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Words in Words

ESL/EFL Game Profile
Name of Game:
Words in Words
Target Students:
Middle School
Target Students:
High School
Duration:
15-30 minutes
Number of Students:
Teams of 3-4
English Skills:
Spelling
English Skills:
Vocabulary
Objective:
Use the letters of a long word to spell smaller words
Instructions
  1. Make sure each team has a dictionary
  2. Write a large word or phrase on the board
  3. Give teams 10 minutes to come up with as many words as possible by using the letters on the board
  4. When time is up, one leader from each team will say the team's words
  5. Each word is scored as follows:
  • 1-letter words = 1 point
  • 2-letter words = 3 points
  • 3-letter words = 5 points
  • 4-letter words = 8 points
  • 5-letter words = 10 points
  • 6-letter words = 12 points
  • 7-letter words = 15 points
  • 8 or more letter words = 20 points

Variations
  • Have each time submit words one at a time and write them on the board, with no duplicate words allowed
  • Words that every team has are omitted and have no point value
  • Simply have teams hand in word sheets and tally scores
Notes

Use words/phrases with an 'e' and 'r' so students can make words that end in 'er'. Do the same with 'ing', 'ly', 's' and other tails. You can have each team choose a 'secretary' to write down the words and 'seekers' to look in the dictionaries.

Be sure to follow up this game by having students make sentences with some of the words (5 seems to works well) and use the words in listening exercises in future classes.

A big thanks to Troy for this EFL/ESL game!

what about an example you've

what about an example you've used of a long word to find small words in?

educational could be a word

educational could be a word for getting started

another word

A word that most students would know, by middle school anyways, is beautiful. Depending on the textbook used, advertisement is also a word that students would know.

I've used the words

I've used the words 'atmosphere' 'performance' and 'xylophone' so far. However I jumble the letters up on the board.

O T E E S A P H R M

Using words of this length and amount of vowels will result in a long list of words even from students that aren't confidant in speaking. Each word for my games is worth one point (3 and 4 letter words are the most common... I got a 'mother' out of 'atmosphere' and that has been the longest word so far).

At the end of the game I'll write the first and last letter of the main word above the jumbled letters (in the correct spots) and give them a moment to try guess the jumbled word. Its worth 20points and potentially a gamewinner. So far it has not been guessed.