Have I got a game for you!

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Home : 2004 : October : 3

Have I got a game for you!
By Pat

I was doing the same as you and I hated it. I talked to a veteran teacher who told me about a game called "Rivet". I now play it with my class and they love it. It is for vocabulary words.

Before reading the selection,
such as social studies, you tell them you are going to play "Rivet" (because they are riveted.) Anyway, you begin with one letter and lines for the rest of the missing letters. Say the word is Aztec, on an overhead or on chart paper you write:
A _ _ _ _ . You give yourself one point for giving them the letter A. They start to guess what the next letter is. Say they say: F.

You say "no" and fill in the next missing letter, give yourself a point for giving them a letter. Now you have two and they have zero. Now it looks like this: Az _ _ _. The next kid says T. You say YES and fill in the t. They get a point because they guessed it. Now it's Azt_ _ .

Next kid says Axtec. You give them two more points and fill in the rest of the word. You say, "What is an Aztec?" They guess and try to come up with a definition of an Aztec. They may not know. You now tell them what an Aztec is and write a short definition under the word. Go on to the next vocabulary word.

They love it. Now, they are ready to read the selection. We read social studies together as a class because the vocabulary is hard for them. When those words come up, I refer them to the overhead and remind them what the word means. I think it is much more effective than writing out definitions from a glossary. Also, NO PAPERS FOR YOU TO CORRECT!!!

Try it and let me know how it goes!

Pat