there’s often not time for in the school day! (Please NOTE: To access Busy Things out of school, children will need Home access.)

Sky larks: Full flight

‘Sky larks: Full flight’ is the most comprehensive of the Sky larks games, pulling words from the entire National Curriculum and more besides.

It tests pupils on all the word structures and spelling rules that are relevant for their age group, whilst also offering challenge and stretch.

Play it here!

Sky larks: Exception elevation

Created for 5-to-7-year-olds, ‘Sky larks: Exception elevation’ is based on the KS1 Common Exception Words taken from the National Curriculum document: English Appendix 1: Spelling.

Sky larks: Frequent fliers

‘Sky larks: Frequent fliers’ is suitable for Key Stage 1 pupils and is based on the High Frequency Words from the National Curriculum document: English Appendix 1: Spelling.

Sky larks: Statutory soar

Created using the Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 Statutory Spelling Words from the National Curriculum document: English Appendix 1: Spelling, ‘Sky larks: Statutory soar’ is perfect for older children working towards SATs.