Partners brainstorm multiple meanings of a word.
The idea is to get kids thinking about one word’s different meanings. It’s a great way to deepen students’ understanding of parts of speech. Third graders are often tempted to create a new sentence that actually assigns the same meaning to the target word as the last sentence did. But when I verbalize the part of speech students’ just gave the word, they become more flexible about thinking of other jobs that word can do in a sentence. For each new meaning used correctly in a sentence, a team puts a chip down on its score board.
The reason I pair kids up is so that each can benefit from the other’s input, thereby enlarging their vocabulary and/or increasing their flexibility in thinking. For the same reason, I allow each person one chance to “Ask a Friend” on another team. Rather than being an assessment tool, this game is designed to enhance children’s word knowledge and divergent thinking.
Variation:
You could have a number on each card. The objective is to come up with equations that use different operations to equal the target number. If you want to add in a bonus element: 2 chips could be earned if the pair can find a way to use all 4 operations in an equation.
Laura Hulbert 