Day#4 Category Activities

Day#4 Handouts

Category Activities - Categories Wordlists Students work with partners. One partner is given a list of words from a particular category. They give clues (without using hands or gestures) to their partner and try to guess as many words as possible within in given time limit. - Guess the category Students work with partners. One partner is given a category (e.g. things people have in their pockets and words related to tennis). They must list items in that category while their partner guesses. The person giving the clues cannot describe the category or use their hands or gestures. - Scattergories Divide the class into groups of three or four people each. On the board, write five or more categories. Give the students a letter (H); their task is to come up with one example of each category that begins with that letter (hot dog, hamburger, hotel receptionist, helpful, hyena, Havana). When a group has one example for each category written down, they raise their hands and you check. If their answers are correct. If so, you can continue with the same categories but a different letter. Another version is giving them a time limit and seeing how many unique examples of each category they can come up with in that time (“unique” meaning no other group writes it). Another variation is to have a 'multi-round'. Students can right down as many words for those letters as possible and get one point for each word (or each unique word). Sources of Scattergory Categories… http://scattergorieslists18.blogspot.kr/ http://swellgarfo.com/scattergories/ http://www.funenglishgames.com/worksheets/scattergorieswithcategories.html Category Timebomb    - The teacher gives students a particular category (e.g. animals with tails, what will you do this weekend). Students have to give an example from that category as a time bomb device is passed around. Whoever is holding the device when the bomb goes off, must complete an extra task (e.g. impromptu speech or sing a song)

Boggle A word game using 4x4 or 5x5 letter dice.  The purpose of the game is to discover as many words as possible within a jumbled square of randomly selected letters. A valid word can only be formed if each letter is contiguous (i.e. side-by-side, above or below, or on the diagonal) with the next, and no letter position can be used more than once in any given word. Resources http://www.wordtwist.org/ http://www.wordplays.com/boggle?

Team category brainstorm Divide the class into teams and take turns assigning each team a category (e.g. nouns that begin with 'g' or four legged animals that live in Africa). One person is chosen as the 'recorder' for the team. They stand at the board and write down suggestions from their teammates. Recorders cannot speak, but other team members can suggest spelling corrections and clarifications. The team with the most items listed on the board wins. Variation: Brainstorm Rummy Go around team by team asking them to say a word that they have brainstormed. You could also have students write the words on the board. Once that word is written, all teams must cross it off their list.  The team with the last unique word left wins.

Topic Brainstorm and Discussion Think of a list of words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, phrasal verbs, etc.) related to ta particular topic (e.g.  money). That list will depend on students´ level or only focus on a specific theme, but could include: Nouns: wallet, coin-purse, handbag, credit card, loan, cash, debit card, ATM machine Verbs: pay, buy, shop, spend, waste, ask for (a loan), make, earn, invest Phrasal verbs: take out (a loan, cash from the ATM), pay out, pay off, pay back, pay up Adjectives: rich, wealthy, poor, loaded, profitable, bankrupt, cheap, expensive Post the words on a whiteboard or digital screen.Ask students to look at them and discuss any questions about what the words mean, or look them up in a dictionary. Put students into pairs and ask them if they can add any words to the lists. Give them just a couple of minutes to do so. Having shared their additions with the rest of the class, tell them you would like them to write a "Money Questionnaire" using the words from their mind-maps to complete the following phrases, which can be repeated to create a questionnaire with ten questions. Have you ever...? Do you...? Did you...? Have you...recently? Would you...? Put pairs together and ask them to ask each other their questions, noting down each pair´s answers. Give them a time limit. Change pairs. Repeat. Change pairs one last time (time permitting). Ask pairs to review the answers and write a general statement for each question based on the results. Examples could be, "Everyone questioned uses an ATM" or "Only one person was robbed" or "Four out of six people took out a loan recently". Ask pairs to share the most interesting/most surprising results with the rest of the class.

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