It’s baseball season again! The Detroit Tigers have their opening day next week (April 6) and soon many Americans will be heading out the ballfield, eating peanuts and Cracker Jacks, and not ever wanting to come back (to paraphrase a great old tune). In honor of all this, I thought I’d go over some of my students’ favorite baseball-themed activities.

Baseball Vocabulary

First featured in my post about our summer school baseball vs. cricket unit, this vocabulary set is one that gets pulled out and dusted off more springs than not. While my focus is generally more on academic vocabulary, understanding the vocabulary of baseball is a big part of culture learning. I’ve also had several students, especially from Central America, who are quite good at the sport and want to join the school’s team, but are too scared because they don’t know the English vocabulary. Either way, this sort activity is always a great place to start.

Am/Is/Are Triple Play

This oldie but goodie is one of the first task card sets I ever created and it practices the use of present tense to be. When I named this activity, I did intentionally make a play on words with

“triple play,” because it originally had three ways to use the task cards: task cards, response cards, and slap. Since then, by student request, I’ve added a game board so students can play that way as well. Thanks to Covid, there’s now a digital version of the task cards, too.

Who’s On First Listening Practice

This free activity was first mentioned in my post about authentic listening activities. It is a relatively challenging free listening activity in which students watch Abbott and Costello perform Who’s On First and complete a graphic organizer, labeling each position with the player’s name. A digital version of this free activity also exists.

Play Ball Amelia Bedelia Idioms

This activity also had a brief mention in my baseball vs. cricket post. It is very possible that my older (middle school and adults) students’ favorite books to read are Amelia Bedelia, and Play Ball, Amelia Bedelia is perfect for this time of year. Since there are so many idioms related to sports, and baseball specifically, after we read the book and discuss it, I like to take the opportunity to practice idioms. This is a simple matching activity that allows students to practice matching the figurative/idiomatic phrase with the intended meaning.

Conclusion

Our spring baseball unit was always fun and provided a nice way to take a break, but still keep learning, after and in between testing sessions. Even my less athletically inclined students enjoyed different aspects of the unit! If you want to go all out with baseball vocabulary, and just have to have all of these activities, you can get my Baseball Fun Bundle at a 20% discount. Happy teaching, everyone!

“Words are the most powerful thing in the universe…” (Charles Capps) I don’t know about you, but it seems I spend at least half of my instructional time on vocabulary. We know the old school method of assigning lists of words, requiring students to look up and copy definitions from the dictionary, and then quizzing them on those meanings does not result in actual acquisition of vocabulary.

For students to truly acquire, and be able to use, new vocabulary they need to see it in context and connect it to existing frameworks in their brains. Unfortunately, providing students with the necessary context and connections is not always easy. In this post I’d like to review for you some of the various vocabulary units and activities I use to help students truly learn and begin to use the vocabulary they need to succeed. I also have a few previously unmentioned free activities and resources to share with you!

Vocabulary Units/Sets

I have several different vocabulary units (for lack of a better term) I use. When working with preliterate and beginning students, I prefer my Phonics Based Vocabulary Units. When I was teaching with National Geographic’s Inside curriculum, I used academic vocabulary units specifically tailored to those books (level A and level B). With intermediate and advanced students who are in academically focused classes (not community education), I tend to use my 30 Weeks of Academic Vocabulary program.

For more targeted vocabulary instruction, I have themed vocabulary sets. These sets tend to all use the same vocabulary activities and focus on 12-24 words each. I have sets for various themes including:

These themed vocabulary activity sets have come about because of specific needs for various units of study. The use of the same basic activities allows students the opportunity to concentrate on the vocabulary and not spend time and energy trying to understand the directions for the activity.

Vocabulary Activities

While we tend to use the same basic activities over and over again, there are a few that are standout favorites. These favorites include:

• Spin & Spell (free directions to build your own CD spinners!)
• Body Boggle
• Magnetic Spelling (free digital template!)
• Scrambled Words
• Match Up (free directions for building your own match up boards!)

A newer activity that I dreamed up a couple years ago is Connected Vocabulary. To play this game, you need to number your vocabulary words from 1-6, 1-12, or 1-20. Each group will also need two number cubes that have the same value as the number of words in your list. You can find number cubes in all of the standard sizes (D6, D12, D20) fairly cheaply on Amazon. The student whose turn it is will roll the number cubes to determine which words from the list he/she will use that turn. The student will then use both words in a single sentence or explain one way in which the two words/items are connected (i.e.: A cat and a bat are both mammals. -or- Cat and sit both have only one syllable.). If successful, he/she earns a point and the student with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Vocabulary Glossaries

As previously said, looking words up in a dictionary and copying the definition is not the most effective means of gaining new vocabulary. But, as I talk about in the post Adding to Our Lexicons, sometimes it is necessary. When we do engage in “dictionary work,” I prefer to have students go beyond creating a list of definitions. Generally, I ask them to complete either a Circle Graphic Organizer or a Master the Term Graphic Organizer (both are free!). We then place these organizers into our own custom glossaries.

