Having fun with cut-out words

Cutting out words from magazines, etc before you take them for recycling is fun enough in itself. It’s something I do occasionally when I have time, and I really enjoy choosing the words.

Mostly, in this case, it was because the words are on the Cambridge wordlists for Pre-A1 Starters, A1 Movers and A2 Flyers wordlists. But also because I really liked a word.

I had gathered a whole box of words but, as I’m doing more and more training and teaching online rather than face-to-face, when I was packing clothes to send across to Brody, Ukraine, I decided to send Yulia the words. I didn’t even tell Yulia I was sending them or why!

So, last week, when Yulia thanked me for the words and told me how much the students from displaced families who meet up at Doria, Brody, had enjoyed playing with them, it was a real pleasure!

“Today we had a lesson and used this game. It was great, thank you.”, said Yulia.

My reply: “Haha! I’ve been meaning to explain about this! For some time, I’ve been cutting out words from magazines. I thought they could be used to make posters, or as a game. I had them lying around and thought that you and your kids might find them useful.”

With Doria’s and Yulia’s permission, I can share photos of the students in action, and what they did with the words.

“I just gave them all these cut-up words and asked them to make up as many sentences as they can.”, Yulia told me.

In this case, the winner was the pupil who made the biggest number of sentences.

“It was exciting. They liked this game.”

It’s very hands-on, isn’t it? And discovering which words are in that pile is exciting too, isn’t it?

I was delighted to see that the students’ sentences are so positive. As I said, I chose words I liked as well as those on the wordlists. But especially because these students have all had to move to Brody because of the current situation in Ukraine. Goodness knows what they’ve been through, so I think that this activity, creating, discovering, must have done them the world of good. I think the photos also show their engagement and enjoyment.

Note:

OK, there’s no punctuation in any of these sentences (so maybe I need to cut some out and send them so that they can add that).

There are no articles, prepositions because they weren’t part of the pack. You could ask students to say what’s missing from the sentences.

Other ideas for using these words

• Get students to make a poster by placing/sticking their favourite words onto a sheet of paper/card.
• Students choose three words that describe them in some way (e.g. hair colour/length, hobby, favourite food/place, etc) They ask and tell each other about these things.
• Students write a poem including as many of the words as possible.
• Students make ‘silly’ sentences with the words. e.g. Dogs like drawing students in their art classes.

• Sort the words into types: adjectives, nouns, verbs, etc.
• Sort the words into words you like/don’t like and explain why.
• Put the words into two piles: I know/I don’t know. (or three piles – I know/I think I know/I don’t know.

I’m sure that you can think of more ways to use cut-up words – please share them with me!

And always re-use, recycle! Perhaps you have some old coursebooks that are just filling your bookshelves – cut out the pictures, cut out the words – and punctuation!

And if you liked this post, then I think you might also enjoy my previous post on Fun, Cool Adjectives.