This is a game I’ve used for years across a lot of different classes, and it’s one of the most reliable ways I’ve found to get students actively using vocabulary instead of just recognizing it. I call it Dizzy Dice, and once students get the rhythm of it, the energy in the room really picks up. I just had a crazy day doing it, thought I'd share it. I'm adding my climate vocab, but it can be played in any class with just the class topic, or specific vocab or both.
I run it in table groups of four, usually with seven or eight groups going at once. Students get a set of letter dice and two minutes on a visible timer to write one sentence on the topic we’re studying. Every letter on the dice has to be used as the beginning of a word, and I push them to use as much content vocabulary as possible. After time is up, each student reads their sentence, and only sentences that follow the rules and stay on topic can be voted on.
Voting is quick and easy. Everyone raises their “blade hand,” and on command, points to the person who they think wrote the best sentence. Two rounds make a cycle, and winners move up tables while others move down, with more dice added at higher tables for a challenge. I use Dizzy Dice in other classes and with other topics, it works with any vocabulary list, but it pairs especially well with the climate vocabulary work in OER Project Unit 2.4 when you want students to actually apply those terms and others. Works for both a way to open a unit or see what they know at the end or middle of a set. I really gain a ton of formative data from their answers.
Link to the complete directions
Template student sentence page
