Slice & Dice

Corrie Ball

PURPOSE:

• To make a simple teaching aid with multiple uses for the purpose of spicing up boring lessons.

ACTIVITY 1:

Type up a long list of adjectives in columns and print, cut into strips of approximately the same length so that each strip contains one word. (You could also use magnetic poetry, or laminate the paper first so that you have a more permanent set).

Allow each student to pick a word out of a container (or hat if you wanna be old school).

Hand out the day's writing worksheet. (Ex/ a worksheet where they have to form sentences using specific verb patterns or grammar points).

Tell them they must use their chosen adjective when forming the sentences in the worksheet.

Allow them to look up the word in the dictionary if they don't already know it.

TIPS:

• Adjectives can be chosen from the text book so that they only have to look it up in the text, or they can purposefully be new words so that they have to practice using a dictionary. I used new words and it was really interesting to see what they could come up with – although the activity was hard so it became more about the words and less about the grammar point worksheet.
• You could have a deal where if they can't figure out how to use they word, they can trade it for another one in the hat, but then they have to make an additional sentence (or something).

VARIATIONS:

1. Use subjects in place of adjectives.

2. Try using slang words as adjectives (sweet, awesome, cool, etc). They like learning these words anyway. If using these words, you might want to teach them the words first as a class, and then allow them to pick one of the words.

3. Use magnetic poetry, putting the words on the board and then letting them come up and take a word off the board (instead of picking from a hat).

4. Allow them to work in groups to make a story or several sentences using their given words.

ACTIVITY 2:

Make the word strips using adjectives, subjects or verbs.

Divide into groups.

Allow them to choose a word out of the “hat”.

Have them make sentences with the chosen words as a group (first group wins), or one at a time at the board (having them choose the word while at the board and call back to the group for help if they need the word to be looked up, first group to finish writing their sentence wins the round).

ACTIVITY 3:

Cut up sentences into words.

Everyone picks one word

Let them walk around the classroom and find the people that make up their sentence.

TIP:

• These should be easy target sentences from the book and would probably work especially well for questions. The first group to complete their sentence wins. Be careful to make sure the completed questions are obvious.

ACTIVITY 4:

Cut up letters (or use scrabble pieces if you have them) instead of words.

Put the students into groups.

They have to form as many words as they can with their group's letters.

TIPS:

• Use a disproportionate amount of vowels. To make it fair, you may want to pre-determine what letters the groups will get and put them in plastic bags. The group that finds the most words wins. This is like Boggle Jr or Text Twist.

VARIATIONS:

1. Many Western holiday names work well if you want to use this in conjunction with a holiday lesson. It may be easier to just write out the holiday name and tell them to use the letters to form words, but that takes the fun out of figuring out that the letters spell the holiday. Also, a lot of students do better (and have more fun) when they are able to physically rearrange the letters.

ACTIVITY 5:

Make two sets of slips of paper with different time phrases. For example: Next week, In 20 years, Four years ago, When I turn 16, In high school, When I get married, etc.

Divide into teams of about 4-6.

Have the teams (two teams at a time) put the phrases in order from the earliest past event to the farthest in the future event.

The group that finishes the fastest wins.

TIPS:

• I did this in class rows (6 rows). Our rows are conveniently by gender, so I had each row do it (2 rows at a time) and timed them with a stopwatch, clapping for the winner. I totaled the girl times and the boy times to see who was faster—the boys or the girls. Then I gave them worksheet with the phrases starting out sentences that they needed to complete. I had them in order from past to future, and separated them into a past category and a future category to help them understand what verb tense to use. Interesting results.

• They don't understand “When I grow up”. I made this the title of the future part of the worksheet and tried to explain the phrase with some drawings of trees and plants. I think it was a lost cause, but I thought it was relevant since it is such a common English phrase. Just a warning.