Beat the Teacher

This is a word game that we play often, so the students are already familiar with the procedure. By the way, you (teacher) play to win! LOL 1. Hand out a Making Words sheet. [To create the form, divide a sheet in half (portrait) then divide the top half into a 2 by 4 array, with one letter per cell, you will use any where from 6 to 8 letters per game; put lines in the bottom half for students to use to write their words.]

2. Give students 10 minutes to generate as many words as possible. Students know to cut out the letters, form words, and copy those words to their paper. (You will want to generate your own words during this time as well.) 3. At the end of 10 minutes, go to the board and created headings of 2, 3, 4, etc. (up to the number of letters that are on the sheet). You write your words under each column. Please say the word out loud as you are writing it. Students should be crossing out those words on their list. Students are encouraged to ask you the meaning of a word if they do not know it. NOTE: You may not use words which begin with a capital letter, i.e. names, etc. 4. Once you have written all the words that you have, turn to the class and say, Beat the Teacher. 5. At this point students will share with you words that they have found that you did not list on the board. Call on students individually to tell you their word. Use this time to correct spelling and insert mini-lessons on phonics (ie, the word has a silent e at the end, the word ends with two ss, etc.). 6. For each word that the student had that is not on the board, write it on the board in a separate area (they get a point for each word). 7. When no more hands are up, say, Going once, going twice,gone!. At this point count up the number of words the students got that you did not have. Using a marker make tally marks on chart paper. After you add (or not) the tally marks, have the whole class count the total number of points so far by counting by fives, then ones. 8. The students are then to write TWO complete sentences, each sentence should have one underlined word from the board. Make sure their name is on the paper and collect them. Those sentences that are REALLY interesting end up on our wiki online. I hope you enjoy this activity as much as the students do!