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Vocabulary Activities as seen on the Teacher Support Ezine.
Please note: these instructions will be updated regularly whenever new games or activities are introduced in the ezine.
CONTENTS
1. Memory Game (Pelmanism)............................................................................................................... 2
Vocabulary Games & Activities www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org Page 1 of 22
1. Memory Game (Pelmanism)
1. You can play the Memory Game with one learner, in pairs or in small groups.
2. Prepare a set of cards. This set contains pairs of words.
3. Deal the cards face down on the table.
4. Players take it in turns to turn over two of the cards.
5. If the cards are a pair, the player takes them.
6. If they are not a pair, they are turned over face down.
7. The game finishes when all the pairs have been found.
If you are making your own set of cards, it can be very difficult to include only one possible way of combining words. Don’t worry. Tell learners to look for common combinations or only for combinations covered in the lesson
2. Hangman
1. Choose a word, phrase or sentence. e.g. “technology”
2. Draw one dash for each letter of the word. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
3. Each player guesses one letter at a time. If the letter is in one of the words fill it in everywhere it appears.
e.g. If the first player player picks “e” add the “e” _ e _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
then the second player picks “o” add the “o’s” _ e _ _ _ o _ o _ _
If a player guesses a letter that does not appear in the word then add a line to the
drawing of a person.
Here is an example sequence of drawings, but you can use any drawing you like.
4. If the drawing of the person is completed before the word or words are guessed, the guessing players lose. If the players guess the word or words first, they win.
You can make a similar activity for any adjectives by looking up synonyms in a thesaurus.
However, be aware that:
some adjectives do not have a one word synonym, so you might have to use a phrase. For example in question 4 we have replaced ‘economical’ with ‘good value for money’
some adjectives have a different register. In other words, some adjectives are formal and some less formal. For example in question 5 the word ‘pricey’ is less formal than the word ‘expensive’
some adjectives are only used in combination with certain nouns. For example the words ‘budget’ and ‘low-cost’ are often used in combinations such as budget/low-cost airline, budget/low-cost holiday and budget/low-cost hotel
some adjectives have the same meaning in one context, but not another. For example you can call a vase both ‘precious’ and valuable’. However, a footballer can be described as ‘valuable’ but not ‘precious’.
You might want to highlight these points to your students when you use worksheets like this with your class.
When you are making your own activities, it is a good idea to:
use real examples from native speakers/writers whenever possible. You can find these in course books, newspapers, magazines and good dictionaries
check the meaning and examples in at least two dictionaries, if you are not sure, to make sure that the synonyms are compatible.
Vocabulary Games & Activities www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org Page 4 of 22
4. Antonyms dominoes – Money Adjectives
1. Cut up 1 set of dominoes for each group of 3/4 people. (Note that each adjective appears on two dominoes).
2. Each student takes four dominoes. The remaining dominoes are put in a pile face down.
3. One player plays a domino and the next player has to add an opposite.
When a player plays a domino, they must make a sentence using one of the adjectives. If they cannot make a correct sentence, they cannot use that domino and must wait until their next turn.
4. If the player cannot play a domino, they take one from the pile and wait for their next turn.
5. The winner is the person who gets rid of all their dominoes first.
Vocabulary Games & Activities www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org Page 7 of 22
7. Crossword – Work Verbs
Instructions
Here are two ways of using the same crossword.
Traditional
This method is useful for setting the crossword as homework or to enable students to work more quietly on their own or in pairs.
1. Each student works alone or in pairs to solve the crossword with clues provided by the teacher.
This crossword and the solution are on pages 9 and 10.
Interactive
This method involves students working together to produce clues and then to solve the answers
1. Put the students into two groups, Group A and Group B.
2. Give each group a crossword with only half of the answers completed (see page 11)
3. Each group works together to review the meaning of the words in their half of the crossword.
4. Each group then works together to write clues for each word.
The best clues for students to produce are dictionary type definitions and/or example sentences with a gap for the target word (see hints on making crosswords below).
5. Pair one student from a Group A with one student from a Group B. They then take it in turns to ask each other clues and to complete their crosswords.
