Scrabble – crosswords
Equipment list
Boxes of letter tiles
Laminated sheet for each team to put the tiles on.
Explanation
The pupils’ starting point can be one of the words of the week or one from a glossary and they carry on from there down and across (as they would for a Scrabble boardgame). The teacher selects who must run to fetch a letter: a single pupil, half the team of the whole team. It is quite all right to vary over several rounds with this activity, or from time to time.
Variation/progression
Each word pupils manage to add earns points to the team, and possibly extra points if it is a word learnt from the previous lesson or a word with more than five letters. It is possible to have requirements on which type of word the teams must use, for example nouns (masculine or feminine), verbs (strong/weak, or in the infinitive, present or past) or adjectives. There are several possibilities!
Participants’ feedback on activity
Pupils find this activity enjoyable. After a while, they end up organizing/making their own board and looking for specific letters. The teacher goes round and asks open questions if a word is misspelt. The pupils must then find the missing letter.
