Name Game
Builds vocabulary skills and self-esteem
Have students create an acrostic using the letters of their own names. Each
line should identify one of their most important qualities or characteristics
that begins with the letters of their name.
Alphabet Country
Builds geography skills
Ask students to sit in a circle on the floor. Choose a student and ask him
or her to name a country of the world that begins with the letter A. The
next student in the circle should name a country that begins with B, then
C, and so on until the class has identified a country for every letter
of the alphabet (except X). If a student cannot name a country, the turn
passes to the next student in the circle. If more than three students in a row
are stumped by the same letter, return to the first stumped student and allow
him or her to look for a country on a map or globe. If time allows, ask each
student to create an alphabet book of the countries of the world.
Got a Minute?
Builds time and estimation skills
How long is a minute? Talk with students about how long a minute is (60
seconds, 1/60th of an hour). Do they think they are good judges of how long a
minute is? Tell them that you are going to say "Go." At that time,
you will use a watch with a second hand to measure one minute. Before you
begin, direct students to raise their hands when they think a minute has
passed. Which student comes closest to raising her/his hand at the 60-second
mark? Try again -- see if practice helps students get better at judging the
length of a minute. You might let the student who comes closest to a minute be
in charge of calling "Go" and measuring the next minute.
Name That Caption!
Builds thinking and predicting skills
Provide students with photographs -- with captions removed -- cut from
newspapers and/or news magazines. Ask each student to write a caption for his
or her photo. Discuss the captions, and compare them with the actual captions.
Classroom Scavenger Hunt
Builds research skills
Provide students with a work sheet asking them to "Find someone who.
..." Include several different endings to that statement, such as someone
who ... can recite the names of all U.S. presidents, has a
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Pose the following question to students to start a
lively discussion, or use is as a prompt for a quick journal-writing
activity:
What if your brother or sister caught you doing something
you were not supposed to do? How would you convince them not to tell your
parents?
What if you could trade places with one of your classmates
for a day? With whom would you want to trade places? Why?
What bad experience you had taught you a valuable lesson?
What lesson did you learn from the experience?
What if you could be any age other than the one you are
right now? Would you want to be younger? Older? What age would you be and
why?
What if you met a stranger and could ask them only two
questions? What questions would you ask that would help you learn if they
might end up being a good friend?
What if a distant relative died and left you in charge of
dividing up his $1,000,000 estate among all your family members? How would
you divide the money?
What if you found a magic lantern? The genie will grant
you three wishes. What will you wish for? Why did you make each of those
wishes?
What if you were asked to describe yourself to somebody
who just met you? What three words would you use to describe yourself? Why
did you choose those words?
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birthday in August, knows the capital of Tennessee, and so on. Tell students
they must complete the work sheet by finding a person who can answer each
question; they must write on the work sheet the person's name
as well as the information that person provided. Tell students they can get
only one answer per person but that, once they've obtained the information,
they can answer the same question for other students.
Anagram Puzzles
Anagrams are a terrific tool for stimulating students to think critically.
Write the four phrases below on a board or chart. The letters in each phrase
can be rearranged to spell a word. The words all have something in common.
Challenge students to figure out the four words and what the words have
in common.
Adapt the activity for younger students: To make the
activity easier, tell students what the words have in common or arrange
students in pairs to solve the anagram puzzles.
- LIT UP
- CAR AINT ON
- A PIE NUT
- RUIN A GEM
Answers: tulip, carnation, petunia, and geranium are all
flowers
- REPRINT
- PROM RAG
- BAKED ROY
- AS FEW ROT
Answers: printer, program, keyboard, and software are all
words associated with a computer
- A MALL
- A GROAN OK
- PATIO PUSH MOP
- RICHER SOON
Answers: llama, kangaroo, hippopotamus, and rhinoceros
are all mammals
- FORTS
- STEEL
- A TRUE TEMPER
- MRS NOT SOW
Answers: frost, sleet, temperature, and snowstorm are all
words related to weather
- REFRY
- OCEAN
- A BAT SILO
- EMU BRAINS
Answers: ferry, canoe, sailboat, and submarine are all
forms of water transportation
A Collaborative Mystery Story
Builds storytelling and writing skills
Write the first sentence of an original mystery story on a
blank journal page. The story starter should be both intriguing and vague:
"The murder happened at midnight"; "The house throbbed with the
ghostly presence"; "Let me tell you about that night!" Ask each
student to add a sentence or a paragraph to the story -- depending on the age
of the students. (Provide a checklist with the journal, so the last student to
add to the story will realize that he or she must write the conclusion.) When
the story is complete, turn off the lights and read it aloud.
