An engaging format for practicing contraction formation.

Each player needs one board, two dice, and a writing implement. The object of this solitaire game is to see which  contraction is the winner. I have kids play until they get a gold, silver, and bronze medalist.

Play is pretty straightforward. Occasionally there will be a roll that doesn’t work: she, have, for example. Then the player simply rolls again. When the star is rolled, the player has to add n’t to a word on that same die, ignoring the other die. Any of the words will work with n’t. (The player using the game board shown here just enjoyed repeatedly using would as the base word.)

Die #1                          Die #2

she                             would

they                           are

we                              have

it                                 is

you                            will

he                              *

Game board: 5 empty rows and 6 columns for ‘ll, ‘s, ‘re, ‘d, n’t, and ‘ve.