39 ESL Vocabulary Activities: For Teenagers and Adults - Jackie Bolen, Jennifer Booker Smith 2015

Words in words
Games and activities for all levels

Skills: Writing

Time: 5-10 minutes

Materials: Worksheet/whiteboard or PowerPoint

You probably did this when you were in school. Give students a word and have them make as many words as possible using the letters in that word. For example: “vacation” = a, on, no, act, action, taco, ant, van. You can give a point for each word, so that the student with the most words wins, or give more points for longer words. When time is up (about five minutes), show students the possible answers.

is up to you whether you show all the answers or an abridged list.

Procedure:

1. In advance, prepare a long word and write it on the whiteboard or a PowerPoint or give students individual worksheets.

2. Give students a time limit of about five minutes to make words from the letters in the word.

3. To make it a competition, when time is up, you can give students points for each word.

4. When the activity is finished, show students all of the possible words they could have made. You can get these from www.wordles.com.