Animal Mix-Up
Builds creativity skills
After a lesson on animals, have your students create a new animal by mixing
and matching the features of several of the animals studied. For example, after
studying African animals, students might combine an elephant's ears with a
giraffe's neck, a zebra's body, and a tiger's tail -- a tigraffphant! Encourage
students to name their animals.
Daffy Definitions
Builds vocabulary and creativity skills
Choose a word that is unfamiliar to students. Ask each student to write a
definition of what they think the word might mean on an index card, and collect
the cards. At the end of the day, read a list of possible definitions that
includes a variety of students' written definitions and the actual
definition of the word. Ask students to choose the correct definition.
Analogy Puzzles
Analogies are a terrific tool for stimulating students to think critically.
Write the following analogies on a board or chart. Challenge students to select
the appropriate conclusion to each analogy. Have students share their responses
and the reasoning behind them. Correct responses are shown in bold italic
type.
1. Milk is to cow as wool is to _____.
a. grass
b. sweater
c. bottle
d. sheep
2. Pen is to author as brush is to _____.
a. carpenter
b. plumber
c. painter
d. sweeper
3. Pitcher is to baseball team as drummer is to _____.
a. band
b. drumroll
c. thunder
d. drumstick
4. Fight is to arena as gamble is to _____.
a. casino
b. slot
c. cards
d. table
5. Ponder is to problem as dream is to _____.
a. sleep
b. future
c. nightmare
d. daydream
6. Couch is to living room as stove is to _____.
a. heat
b. cook
c. kitchen
d. eat
7. Gas is to car as wood is to _____.
a. reed
b. build
c. fire
d. hammer
8. Carpenter is to hammer as mason is to ____.
a. brick
b. stone
c. cement
d. trowel
9. Greyhound is to dog as robin is to _____.
a. nest
b. bird
c. cage
d. chirp
10. Hair is to eye as spray is to _____.
a. comb
b. contacts
c. liner
d. lashes
11. Dog is to dogs as woman is to _____.
a. girls
b. puppies
c. women
d. adults
12. Soup is to can as toothpaste is to _____.
a. teeth
b. drugstore
c. smile
d. tube
13. Doctor is to hospital as professor is to ____.
a. college
b. book
c. diploma
d. Gilligan
14. Jam is to toast as gravy is to _____.
a. potatoes
b. cheese
c. salad
d. French toast
15. Dog is to paws as horse is to _____.
a. gallop
b. shoes
c. hooves
d. pony
16. Trunk is to tree as stem is to _____.
a. flower
b. grass
c. ladder
d. branch
17. Train is to freight as ship is to _____.
a. water
b. cargo
c. deck
d. shipment
18. Sun is to rise as day is to _____.
a. dawn
b. break
c. set
d. dream
19. Library is to books as bank is to _____.
a. paper
b. robbery
c. money
d. teller
20. Rose is to vase as water is to _____.
a. lake
b. tub
c. ice cube
d. flow
21. Up is to down as top is to _____.
a. under
b. beneath
c. behind
d. bottom
Noun-Mania
Builds vocabulary and spelling skills
Start students with a noun. Example: house They write that word at
the top of a sheet of paper. Say "Go!" and students will extend their
list by writing a noun that begins with the last letter of the noun before it.
The activity continues. The person with the longest list of nouns at the end of
three minutes is the winner. (Example: house, elephant, toe, egg, gerbil,
ladder, road, dollar, robot) Verify that all words are nouns.
Who Wants to Be a Question-aire?
Builds thinking and questioning skills
Let students prepare questions for their own version of the popular TV show Who
Wants to Be a Millionaire? Distribute blank index cards. Tell students to
imagine that they have the job of creating the questions for the game show.
Tell students they have five minutes to write one question and four choices.
Collect students' cards and use the questions to play the game in class.
La-La That Tune
Builds music and thinking skills
Organize students into two teams. Whisper the name of a familiar song to a
student on one team. That student must sing the word la to the song's
melody. If the student's team cannot name the song, the opposing team gets a
chance to do so. Possible song titles: "Frosty the Snow Man,"
"Old MacDonald," "This Land Is Your Land," "London
Bridge," "Hakuna Matata," "On Top of Old Smokey,"
"The Ants Go Marching," "It's A Small World," "Yankee
Doodle."
Action Alphabet
Builds language (parts of speech) skills
Write a letter of the alphabet on each of 30 index cards. Randomly
distribute a card to each student. Give students one minute to write on the
card a verb that begins with the letter on the card. Then students tell their
verb words. Students pass their cards to the next student, who has a minute to
write a different verb for the letter. When students are stumped or write words
that are not verbs, they must leave the game.
Variation: Have students write nouns or adjectives
instead of verbs.
