Words Games and Activities the Classroom

"Find the Word "

The purpose of this game is for children to learn about letter order in words.

Resources:
- Pencil and paper for each player
- A book

Game Sequence:
1. Turn to a page in the book that has quiet a lot of text. Each player writes a word from that page on their piece of paper, and hides it from the other player.

2. Each player has turns at asking questions and try to guess the word. Questions can only be answered with 'yes' or 'no'. Questions can be about what the word looks like, the meaning of the word, or how many syllables there are.

For example if the word was happy...

Does your word have an 'a'?

Is the word an adjective?

Has it got 2 syllables?

Does it begin with an 'h'?

Is your word 'happy'?

Players are allowed to take notes if they wish. A player can keep asking questions as long as the answer is 'yes'. As soon as an answer is 'no' the other player begins their turn and the process is repeated.

3. The first player to correctly guess the other player's word wins the round. The winner is the game is the first person to reach three points. The players look at a new page each time a game is finished.

This game would make a great time filler just before a break, but the whole class has to guess the teacher's word.

"The Startling Puzzle"

This activity is intended for intermediate children but can be done with Year 5/6. It makes a great independent fast-finisher activity.

Resources:
None, all the teacher needs to do is write the word 'startling' on the board.

Teaching Sequence:
Tell the children by taking one letter at a time they can change the word 'startling' into 8 other words. Once a letter has been removed it cannot be replaced. The remaining letters in their same order must spell a word.

Answer:

Startling >> starling >> staring >> string >> sing >> sin >> in >> I.

Extension:
Ask the children if they can create their own puzzle. It is probably easier to work backwards, for example:

A >> an >> tan >> Stan >> stand >> stands >> strands

Afterwards let the children solve each other puzzles.

"Silly Missing Blanks"

This type of writing is great for the younger children. Nouns, adjectives, and verbs can be taught explicitly to older children. Children love making funny stories!

Instructions:
Write a piece of text on the whiteboard (use below's one as a guideline). The children then have to fill in the gaps using nouns, adjectives, verbs and miscellaneous words.

Noun - A name of a person, place or thing. For example, cat, James, New Zealand
Verb - An action word. For example, skip, swim, walk
Adjectives - A describing word. For example, ugly, bumpy, blue
Michellaneous - It can be any word at all. For example mouth, eight, red

A (Misc) Followed me Home

I had just left my (adjective) piano lesson and was walking home when a giant (misc) jumped out of a/an (noun). It was as big as a (misc) and it started to (verb). Wow! What a (adjective) (misc)! I started to walk home and it began to (verb) as it followed right behind me. When I got home, my mum started to (verb) and said, "Where did you get that (adjective) creature!". "He followed me home" I said. "He would make a really (adjective) pet. Can I keep him please?" Can you belieave she said yes. Now he sleeps in a big (noun) in my backyard and we do everything together!

You could find text from a poem or short story and take out certains nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Changing these words will totally change the meaning of the story!