Are you a teacher looking to bring games into your classroom to teach children words? Are you a student who wants to play games to strengthen their vocabulary? School can often be very monotonous and boring due to its nature. Students do not feel motivated to learn if what they are doing is boring and does not interest them. Therefore, it is recommended as teachers, that some teaching is done through the use of games.
By using games to teach, students will not only become more involved in the learning process, but will also retain knowledge much better due to their enjoyment. Are you stuck trying to figure out what games you should play? Don’t be!
Here are 5 fun classroom vocabulary games that you can bring to your kids.
Scrabble
A great indoor recess game for a small group of kids. This classic board game will have students competing against each other to see who is better at forming words and placing them strategically on the board. For those students who struggle with these styles of games, there are tools that help with unscrambling, and can teach them more about words and the patterns corresponding to them. While you want Scrabble to be competitive, use it as a teaching tool and provide students with the help they need by giving them access to tools that can improve their game. In the long term, you will find that your students will be much better with unscrambling and their vocabulary through the use of these tools and these games. It is a lot more fun than it looks and can be rather challenging as well. For an even more exciting time, look to start a Scrabble tournament in the classroom and watch as the students get excited.
Word Twists on the Blackboard
Word twists are extremely easy, a lot of fun, and can be added into any vocabulary and English lesson to help teach the children. All you need to do is pick any number of letters and write them on the board. From there, the students will work to rearrange the letters, using as many, or as little of them to create words. The student who can create the most word combinations would win the round. You can do this for several rounds, making each one more and more difficult to encourage critical thinking. Word twists are a great way to teach vocabulary to the classroom.
Pictionary
Pictionary is a classic game that is sure to generate buzz in your classroom. It works best if the students are arranged in rows. Give each student a piece of paper and have them write a word at the top of the paper, they then pass the paper back to the student behind them while the last student in the row brings their paper to the student in the front. Students must now draw the word that was passed on to them by the previous student. Once that is done, they fold and hide the word, leaving only the image visible and pass it backward again. This process of guessing and drawing continues until everyone receives their paper again. This game is sure to generate a lot of laughter and encourage creativity when coming up with words.
Hangman
Another great classic game for a large group of students. To make this best work for vocabulary, give the students a subject pertaining to what they had learned about during the day. If there was an important new word in history that they learned, add it to the hangman game. If they learned something interesting during the reading period, throw that one in there as well. Don’t always feel the need to create your own words though. Let the students be creative and choose their own words and challenge them to come up with words that the others will struggle to guess. Your students will definitely rise up to the challenge and have fun with this vocabulary game.
Newspaper search
Separate your students into groups and give them each the same magazine or page from a newspaper. From there, either yell out a topic or a specific word. Give the students a set amount of time to go through their items and locate as many words pertaining to that subject as possible. This will encourage students learning synonyms and words related to your phrase. At the end of the round, look over each paper to see which group is the winner. This game will get the students racing through while learning new words and phrases.
Word games don’t have to be boring. If planned correctly, these games can bring so much life into any classroom while encouraging learning at the same time. From games like word twist to classics like Scrabble, each game comes with great benefits. Don’t let your lessons fall flat and boring. Bring in some vocabulary games and watch the time fly in your classroom. What games will you play with your students?
