Teacher's Toolkit: Activities to Help Students Practice Using Context Clues
If we want our students to increase their vocabulary, it's important that they develop their skill for using context clues. The downside? It can be a pretty dry skill to teach....unless you use interactive and engaging activities to do it.
That’s the key - if you can make a skill (even a boring skill) interactive and fun, it doesn’t matter WHAT you’re teaching, students will buy in to the process.
I took this challenge on when I set out to create resources for teaching context clues and I’m happy to report that I’ve done the heavy lifting for you!
In this post, I’m sharing 3 FREE games for practicing context clues, plus a BONUS activity that will blow your mind! Keep reading, you don’t want to miss it!
Feel free to add them to your teacher toolkit to pull out for literacy centers.
GAME 1: TALK LIKE A PIRATE
Did you know that September 19th is national "Talk Like a Pirate Day?" Yup. My teacher friend would celebrate it every year with her students since she had a pirate themed classroom and I used to go in and help her and her students for the festivities. One year she happened to be working with her students on context clues around the holiday, so I created a fun game to help celebrate the day, while still keeping focus on the skills they were studying. It was a BIG hit with the kiddos.
In the game, students use context clues to figure out the meaning of fun pirate words like avast, swab, and ahoy.
And of course, you don’t have to wait till September 19 to use this game. Any day is a great day to talk like a pirate!
GAME 2: CONTEXT CLUEs TIC-TAC-TOE
Who doesn't love a good ol' fashion game of Tic-Tac-Toe? EVERYONE does! This game is an easy-prep center game that students can play with a partner.
On one side of the card students read a sentence containing a challenging or unfamiliar word. On the other side of the card students choose the meaning that best fits the sentence. After checking the answer key, if the student is correct, he/she can place a marking chip on the tic-tac-toe board. It's simple and effective!
GAME 3: CON-TEXT CLUES
Even my 3 year old daughter knows what texting is. I created this last game a few years ago to use students' love for texting to my benefit in teaching them to use context clues. This fun game has students reading text conversations on "phones" and requires them to use context clues to figure out the meaning of unknown words.
BONUS ACTIVITY: Context Clues LINKtivity®
I mean, I don’t like to pick favorite, buuuuut….I’m gonna pick a favorite, and this. is. it!
This Context Clues LINKtivity® doesn’t just help students understand what context clues are and how to spot them while reading, but it actually makes it so that they fully enjoy the process.
New to LINKtivities? Learn more about them here!
Students first learn about the skill by watching a short animated video clip. It’s fun, simple, and eye-catching!
Then, they read a story with their virtual reading buddy to see the skill modeled in action. This part sets them up perfectly for the practice section of the LINKtivity.
Finally, give your students the opportunity to practice finding context clues on their own with 3 high-interest reading passages. Oh and, bonus: YOU don’t have to lift a finger (but you can take allll the credit when your students love you for giving them such a fun activity!)
Check out this sneak peek:
Get access to this LINKtivity® (+So many more!)
This Context Clues LINKtivity® (along with dozens of other reading skills and strategies like sequencing, summarizing, fact/opinion, making connections, questioning, and so much more!) is available inside of LINKtivity® Learning - an all-access pass membership that gives you unlimited access to each and every LINKtivity® for one low monthly price.
Choose from a loaded vault of LINKtivities that includes topics and skills from across the content areas, even holidays and seasons!
Plus, once you’re a member, you will get instant access to all future LINKtivities added to the membership at no extra cost! The LINKtivity® vault grows each month so you’ll always have something to look forward to!
