Here’s a fun game which came from my colleague, Alcon.  It’s a five-minute end-of-the-lesson activity which gets students thinking!

The teacher thinks of a word and writes the first letter on the board.

Then a student has to think of  a word beginning with that letter and add the second letter.

The next student has to think of a word with those two letters and add the next letter.

The game continues until a word has been made to which no more letters can be added and a point goes to the person who completed the word, who then starts the next word. Students can challenge their classmates if they think someone is inventing a word.

For example, if the word gets to this stage R A N and the next student adds C, a classmate could challenge them to complete the word.  If the student at the board has a valid word, they win the point for that round.  If they can’t write a valid word, the point goes to the challenger.