Find All the Parts
Builds language (parts of speech) skills
Provide students with a paragraph of text. You might write the paragraph on a
board or chart, or you might use an overhead projector to project the paragraph
on the wall. Identify a part of speech -- nouns, for example -- and have
students locate and write all the noun words they find in that paragraph. How
many students find all the nouns?
Categories
Builds classification and vocabulary skills
Provide students with a sheet marked off into 25 squares (5
squares on the vertical and five horizontal squares).
Going across the top row of the page…
Leave the first square blank. In each of the other squares going across the
page list four categories. These categories could be teacher- or
student-generated. (The first couple times you do this activity, it might be
best for the teacher to generate categories.) Sample categories
might include:
- Types of Pets
- Author Names (Last Names)
- Names of Cities
- Types of Sports
- Games
- Book titles
- Famous People (Last Names)
- Things Found in the Kitchen
- Baseball Words
- Types of Snacks
Going down the left column of the page…
Write four different letters. Those letters might be randomly drawn or they
might form a simple word the students know, such as one of the following:
- D-O-W-N
- M-A-K-E
- S-T-O-P
- S-O-N-G
- P-A-I-N
Once the grid is set, give the students a set amount of time
(for example, 3 minutes) to fill in the chart. They must write a word under
each category that begins with the letter in the left column.
As the year goes on -- or if you teach older students -- you might use a larger
grid of 36 squares or 49 squares.
Variation
You will need a can the size of a coffee can or larger for
this activity. Write each letter of the alphabet on a slip of paper. Mix up the
papers and put them in a can.
You might substitute Scrabble letter tiles or magnetic
letters for the letter slips.
Announce a category -- for example, kinds of pets -- and
then have students take a turn taking a letter from the can. The student must
give the name of an animal that might be kept as a pet that begins with the
letter he or she drew from the can.
For young students, you might remove the letters q, x, and z. For
older students, or students who have played the game before, you might let them
come up with the categories.
Pronunciation Challenge
Builds dictionary and spelling skills
Write the pronunciations of five words on the board or a chart. You might
choose current or past spelling words, or words that connect to a current unit
of study. Have students write the words on a piece of scrap paper. Spelling counts! Following are a five sample
pronunciations:
- SEL - uh - braight (celebrate)
- FIK - shun (fiction)
- ee - KWAY - tor (equator)
- FAN - tuh - see (fantasy)
- MIN - ur - uhl (mineral)
Multiplication Bee
Builds multiplication math fact knowledge
Organize students in a circle, and name a number between 2 and 9. Choose a
student to begin the game by saying the number 1. The next student says the
number 2 and so on around the circle. Each time the number called out is a
multiple of the number chosen, the student must raise his/her hand instead of
calling out the number. If a student doesn't raise his/her hand at the right
time or raises it at the wrong time, he or she is out. Continue until students
reach the last multiple of the number times 9.
Mystery Picture
Builds observation and thinking skills
Collect a variety of pictures that clearly show things. Cut
a sheet of paper that fits exactly over the picture except that you have
cut a small circle or square out of the paper so the students can see a hint of
what the picture is; only a small part is revealed. Gather students for a group
meeting. Show the covered picture. Students should study the picture closely.
If they have an idea what the picture under the paper is, they should take a
slip of scrap paper back to their desk, write a description of the picture, and
return to the meeting. Who is the first student to correctly guess the Mystery
Picture? How many students guess correctly?
You might provide five pictures that reveal just a small
clue. Give each picture to a group of students. Students who know will write
what the picture shows. Rotate the pictures between the groups. Does anybody
identify all five pictures? How many students are able to identify three or
more of the pictures?
Spelling-as-a-Team Game
Builds spelling skills
Organize students into groups, and provide each group with a
set of alphabet cards, one card per letter. Students will divide the alphabet
cards among themselves. Tell students you will call out a spelling word and a
point value for that word (based on its difficulty). When the word is called
the groups go to work to spell the word. The student who holds the card that
represents the first letter in the word must call out the letter and place it
on the desk in front of his or her group members. Then the person who holds the
second letter does the same thing┘ Play continues until the word is spelled.
Note: If a letter is repeated in a word, the student who
held that letter must call out that letter again. Players can leave a space to
represent to place where that letter belongs.
The first group to correctly spell the word (all cards must
be on the desk in order) earns the points. At the end of the game, the group
with the most points wins the game.
Funny License Plates
Builds critical thinking and analytical thinking skills
You've seen them -- unusual combinations of letters and
numbers on license plates that require two or three looks to figure out what
they say. Write a handful of them on the board and challenge students to figure
them out. Students can write (spell out) the translations of these plates on a
small sheet of scrap paper. See which students have the most
correct responses.
