Words Games and Activities the Classroom

"The Teacher's Cat "

The purpose of this game is for children to practice using adjectives. This is a great time filler as no resources are needed! It can be played with children Year 3 and up.

Teaching Sequence:
1. Share the purpose of the game with the children. Share with the children that "we will take turns describing my cat, using adjectives beginning with 'a'. For example the first child might say 'The teacher's cat is an annoying cat'. The second child could say "The teacher's cat is an arrogant cat". The children continue around in the circle using adjectives beginning with 'a'.

2. If a child cannot think of an adjective or they repeat one that has already been said, they must sit down and they are out until the game is finished. The rest of the class begin again but use adjectives starting with 'b'. The aim of the game is to be the last person standing.

Variation:
Instead of describing a cat the class could describe another thing. The teacher could record each of the adjectives on a separate piece of poster paper for each letter and display these on the wall. It would be a fantastic tool during writing time!!!

"Mystery Words "

This activity is appropriate for middle-aged primary children and up. It makes a great fill in activity and could be played in pairs, small groups or as a class.

Resources:
Paper and pencil

Teaching Sequence:
The teacher thinks of a mystery object, for example a pencil. The teacher then provides three clues:

A: The category it belongs to
B: Its Beginning sound
C: The number of syllables it has

For example, for the word pencil, the teacher might say:

A: It is a piece of stationary
B: It starts with a 'b' sound
C: It has two syllables (you can clap it out)

The children have to guess what the mystery object is. After modelling this process to the children, organise the children into pairs or small groups to play the game. Each player who guesses the object correctly wins one point. The first person to 10 points (or whatever you decide) wins.

After the children have played you could ask the children to share some clues about their mystery object (the children in that group can't answer of course!

"Heads and Tails"

No materials are needed for this game and it could be played as a whole class or individually. This game is appropriate for middle primary and older.

Choose a child in the class to name any word. The person sitting next to them will name a word beginning with the last letter of the word just called out. This process repeats around the room. Here is an example of what the game might look like:

Child 1:Blue

Child 2: Elephant

Child 3: Television

Child 4: Neck

Child 5: Knowledge

Variation:

The teacher could time this game and record the number of words called out on the whiteboard using a tally chart. If this was to be an individual word game the teacher writes a word of the board and the children have to write as many words as they can in a time limit (for example 3 minutes).