Critical Thinking Grammar Game That's FUN!

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I’m always looking for engaging activities for word work with older elementary students, and I think I hit the jackpot again! This activity has students come up with a list of words that have one concept in similar. This concept may be parts of speech, verb tenses, rhymes, synonyms/antonyms, and the list could go on and on. Here are a few examples of my students’ work.

After students wrote down their 2-5 words (such as the to, too, two above), their classmates had a chance at guessing what the similarity was. Our first some were wayyyyy too easy and we guessed them right away! So I challenged the students to come up with lists that had more than one rule. The top picture below did just that! I love challenging students and watching them step up and exceed my expectations! 🙂

The students really got into this activity, and I enjoyed trying to solve their “problems” as well. There was also plenty of discussion and a little bit of debate as to whether or not certain rules were correct.

If this is as clear as mud, please ask any questions in the comments below.

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Another word work idea I want to share with you today actually needs to be purchased from Rachel Lynette, but it’s worth the few dollars you’ll spend on it! You can purchase it by clicking here or on the picture below.

My higher level 6th graders completed this activity a couple weeks ago. It was one of the few times this year where they actually REQUESTED we continue doing an academic activity. After 30 minutes they were begging for “just one more!” I completely loved their excitement!!

Here’s how we played it:

Group students into “teams” (or you could play as individuals)
Project one card at a time onto board (saves paper!)
Have teams quietly discuss and write answer on whiteboard
After one minute, teams show their answers
A point is given to each team with the correct answer
Team with the most points at the end “wins” (although all in my class were given a small prize – something I don’t do too often!)

It was another successful word work activity for my higher students. We actually ended up doing this same activity for three days that week because they just couldn’t seem to get enough!
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Are you looking for more word work for older kids ideas? Check these out:

Syllables & Rhyming

Homophones & Homonyms

Plural & Possessive Nouns

Synonyms & Antonyms