These glossaries aren’t fancy. They are three ring binders (usually one inch) that have construction paper dividers (trim to 9×11 inches) for each letter. Students then place the graphic organizers into the appropriate sections, alphabetizing the words as they go. At the end of the term, semester, or year (however long our class lasts), students have a custom glossary of the terms we learned together.

Vocabulary Glossary TemplateDownload

While the paper glossaries are great, some of my students preferred a digital version. In order to accommodate them, I created digital glossaries in PowerPoint to go with my 30 Weeks of Academic Vocabulary, Academic Vocabulary (correlates with National Geographic’s Inside curriculum), and CCSS Math Vocabulary (third grade and seventh grade) sets. (Side note: if you are teaching with National Geographic’s Pathways series, you can get premade glossaries, and lesson plans, for each book in the Listening/Speaking and Reading/Writing posts.) I also created a general template that students could use to create their own personalized glossaries for any class, subject, or personal learning goal.

The general template includes a title page, a general table of contents slide (letters of the alphabet), a general word list slide for each letter of the alphabet, and a preformatted Master the Term slide. The title page simply says “Vocabulary Glossary” and provides a place for students to list the text or class. The table of contents has all of the letters of the alphabet and each letter is hyperlinked to the appropriate slide for that letter’s word listing. The general word list slides for each letter include a button that is hyperlinked back to the table of contents and a textbox for students to enter their words in alphabetical order. Each letter has one Master the Term slide already formatted with a Table of Contents button and a button to return to that letter’s word list.

To use the template, students need to enter their term on the appropriate letter’s word list. They then will want to copy and paste the preformatted slide to create a new slide for their word. They will complete the sections of the graphic organizer, creating the entry for the new term. Finally, the students will hyperlink the term from the letter’s word list to the appropriate graphic organizer slide. It seems a little complicated but it’s actually quite easy, and I’ve never had a student who preferred the digital glossaries and couldn’t understand what to do with minimal instruction.

This PowerPoint template is a free download just below the picture in this section. The file also translates well to Google Slides, so fear not if you prefer Google over Microsoft. Feel free to help yourself and use it with your own students.

Word Wall Spinner Challenge

Word Wall Spinner LabelsDownload

As I share in my Spin & Spell post, I create custom spinners for various games and activities in my classroom using old CD and DVD discs. My father built me several spinner stands (directions for building your own are free) and my students love using them. I design my own spinners using Publisher and print them on Avery CD labels. Our word wall spinners are just another version. Since our word wall is a central feature of our classroom, one of our go-to time filler activities is Word Wall Spinner Challenge.

The only equipment needed is one of two CD spinners with various challenges on them that relate to the word wall. Which spinner we use depends on how we’ve organized our wall. Since we often organize by part of speech, the second spinner is not very challenging since most of the sections ask the student to find a word of a specific part of speech. The included challenges are:

• Find two rhyming words.
• Choose a word and define it.
• Choose a word and use it in a sentence.
• Find two words with the same number of syllables.
• Find two words with short vowel sounds.
• Find two words with long vowel sounds.
• Find two synonyms.
• Find two antonyms.
• Find a noun/verb/adjective/adverb.
• Find a word that has a prefix or suffix.

To play, students take turns spinning and attempting to complete the challenge. If they do, they earn a point. Sometimes we have a race and two students compete the be the first to complete the challenge.

The CD spinner stand building plans are a free download from my Teachers Pay Teachers store and the CD label templates are a free download above. (The link is just below the picture of the spinner stand.) The PDF file will print out two copies of each spinner label. I will often put a label on each side of the CD so the people sitting behind the spinner can see what was spun as well.

Conclusion

I try very hard to provide as many opportunities as possible for my students to see words in context and practice using them. Are there other things we do to foster these connections? Of course, but the ones included here are the most common and successful thus far. I hope you’ve found at least one new idea to use in your classroom. Happy teaching, everyone!

I am an English language teacher, a grammar nerd, and I lived in Australia for nearly four years, so when I heard about kangaroo words I was ridiculously excited. I first heard about kangaroo words, words that contain their own synonyms (with the letters in the correct order), from a meme on Facebook. Since I know better than to simply believe everything I read online (especially on social media), I did a little more digging and found an article about them on Dictionary.com. Once I determined kangaroo words really are a thing, I got even more excited! A little more searching led me to the Kangaroo Words website, where I learned about twin kangaroo words, grand kangaroo words, and anti-kangaroo words.

