Daily Wordplay! Full Year of Language Games

Daily Wordplay! is a series of over two hundred and sixty language games that could be used as bell-ringers or bonus activities.

In my Ten-Minute Grammar daily language units, I include a series of word games that I tag onto the end of every day's grammar bell-ringer. My students love the Wordplay activities so much that I thought it would be worthwhile to offer them as a separate product in my store.

I created these word games as a way to get students' brains working as they come into class and get ready to work. Each activity engages students' minds in a different way, and each is designed to teach a different language concept or skill--from basic phonics to roots and affixes to SAT level vocabulary development. The goal is to get them thinking about language and to get the creative juices flowing--and a somewhat sneakier goal is to covertly convince kids that English can be fun!

The unit includes eight different word games:

* "Eight Ball" - Students create as many words as they can using eight random letters (at least one eight-letter word is always possible)
* "Four-Letter Words" - Students start with a four-letter word and then change one letter at a time to create a series of words that are only one letter different from one another
* "Combinator" - Students are give a vowel combination (like "ea" or "oi") and must think of as many words as they can that contain that combo
* "Catalog Creator" - Students are given a prefix, suffix, or root and must list as many words as they can that contain it
* "Fixer-Rooter" - Starting with a high-level multisyllabic word, students have to list words that have the same prefix, suffix, or root
* "Rhyme Thyme" - Students start with an assigned word and list as many rhyming words as they can
* "Anagram" - Students must reorganize the letters in several nonsense words to make words that actually make sense (and match the hint)
* "Descrambler" - Students must descramble five words--one with four letters, one with five, one with six, one with seven, and one with eight

This full-year package contains enough Daily Wordplay! activities to last through two hundred and sixty-five days of class (that's more days than most school districts have in a calendar year!), as well as a teacher's guide with instructions for each game and ideas for how to use them in class.

If you like these activities, check out my TEN-MINUTE GRAMMAR units, which incorporate the Wordplay games as a bonus activity after daily grammar bell-ringers.

And if you're looking for more difficult word games for higher or lower aged students, check out:
WORDPLAY JUNIOR: DAILY WORD GAMES! 2nd - 4th Grades
WORDPLAY PRIME: DAILY WORD GAMES! 4th - 6th Grades
DAILY WORDPLAY! EXTREME BRAIN BLOWOUT EDITION! 9th - 12th Grades

This product download will come as a pack of PDF files (a separate file for each Wordplay game) and is intended to be projected directly from your computer (otherwise the students don't get to enjoy the colorful designs of the daily games.)

I hope you enjoy this as much as my students do!

Created by Arik Durfee