Slap that Word

1) Slap that Word is a fun game you can play with children that will help them associate and reinforce written and spoken words that have been introduced during your lessons. You'll need these materials: fly swatter, word wall (words written on a chalkboard or white board). The goal of the activity is that given a spoken word, the student will quickly be able to recognize the word's written form.

Aim: Building fluency and recognition skills

Activity: Slap words located on a 'word wall'

Level: Children

Outline:

• Have your students gather near the word wall.

• Use the following introduction: We are going to attempt to locate words on the word wall quickly. When you hear the word, look for the word on the wall and then swat it as fast as you can with this fly swatter.

• Call out a word from the word wall and ask the first student whose turn it is to locate the word and swat it with the fly swatter.

• Lead the class in a cheer when the correct word is slapped. Aid students who are having trouble. When the first student's turn is over, repeat the process for the next student.

• Add a timed component if you wish to make the activity more competitive.

2) The Bell Game challenges students to pronounce target lesson words correctly in a competitive game. You'll need a deck of cards that contains each target word for the lesson(s), and two small bells. The goal of the activity is given a written regular word, the student can say the word with automaticity.

Aim: Word form recognition together with pronunciation

Activity: Competitive bell game in small groups

Level: Children

Outline:

• Divide students into two teams.

• Have the first player from each team come up to a desk at the front of the room. Place two bells on the desk, one for each player.

• Use the following introduction: Today we are going to play The Bell Game. When I show you a word card, the first person to ring her bell and read the word correctly gets one point for her team.

• Make sure that you read the word before you ring your bell. If you ring your bell, but cannot read the word immediately, within one second, your team will lose a point. Therefore, it is important that you read the word silently before you hit your bell.

• If you read the word incorrectly, the player on the opposite team gets a chance to read the word, but this time for two points instead of one.

• If both players miss the word, call on someone else in the class to give the players a hand. In this scenario, no points are awarded.

• Have a new set of players come to the board every round or every other round.

3)

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