WORD GAMES Activities for Creative Thinking and Writing

Wordgames is a handy reference with a whole year's worth of short, snappy ideas to help build writing skills and generate enthusiasm for writing in your classroom. The ideas can be used as great starters to stimulate students' interest in writing or as lesson gapfillers, and they are well suited for use with a mixed ability class.

Teachers are interested in getting children to write, but it isn't always easy. To present a well-structured writing lesson can take a big chunk out of the school week. Increased curriculum work-load often means writing is put to one side, with the result that weeks can pass without any writing taking place. Add to this the fact that groans often accompany the writing lesson. 'I can't think what to write about!' students complain. 'I don't know how to start!' 'I'm stuck!' When enthusiastic students do write, their stories take forever to read. Writing can somehow become a chore. This book attempts to address all of these problems.

Wordgames are short, self-contained writing exercises. Most should take no more than 10 to 15 minutes to complete. Each activity is structured in such a way that the teacher can see at a glance the degree of difficulty and the procedure to be followed.

Table of Contents

1. Teaching with wordgames
2. Wordgames list
3. Fifty prose wordgames
4. Fifty wordplay wordgames
5. Talk about, write about