When the X's son was part of my life I used to do this too. Some of the activities we did were:

Find & Cut out the letters to make the word from a magazine and then stick them down in order. (Helps with learning the letters and sounds and also fine motor skills..cutting)

Rainbow Writing.. I would write the words out and then using 5 different colours he would trace the words (so it looked like a rainbow) ... helps with handwriting too.

Ladder Game... put the words onto flash type cards and then put them down like a tower (or ladder) and he has to see if he can climb up the ladder... he can only go up if he gets the words right... swap the order around.

noughts & Crosses / Tic Tac Toe.... using the cards from above, turn them face down and mixe them up... have him pick up a card and if he can read it he gets to put down his symbol... ie he gets 'can' right and he is crosses then he can put down a cross... then mix them up and you have a turn... etc.

Sentences... get him to put the word in a sentence, you write it, he traces/copies it and then he draws a picture to illustrate it.