Yesterday, in our last class of the semester, we played a really fun and simple vocabulary game. It was a great hit for the students and all the other staff who came by to join the laughter.
1. Assign a topic you studied in class and provide a list of beginning letters. Here are a couple of examples:
|
Furniture |
Parts of the Body |
|
d_____________ b_____________ c_____________ *ch___________ r______________ l_____________ t_____________ |
*th____________ n_____________ s_____________ e_____________ m____________ b_____________ *sh____________
|
2. For two minutes, students work individually to write words that fit the category AND begin with the assigned letters.
3. Then students share their words. This is a good moment to answer any spelling questions. Remember there are many possible answers. The variety in responses is half the fun.
4. Play again with a new category.
* Note: If words in this category start with a digraph, I supply the digraph- ch, wh, qu, th, sh-not just the single first letter.
Do you know? The Science behind the fun
This activity tickles the brain. Our brains store word information in two different ways: by meaning and by sound. Getting the brain to locate both aspects of a word at the same instant is a fun challenge.
For more posts on teaching vocabulary:
What to do with a word list.
12 Ways to Teach Vocabulary
Flashcards
