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Elementary Games to Teach Homophones

For language arts teachers, homophones -- words that have the same pronunciation but different meanings -- can be a tricky subject to teach. If you have experienced frustration at trying to help young students understand the difference between its and it's, you can use classroom games such as fill in the blanks, the homophone card game, words and pictures, and collecting objects.
  1. Fill in the Blanks

    • Write a simple story that the children can easily read. Leave blanks for words that have homophone equivalents, with the two choices written parenthetically below the line. For example, the story might include lines such as, "(One) (Won) morning, (eye) (I) got out of bed, (ate) (eight) breakfast, and brushed my (hare) (hair)." Hand out copies that the children can work from or use a projector so everyone can read the story at once, and have them fill in the blanks.

    Homophone Card Game

    • Create a deck of cards with matching pairs of homophones. You may need to create several decks and divide the students into groups, depending on the size of your class. Deal each student seven cards, and place the rest of the cards in a drawing pile. Have each student take turns drawing cards. If students have a match, and can correctly use both words in a sentence, they get to discard both cards. The first student to discard all cards wins.

    Words and Pictures

    • Use slides or PowerPoint to show images that correspond to words with homophone equivalents (for example, "tie/Thai," "flee/flea," and "shoo/shoe.") Have the students guess and use correctly the right word.

    Collecting Objects

    • Assign your students the task of finding objects in their homes that could be taken to represent homophone equivalents, such as "pair (of something)/pear" "tee/tea" or "knight/night." Have them give presentations explaining the meaning of the objects they chose.

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