… vocabulary is the glue that holds stories, ideas, and content together…making comprehension accessible for children

Hot seat

This is a good activity for getting your students going in the morning. It is also excellent for revising vocabulary.

Author
Callum Robertson

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  First, split your class into different teams (two is best, but if you have a large class, any number could be used).
  
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  Sit the students facing the board.
  
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  Then take an empty chair - one for each team - and put it at the front of the class, facing the team members. These chairs are the 'hot seats'
  
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  Then get one member from each team to come up and sit in that chair, so they are facing their team-mates and have their back to the board.
  
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  As the teacher, have a list of vocabulary items that you want to use in this game.
  
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  Take the first word from that list and write it clearly on the board.
  
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  The aim of the game is for the students in the teams to describe that word, using synonyms, antonyms, definitions etc. to their team-mate who is in the hot seat - that person can't see the word!
  
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  The student in the hot seat listens to their team-mates and tries to guess the word.
  
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  The first hot seat student to say the word wins a point for their team.
  
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  Then change the students over, with a new member of each team taking their place in their team's hot seat.
  
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  Then write the next word…
  

This is a very lively activity and can be adapted to different class sizes. If you have many teams, perhaps some teams wait to play. Or if the team sizes are large, you can restrict how many team members do the describing. Have fun!

Same, opposite or different dictation

This is an activity for advanced or, at least, upper intermediate students.

Author
Ana Paola Reginatto
Dictate to the students pairs of words (e.g. hold/embrace, high/tall) and ask them to classify the pairs as Same, Opposite or Different. Once you have finished dictating the pairs of words, the students should compare their choices with their partner and explain their reasons, especially the pairs classified as different (why are they different?) or same (are they always synonyms? Are there slight differences in meaning and connotation? Are there differences in collocation). If you wanted, students could use dictionaries to check ideas.
After the students have discussed the words, elicit the pairs to the board and deal with spelling, pronunciation and meaning.
This activity can be done to introduce vocabulary that will be found in a text, listening activity or song lyrics, but also for reviews. So, you find words in the text, and think of partners for them for the S.O.D. dictation.
The activity is demanding but it is an excellent way to explore vocabulary and shades of meaning.