Vocabulary Scavenger Hunt

 

            Today's Snack: a "scavenger" goes out and gets things that would otherwise be thrown away. You can make a really delicious snack by "scavenging" for tasty leftovers in your refrigerator or cupboards! Try to mix foods you haven't mixed before. How about: a handful of Cheerios + a handful of raisins + a handful of peanuts . . . or a cup of leftover popcorn + ½ cup of mini-marshmallows + ¼ cup of dried fruit, cut up . . . or a mixed "salad" of cut-up carrots, celery and cucumber slices, in ranch dip.

 

 

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Notebook or notepaper

Pen or pencil

Post-It notes or scrap paper

Stopwatch

Whistle (optional)

Gather about 30 small items from around the house. Examples:

 

Feather

Straw

Toilet-paper tube

Key

Pine cone

Shiny fabric scrap

Shoelace

Clothespin

Toy car

Ball

Spray perfume

Rubber band

Pipe cleaner

 

 

            This is an exercise to help you build up your ability to make rapid associations and create lots of words quickly. It's important to be able to generate vocabulary words if you want to write fluently and well.

 

If you're doing this with more than two or three students, you might want to give each one a number with a Post-It note.

 

            Put these items all over the room, and if this is a group activity, put their Post-It number next to each one.

 

            Have the students number a piece of paper from 1 to 30 along the left-hand column, skipping five lines between each number to give them room to write five or 10 or more words after each number. They should end up with fix or six sheets of paper with numbers every five lines.

 

            Have the students choose an item and stand in front of it. You're going to give them 30 seconds to write down as many words or phrases as they can that come to mind when they look at or handle that object. They should write down the words or phrases next to the number in their notebook.

 

            How do you make associations with an object that can produce words for your list? You just think about the item and how it fits in various categories. Each student should think of the five senses in coming up with vocabulary words to associate with the item: touching, tasting, seeing, hearing, smelling . . . or actions that the item suggests . . . or animals or machines that "go" with it . . . or book or movie titles . . . or history . . . or common, everyday expressions . . .

 

Let's take the first item, the feather. First, you would write down the name of the item. Then you might write down the color. Then you might write down other words you associate with it. Your list, in 30 seconds, might look like this:

 

Feather

White

Flying

Native American

Bird

Tickle

Quill pen

Light as a. . .

. . . in your cap

 

After the 30 seconds are up, either blow a whistle or, for a less intrusive signal, flip the lightswitch. That's the students' cue to move on to the next numbered item. They should move on to that number in their list, and start writing down new vocabulary words that go with that item.

 

Keep on with this process until all the students have done all the objects.

 

Now, if you're doing this alone, go ahead and circle one word or phrase that you thought up for each object. If you're in a group, you could go around the room and have the kids take turns reading their lists; that way, if you hear a neat word for an object that you didn't think of, you can add it to your list at that time.

 

Once that process is completed, then make another list of the words that you have to use in your story.

 

            Look at the words and start making associations between them. Then think up a story that you could tell that could work in the words on your list.

 

            Finally, start writing your story. You can cross off words from your list once you've used them.

 

            When you are done, if you're in a group, read your story aloud.

 

            At the end, you can compare stories and see if there are some words that a lot of students chose to use in their stories, and some that only one person used.

 

            You can do this exercise over and over. It's a great way to build "fluency" - the ability to think of a lot of words quickly. It's an important skill to help you come up with words and choose between them when you are writing . . . which, after all, is nothing more than a scavenger hunt with words!