This is an easy warm-up or energizing activity that requires very little to no preparation. Students compete to see how many words they can make from letters included in their name, a quote, and the like. The activity can take up to 15 minutes or more depending on the pace with which your class works.
Procedure:
1. Decide on the working mode of the task: individually, in pairs, or in groups.
2. As you are ready to kick off the activity, you decide what source students will use: their first and family names, quote, the present unit’s title, etc.
3. As soon as they get clear instructions, the students are set to create as many correct English words as they can using only the letters in the source you decided on earlier. To make it a bit difficult, ask the students not to use any letter more than once in a word unless the source includes that (e.g., If your name includes only one “f”, you can not use it twice in a word).
4. Don’t forget to set a time limit according to the level of your students;
5. When the time is up, the students must put down their pens and pencils all at once;
6. If the students use their names as a source, they are asked to say their names first then read their lists. Words that are not correct must be deleted from the list. The student with the highest number of correct words wins and is rewarded;
7. If the task is done in groups or in pairs and the students use the same source like a quote, the group/pair with the highest number of correct words wins and is asked to read their complete list. As the winning group/pair reads, the other groups/pairs remove similar words from their lists;
8. The other groups/pairs read the words they can come up with that the winning group doesn’t have. They are recognized/rewarded for that with a round of applause or little presents;
9. The students should be ready to spell any word they come up with if needed;
10. Misspellings are not counted.
As a follow-up, the students can use the words they created to write sentences or fictional short stories.
