Guest Post: The Amazing Word Race

Today's post is brought to you by Adrianne Meldrum from Kids Cog Works. I am so excited for you guys to read this one -- it's such a great idea!

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I am sure you have heard of the show Amazing Race where contestants race all over the world and get clues to their next destination.

Borrowing from this idea, I have come up with The Amazing Word Race! In this game, students would be in groups of two to four. They need to decide the name of their team. The object of this game is to practice or review some phonics that you're students may be missing, but in a super-fun way.

Everyone will be given the first card. It has a phonics sound that they have to hunt for. All books, print, magazines ~ everything is available for their use in this game. They are even allowed to use the dictionary! Players must use at least 5 different resources when making a list. When you say "Go" students will race to get their hands on some print and start hunting for words. If a team fills up their paper, they race back to you and get the next clue.

For an example, on a card it may have the sound /sh/ on it. The card will have a sample of words that start with that sound and have the sound somewhere in the middle. Students may just run to a dictionary and write down all the words that start with /sh/ like "shoot", but if they really get smart they can write down words like "swish" or "fish". You can choose to limit how many words they use that start with the sound on the clue card.

You will continue in this fashion until there is a clear winner. Consider having a winner ceremony and reward all the students in some way for playing the game. I made printables for you to use in this game. Click here to get them. I hope you have fun racing towards better learning!


Adrianne Meldrum has a degree in Elementary Education. She currently tutors struggling readers and middle school math students. She is the author of Kidscogworks.com and creator of Brain Tower . Adrianne is the wife of an engineer and a mother to three very handsome boys.

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Thanks for the fantastic idea, Adrianne! I can't wait to use it!

Thinking of this game makes me wonder if we could tweak it a little to use it for slightly different subjects. For instance, young students could go on an "Amazing Color Race" and try to take pictures of as many, say, green things as possible. Or maybe students could go on a different "Amazing Word Race" and try to hunt the room for other words that fit their spelling words' patterns. 

I wonder if we could even tweak this idea to use it for older students. For instance, when I taught secondary English, I offered extra credit to students that could find examples of what we were learning in real life. I encouraged students to send me music or audio clips recorded from a commercial, pictures of signs or movie posters, etc. that incorporated a vocabulary word or literary concept that we had studied. Could English students could go on an "Amazing Simile Race" or an "Amazing Symbolism Race" with a stack of books or stories?

Or what if geometry students went on an "Amazing Shape Race" and tried to find as many examples of geometric shapes as possible in the classroom or outside?

Really, the possibilities are only limited to your imagination. :) I'd love to hear your ideas and other thoughts in the comments below!