Having Fun with Text
These activities are suitable for individual, group or class work. They
illustrate that students AND teachers can have a lot of fun learning with,
through and about language.
* Find the longest word on the page. Write it big on a paper strip. Cut it up
into single letters. Use the letters to make new words. Who can make the
most new words?
* Cover up all the nouns, verbs or adjectives on a text passage. Replace
the noun, verb or adjective with your choice. Do this so as to preserve
meaning. Then do it again so as to distort meaning. Who can create the
funniest text?
* Find and underline all the keywords in a text passage. Delete all the key
words except their initial sound. Exchange the text with another student.
Now each student guesses and completes their keywords so their passage
makes sense.
* Choose a common word. Count how many times it occurs on a given
page.
* Choose the longest sentence on a page. Write it on a paper strip and cut
it up. Exchange your words with another student. Reassemble the words to
recreate the original sentence.
* Find the five longest words on a page. How many little words can you
find inside each of them?
* List ten important words from a given topic. Write a clue for each of
them. Arrange the words in a grid like a crossword puzzle, with numbers
indicating the clue sentence that belongs to each word. Erase the words
from the grid. Exchange the empty grid and the clues with another team.
Who can solve the puzzle first?
* Study one given text passage. Formulate one question about this text.
Give the answer to your class members. Can they guess what your
question was?
* Spelling Race: put a number of words in a bucket. Each team gets letters
(all those necessary to spell each word in the bucket). A word is picked
from the bucket. Each team chooses the letters necessary. Each letter is
held up by a team member. Team members arrange themselves in the
correct order so as to represent the given word.
* Choose an item from a given topic (eg Ear Health Awareness –
hammer). Describe its function (transmits sound), appearance (whitish,
small), consistency (hard, bony), location (middle ear, attached to the ear
drum) etc. Who can guess what it is?
* Choose the keyword in a text passage. Write a word for each of its
letters (eg “Everyone Averts Roaring Sounds” = EARS)
* Find all words starting with a given sound in a text passage. List them in
alphabetical order.
* Choose a short sentence. Say it backwards. Who can say it correctly?
If you have any more good ideas, please share them with your fellow
teachers.
Shared fun doubles the pleasure.