Hints on creating crosswords
There are many free programmes on the internet for creating your own crosswords. Searching for the phrase “free crossword maker” will bring up many useful links.
In the traditional crossword, the clues are all definitions. You can save a lot of time by taking the definitions from dictionaries. These definitions were all taken or adapted from the Cambridge Dictionary Online
Dictionaries are also an excellent place to find example sentences. These can then be used to find gap fill type clues.
e.g. Clue: We ___________ a large number of cars from Japan
Answer: We import a large number of cars from Japan
The aim of a wordsearch is to find the words hidden in a grid of letters. The words may be placed horizontally, vertically and diagonally. They are always in a straight line. Words might overlap each other.
Traditional
This method is useful for setting the wordsearch as homework or to enable students to work more quietly on their own or in pairs.
1. Each student works alone to solve the word search crossword with clues provided by the teacher.
This word search and the solution are on pages 17 and 18.
Interactive
These methods involve students working together and interacting to solve the puzzle.
1. The students work in pairs to complete the gap fill sentences on page 19
(Answers to gap fill: a. cold, b. humid ,c. hot, d. icy, e. cloudy, f. rainy, g. foggy, h. pouring, i. snowy, j. mild, k. stormy, l. chilly, m. breezy, n. frosty, o. cool, p. misty, q. freezing, r. boiling)
2. In the same pairs the students try to find the answers to the gap fill in the word search.
For more energetic students
1. Put the students into teams.
2. Give each team a different colour pen.
3. Project the word search puzzle onto the whiteboard.
4. The teacher tells the class one of the words.
5. The students look at the board to try and find the word. Once they have found it, one of the team runs to the board and marks the word.
6. The winning team in the one that marks the most words.
Hints on creating wordsearches
There are many free programmes on the internet for creating your own word searches. Searching for the phrase “free word search maker” will bring up many useful links.
Dictionaries are an excellent place to find example sentences. These can then be used to create gap fill sentences.
Vocabulary Games & Activities www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org Page 19 of 22
12. Speed Definitions – Weather words
1. Divide the students into small groups.
2. Write each word on separate small pieces of paper. Prepare 1 set of words for each group. Fold up the pieces of paper and place each set in a hat or similar container.
3. Place one hat/container on the table in the middle of each group.
4. Each student is given a 30 second time limit.
5. The student takes one piece of paper at a time from the hat/container. The student tries to explain the word on the paper to their group.
6. If the group guess the word, the student gets one point and takes another piece of paper from the hat/container.
7. If the group cannot guess the word, the student folds the piece of paper and replaces it in the hat/container and takes another piece of paper.
8. The game is over when all of the words have been guessed.
9. The winner is the student with the most points.
Here are two sets of pre-prepared weather words. On the next page there are two blank sets for you to use with your own words.
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14. Pictionary
1. Divide the students into small groups. Give each group a large sheet of paper.
2. Write each word on separate small pieces of paper. Prepare 1 set of words for each group. Fold up the pieces of paper and place each set in a hat or similar container.
3. Place one hat/container on the table in the middle of each group.
4. Each student is given a 30 second time limit.
5. The student takes one piece of paper at a time from the hat/container. The student draws a picture that represents the word.
6. If the group guess the word, the student gets one point and takes another piece of paper from the hat/container.
7. If the group cannot guess the word, the student folds the piece of paper and replaces it in the hat/container and takes another piece of paper.
8. The game is over when all of the words have been guessed.
9. The winner is the student with the most points.
This game is similar procedure to 12. Speed Definitions, so you can use the same pre-prepared cards as those in 12. Speed Definitions
Here is an alternative way to play.
1. Divide the class into three or four teams.
2. In turn, a member from each team comes to the board.
3. Give the student a vocabulary word either in writing, or for students that can't read, just whisper it in their ear.
4. Then the student has 1 minute to draw the word you gave them.
5. Each student’s team shouts out guesses.
6. If after 1 minute the team can't guess the word, the person stops drawing, and the other teams, each get one guess.
Make the student put their writing hand behind their back and use their other hand to draw. This is a good way of making teams equal if some of the students are better at drawing than others
The students have to race to the board to draw their pictures. This is effective if your students are more energetic.