Name of Game: "How Many Words Do You Know?"
Target Students: Elementary, M.S., and H.S.
Duration: Optional.
Number of Students: Optional.
Skills: Thinking, writing, spelling, reading, speaking, listening.
Objective: 1. Cognitional: Thinking, reasoning, and remembering.
2. Teamwork.
Simple Instructions: 1. Divide chalkboard into four equal vertical sections (columns).
2. Two rows of deskbound students can be one team.
3. They pick a team rep or captain to go to the chalkboard.
4. Write all the two-letter words you know.
5. Have a starting time: 1,2,3 GO!
Have a stopping time: 10, 9, 8...3, 2, 1, 0 STOP!
6. Students remain seated and shout words for their team rep to write AND write in big letters on paper and hold it up for rep to see.
7. No dictionaries, textbooks, or Scrabble Two Letter Word List, etc.
Variations: Three-letter, four-letter words, etc. OR all words that begin with the letter "S," or "T," or "W," etc.
Notes/Comments: 1. It gets a bit noisy, so close windows and doors.
2. Students invariably (in the excitement of competition) run to the front, thus I yield to Simple Instruction number 6.
3. The teacher is the sole counting judge: (a) a name is a word, your option; (b) repeated words count only once; (c) readability, misspellings do not count; (d) may use acronyms as they are pronounced and accepted as words (e) abbreviations and initialisms do not count.
4. For specious words, you may ask the students the meaning. Usually, if they do not know, I cast it out.
