This game enhances spelling skills while encouraging a bit of healthy competition. Divide your students into three or four teams. Give each team a word that has already been studied in class and allow 15 seconds for one team member to spell it. More difficult words may require up to 30 seconds. If the word is spelled correctly, the student sits down; if she misspells the word, she must remain standing. The team with the most members seated at the end is the winner. Add a bonus round by giving words that the class has not yet studied.
Increase reading comprehension with this game by having students create paragraphs that make sense. Make sets of sentences on large strips of cardboard that create a logical paragraph when put together. Divide the class into three or four teams and give each team a set of the sentence strips. Use double-sided tape on the back of the strips, so that the students can hang them in the correct order. Each team must put the paragraph in a logical order, so that the main idea makes sense when the other teams read it.
This is similar to the comprehension game but requires students to make sentences instead of paragraphs. This game requires a pocket chart and card-stock strips with words and punctuation marks on them. A pocket chart is a hanging piece of fabric that has clear plastic pockets on the front to hold word or phrase cards. Divide the class into three or four teams. Give each team a set of sentence cards, including punctuation and a pocket chart. Have each team make a jumbled sentence with the cards in the pocket chart. When the teacher says, "Switch," each team passes its pocket chart to the team on the right, which has 60 seconds to correct the sentence. The teacher checks each team's work. Repeat this process at least five times. The team with the most correct sentences wins.
This game is an "around the world" style of classroom game. The students stay at their desks, and the teacher chooses the first player at random. The chosen person stands behind another student. The teacher flashes a vocabulary card to the two students, and the first one to call out the meaning of the word correctly is the winner. If the standing student is wrong, he sits at that desk and the other student moves to stand behind the next desk. This goes on until the entire class has had one turn. The student standing at the end is the winner.