Here’s a brief description of each term to help you out:

• Kangaroo Word- a word that contains its own synonym, the letters for the synonym are not necessarily consecutive, but they are in the correct order (example: blossom > bloom)
• Joey Word- the synonym contained within the larger word (example: bloom < blossom)
• Twin Kangaroo Word- a word that contains two of its own synonyms, two joeys, the letters are still in the correct order (example: community > county, city)
• Grand Kangaroo Words- similar to twin kangaroo words, a grand kangaroo word contains two of its own synonyms, but this time the second joey is inside the first joey (example: alone > lone > one)
• Anti-Kangaroo Words- a word that contains its own antonym, the letters for the antonym are in the correct order (example: bearded > bare)

Kangaroo Words Glossary Download

It is probably a little pathetic how excited I got about this new-to-me linguistic phenomenon, but learning of it set my brain off and running with all of the different teaching and game possibilities it presented. I finally settled on a new version of my fishing games, but instead of drawing cards from a “fishing pond” (recycled and painted oatmeal container) students draw out of the “kangaroo pouch” (a fabric bag I made from old bulletin board material, though you can purchase them instead). The game is great vocabulary practice for synonyms (obviously), and even some antonyms, but why practice only one skill when you could include more? Knowing that some of the words would be unfamiliar to my students, (And if they don’t know what the word means how can they find the synonym hidden within it?), I placed each in a sentence so they could use context clues to help them guess the meaning of new words.

Game Creation

First I created a list of the various types of kangaroo words, as many as I could find. I then narrowed those lists down to 68 kangaroo words, 5 grand kangaroo words, 5 twin kangaroo words, and 16 anti-kangaroo words. I then created a glossary of that included the word, a definition for it, and the joey word(s). If you’re interested in what words I used, you can download my glossary for free using the button above.

The next step was to write example sentences for each of the kangaroo words I’d chosen. I purposefully wrote sentences that would give clues as to the word’s meaning because, as I said earlier, if you don’t know what a word means it’s going to be very difficult to identify its synonym. This was, as always, the hardest part of the game creation process; thinking up 90+ sentences for the target words is a much harder task than it seems. Once the sentences were written, the rest was easy.

I downloaded some attribution free, royalty free clip art from Pixabay, designed my playing cards, created a game reference card, and was finished. Each playing card had the type of word written at the top (kangaroo, grand kangaroo, twin kangaroo, anti-kangaroo), a kangaroo clip art image, the example sentence (with the target word underlined), and a point value on it. Kangaroo words are worth +1, grand and twin kangaroo words are worth +2 points, and anti-kangaroo words are worth -1. The game reference cards have definitions for each type of word on one side and scoring instructions on the other.

Game Play

Each group of students (I usually have students play in groups of 3-4) is given a bag with the cards already mixed up inside of it. On a student’s turn, he/she will randomly choose one card from the bag. He/she then reads the sentence and, if needed, may ask a fellow student to read the definition for the target (underlined) word from the glossary. The student then proceeds to try and identify the joey word(s) in the target word (answers can be checked using the glossary. Scoring is as follows:

• Kangaroo Word = keep the card as +1 point if the joey word is identified; discard the card if the joey word is not identified and receive 0 points
• Twin Kangaroo Word = keep the card as +2 points if both joey words are identified; discard the card and receive 0 points if neither or only one joey word is identified
• Grand Kangaroo Word = keep the card as +2 points if both joey words are identified; discard the card and receive 0 points if neither or only one joey word is identified
• Anti-Kangaroo Word = if the antonym is identified, give the card to the opponent of your choice as -1 point; if the antonym is not identified, keep the card as -1 point for yourself

Players continue to take turns, drawing cards and trying to identify joey words. When all of the cards have been drawn, or time is up, the player with the most points is the winner.

Conclusion

This is one of the simplest playing games I have, but it is one of the most linguistically challenging ones. There were quite a few kangaroo words I ran across that I needed help to identify the synonyms within. Though they all make sense when you have them pointed out, some of the synonyms are not the most common ones we associate with the various words. For that reason, I have only tried this game out on my advanced students thus far. They found it to be quite challenging, and I have to admit part of me (no doubt the part that made me a good middle school teacher) was secretly gratified to see them struggle a bit after they all said, “Synonyms and context clues? Again? This is so easy!” Their reaction earned this activity a place in the, remind-the-students-they-don’t-know-everything-yet section of my repertoire, right next to creating a cause and effect chain for The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate The Wash. It also told me that I was right not to ask my lower proficiency students to try and tackle this particular synonyms/context clues practice game yet. Happy teaching, everyone!

Not sure your students are ready for this type of activity? Check out these blog posts for other synonym and context clue activity ideas: