This document provides instructions for 7 vocabulary activities using words from a word wall including "cake", "cheese", "salami", "pie", "cherry", "chocolate", and "watermelon". The activities involve guessing words from clues, identifying words with similar spelling patterns, guessing words based on letters and sentences, working with word chunks, associating words with tambourine sounds, and identifying a written word from a list. Recommendations include ensuring students understand rules and don't shout out words.

1. By Alba Aguado, Ana Antón, Laura Pastor, Amaya Pérez and Mario Nevado
Story Words Wall
the very hungry
caterpillar
salami
cherrychocolate cheese
watermelon
Number of letters:
Cake (4) Cheese (6) Salami (6)
Pie (3) Cherry (6)
Chocolate (9) Watermelon (10)
Cherry 6
Salami 6

2. ACTIVITY 1 (word detective)
MATERIALS: paper and dry-erase boards
1. The main objective of this activity is to guess words from the word wall.
2. Number your paper from 1 to 5 (number it on dry-erase board)
3. Say out loud: “I´m thinking of a word on the Word Wall”. Try to guess the word
that I´m thinking.
4. I´ll give you one clue at a time.
5. Listen to the clue and write on your boards the word you believe I´m thinking
about.
RECOMMENDATIONS: Make sure that your students understand the rules and
they don´t shout the words. Encourage them to be a good detective.
POSSIBLE CLUES:
Clue 1: The word is on the word wall.
Clue 2: It ends with the letter ___.
Clue 3: The first sound is /___/.
Clue 4: It has the letter ____ in it.
Clue 5: It has ____ letters.
Clue 6: It fits in the sentence__________.
Example 1:
Clue 1. This word ends with the letter e.
Clue 2. The first sound is /k/.
Clue 3. It has the letter “a” in it.
Clue 4. It has 4 letters.
Clue 5. It fits in the sentence: I´ve been baking a _____ this afternoon. (cake)
Example 2:
Clue 1. It’s on the Word Wall.
Clue 2. It end with the letter e.
Clue 3. It start with the sound “ch”.
Clue 4. It has the letter a in it.
Clue 5. It fits in the sentence: Today I have a ______ bar as snack. (chocolate)

3. ACTIVITY 2 (word families and patterns)
MATERIALS: paper and dry-erase boards
1. The main objective of this activity is to tell words with the same writing patter
than one of the words from the word wall.
2. We’ll cover the initial letter of a word from the word all, so the children will see
the rest of the word.
3. We’ll ask them about the last part of the word.
4. We’ll say to the children that words spelled with the same pattern can be
grouped in word families and we will invite them to say more words that follow
the pattern.
5. We will read and spell the words.
Example:
We can carry out this activity using the word pie and the pattern –ie (tie, pie, die,
lie,…) as it is in the syllabus for year one. We also can carry this activity
successfully with the word cake and –ake: make, take, bake, snake,…
RECOMMENDATIONS: Make sure that your students understand the rules and
they don´t shout the words.
ACTIVITY 3 (another type of word detective)
MATERIALS: paper and dry-erase boards
1. The main objective of this activity is to guess words from the word wall.
2. We hold up a certain number of fingers and we will say that the word has that
number of letters.
3. We will say the first/last letter, a letter included in the word…
4. We will say a sentence which the word fit with.
RECOMMENDATIONS: Make sure that your students understand the rules and
they don´t shout the words. Encourage them to be a good detective.
Example :
I’m thinking of a six-letter word.
The letter e is in the word.
The word makes senses in this sentence: I’m going to cut and slice of
____________. (cheese).

4. ACTIVITY 4 (word detective working with chunks)
MATERIALS: paper and dry-erase boards
1. The main objective of this activity is to guess words from the word wall.
2. We are going to work on the words from the wall together with the chunks ‘a
piece of’ and ‘a slice of’.
3. We will say the sentence, i.e: “I’m going to eat a slice of ________”.
4. We will give one or more clues such as the first/last letter, sound, letters
included in the word…
RECOMMENDATIONS: Make sure that your students understand the rules and
they don´t shout the words. Encourage them to be a good detective.
Example 1:
I’m going to eat a piece of ____________.
The last letter of the word is e.
The last sound of the word is /k/. (cake)
Example 2:
I’m going to cut a slice of ___________.
The word has 6 letters.
The word includes the letter a. (salami)
ACTIVITY 6 (Tambourines)
MATERIALS: Tambourines PDI file and/or real drum
The main objective of this activity is to make children guess the word by hearing
the different clapping sounds according to the number of sounds
 Teacher will encourage children to listen and repeat the clapping sounds
before trying to guess the word.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
 Teacher should know which word is behind each red dot in order not to fail
while naming and showing it.
 If you use this activity more than once with the same children, try to change
the order you’re showing the words.

5. ACTIVITY 7 (clever parrot)
MATERIALS: (Cards with written words on them).
1. The main objective of this activity is to recognize the word which is written in
the card that is held by the teacher.
2. The teacher shows the card to the students without looking at the written word.
The teacher repeats a list of words.
3. We’ll ask our pupils to repeat the word they can see in the card which is held
by the teacher. The students only have to repeat the word they can see when
they hear it.
Example:
We can show the word ‘watermelon’ and we will say the following list of words:
‘chocolate, cheese, cherry, salami, cake, ,watermelon, pie’. Once the students
have heard the word ‘watermelon’ and they have recognized the written word,
they have to repeat it. The teacher will notice that the word that is written on the
card is ‘watermelon’.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
 Make sure that your students understand the rules and they don´t repeat
every single word.
 If you use this activity more than once with the same children, try to change
the order you’re showing the words.