Synonyms are different words that mean somewhat the same thing, such as pretty, beautiful and lovely. Give each student a card with a synonym. Upon your signal, everyone stands and holds up his card. As the students spot someone holding a synonym to theirs, they move together to form a group. The first group to gather all its members sits down. The seated team forfeits its win, however, if they have overlooked someone and sit too soon.
Antonyms are words that have the opposite meaning, such as loud and quiet. A small-group game is a version of "Old Maid" called "Old Auntie Nim." Make a deck of cards with 25 pairs of antonyms and one "Old Auntie Nim." Deal out all of the cards to the players. The students match up any antonyms in their hand and lay them down. Players take turns drawing cards from each other's hand and laying down any antonym pairs until only one student is left with a card, the losing "Old Auntie Nim."
Contractions are two words joined together with missing letters replaced by an apostrophe, such as could not and couldn't. To play contraction bingo, give students blank bingo cards containing 25 squares, along with a list of 40 contractions. The students will select 24 contractions from the list and write them randomly on their card. Hold up two words that form a contraction. Players mark the matching contraction on their card. The first one to complete a line yells Bingo!
Homophones are words that sound alike, but are spelled differently and have different meanings, such as sea and see. Divide your class into teams and give them a homophone pair. They will create clues about their homophones to use as hints. For instance, toe/tow -- part of a foot/to pull something along. When the guessing is done, have each team draw a silly picture of their homophone, such as a towboat towing a toe. Make a class homophone book from these pictures.