- ICUROK -- I see you are okay
- CALQL8 -- Calculate (probably on an accountant's car)
- 10SNE1 -- Tennis, anyone?
- 0GRAVTY -- zero gravity
- 23PAIR -- Tooth repair (a dentist's license plate?)
- ML8ML8 -- I'm late! I'm late!
02BNLA
Oh, to be in LA10R
SAX Tenor sax14U2C
One for
you to see2FAST4U
Too fast for you2LV4EVR
To love forever2M8OS
Tomatoes2N2R4
On the
car of a school teacher2QIK4U
Too quick for you2TH DR
On a dentist's carB9S2US
Be nice to usCME4AD8
See me for a dateCRZY 4U
Crazy for youICUROK
I see you are okay
Chain Spelling
Builds spelling and thinking skills
Go right around the classroom
with this activity. Start by calling out a word -- any word. The next person
has 10 seconds to call out a new word that begins with the last letter
of the word you called out. And the activity keeps going┘ For example, if you
call out chain, the next person might call out night, then the
next person might call out table, then elephant, tree, egg, garbage┘
How long can you keep up the spelling chain before somebody makes a mistake or
someone runs out of time? Can you make it all the way around the classroom?
Variation: To make the game more difficult for older
students, you might narrow the possibilities by providing a category. For
example, all words called out will have to relate to a category such as
- Words of 6 letter or more
- Cities and Countries
- Science Words
- Adjectives
- Famous People's Last Names
Connection Challenge
Builds spelling, thinking, and classification skills
This activity is a variation on the Chain Spelling activity
above. Go right around the classroom with this activity. Start by calling out a
word -- any word. The next person has 10 seconds to call out a new word that relates
in some way to the word you called out. And the activity keeps going┘ For
example, if you call out house, the next person might call out roof, then
the next person might call out chimney, then Santa, sack, potato,
garden, seeds, watermelon┘ How long can students keep making connections
before somebody gets stumped or runs out of time? Can you make it all the way
around the classroom?
Puzzling Palindromes
Builds language and spelling skills
Introduce the idea of a palindrome to students. A palindrome
is a word that is spelled the same backward and forward. For example, mom,
pup, and racecar are palindromes. Challenge students to come up with
as many palindromes as they can within a timed period. You might let them use
their dictionaries. Who will come up with the most?
You might even introduce the idea of entire sentences/statements being
palindromes! For example:
A Toyota
A nut for a jar of tuna.
You can find many more palindrome sentences at Jim
Kalb's Palindrome Connection Web page.
Following are the list of palindrome words we were able to come up with:
aha, bib, civic, dad, deed, deified, did, dud, eke, eve, ewe, eye, gag, gig,
hah, huh, kook, level, ma'am, madam, mom, mum, noon, nun, peep, pep, pip, pop,
pullup, radar, redder, refer, repaper, rotator, rotor, sees, sis, solos, stats,
tat, tot, and wow.
Sentences From A to Z
Builds spelling and thinking skills
Write the following sentence on a board or chart:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Tell students that this is a very unique sentence, and ask
them if they can tell you why that is so. After giving students time to
consider your question, share with them that the sentence uses every letter in
the alphabet. (Some letters are used twice.) Challenge them to write another
sentence that accomplishes that same goal! Who will write the shortest sentence
that includes every letter of the alphabet?
These sentences are called pangrams. You can see more
examples at Fun With Words: Pangrams.
Forward and Backward
Builds spelling and thinking skills
Challenge students to come up with as many words as they can that spell
actual words when written forward and backward. For example, ton written
backward spells not; stop spells pots; and rail spells
liar. Who can come up with the most word pairs that are correctly
spelled?
Fact, Fiction, or Opinion?
Builds comprehension skills
Write the following statements on a board or chart, or say
them aloud. Have students identify each statement as fact, fiction, or opinion.
- Being president is the hardest job in the world. (opinion)
- Mercury is the planet closest to the sun. (fact)
- The hippopotamus is the largest land mammal. (fiction,
the African elephant is)
- Apple pie is the best tasting pie. (opinion)
- The Empire State Building is the tallest building in Texas.
(fiction, it is in New York City)
Then give each student a sheet of scrap paper. Have them
write and label three statements -- one that is factual, one that is fiction, and
one that is opinion. Collect the students' work and use their statements as a
class quiz.
Great Graphs
Builds graph reading skills
Collect from newspapers and magazines a variety of graphs.
(The major news magazines are good sources; the USA Today newspaper is another
excellent source.) You might laminate the graphs so you can use them over and
over. Hand each student a graph and a sticky note. Have them write on the
sticky note one fact they did not know that they learned from the graph. Have students share what they learned with their classmates.
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