Dice, revision and creative work

We sometimes want to engage our students in a creative task, but we are short of new ideas and we desperately need some way of making the activity more attractive to them. We wouldn’t mind throwing in some vocabulary revision while we are at it.

Here are a few tips about how to go about it:

·       Open vocabulary books.

·       Leaf through the pages.

·       Find some words or phrases you have learnt but forgotten with time.

·       Make a list of 24 items.

·       Include verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs in equal measure.

·       Make 4 cardboard cubes.

·       Write one item on each face of the cubes.

·       For each cube, use items of one of the four groups of words.

·       Use the cardboard cubes as dice.

·       Every time you throw the dice, it must be a different group of words. (verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs)

·       Each time you throw the dice, write down the word on the top face on a piece of paper.

·       Make a list of at least 8 items to use in a poem or story.

·       Write your story or poem using the items in any order you like.

The more complicated you want the poem or the story to be, the more turns the students can take and the more items they have to use.