Wordplay Junior: Daily Word Games

Wordplay Junior: Daily Word Games is a series of three-hundred language games that could be used as bell-ringers or bonus activities, great for reviewing Common Core vocabulary standards and foundational reading skills with 2nd through 4th grade students.

In my Ten-Minute Grammar daily language units, I include a series of word games that I tag onto the end of every day's grammar bell-ringer. My students love the Wordplay activities so much that I thought it would be worthwhile to offer them as a separate product in my store. Many reviewers asked for a set of Wordplay games for younger grades: request granted!

I created these word games as a way to get students' brains working as they come into class and get ready to work. Each activity engages students' minds in a different way, and each is designed to teach a different language concept or skill--from basic phonics to roots and affixes to vocabulary development. The goal is to get them thinking about language and to get the creative juices flowing--and a somewhat sneakier goal is to covertly convince kids that English can be fun!

The unit includes TEN different word games with thirty rounds each:

* "Dueling Homophones” – Students are given two homophones and are asked to write sentences that correctly use BOTH words.
* “Letter Combinator” – Students are given a vowel combination or digraph and are asked to list words that contain this letter combination.
* “Spelling Bee” – Students figure out the missing letters to spell a high-level word.
* “Replacer” – Students are given a passage from a classic children’s book and are asked to replace one word with as many words as possible that still make sense in context.
* “One Plus One” – Using a series of clues, students try to guess the two simple words that make up a compound word.
* “Synonymous” – Students are given a words and are asked to list synonyms and antonyms.
* “Seussify” – Students come up with rhyming words like Dr. Seuss.
* “Story Time” – Students are given six random vocabulary words and are asked to write a very short story that uses all of them.
* “Blender” – Students list words that contain a given consonant blend.
* “Starts With” – Students think of words that fit into a given category and start with one of three given letters.

This full-year package contains enough Daily Wordplay activities to last through three hundred days of class (that's more days than most school districts have in a calendar year!), as well as a teacher's guide with instructions for each game and ideas for how to use them in class.

If you like these activities, check out my TEN-MINUTE GRAMMAR units, which incorporate Wordplay games as a bonus activity after daily grammar bell-ringers.

And if you're looking for more difficult word games for higher aged students, check out:
WORDPLAY PRIME: DAILY WORD GAMES! 4th - 6th Grades
DAILY WORDPLAY! FULL YEAR OF LANGUAGE GAMES! 7th - 8th Grades
DAILY WORDPLAY! EXTREME BRAIN BLOWOUT EDITION! 9th - 12th Grades

This product download will come as an interactive PowerPoint file, perfect for use with a Smart Board or other interactive white boards.

Enjoy!

Created by Arik Durfee