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Macmillan Polska 2010

PHOTOCOPIABLE

Teacher’s Notes

St. Patrick’s Day Words

by Agnieszka Szeżyńska

Type of activity: groupwork; making words

from letters

Focus: general vocabulary
Level/age group: primary, grades 4-6 (elementary)
Time: about 15-20 min

Preparation:

copy one Student’s Worksheet per student and

fold as indicated

Procedure:

1. It’s best to use this activity as a wind-down

after a lesson devoted to St. Patrick’s Day.

Give out the folded worksheets and ask

students not to unfold them for now. Tell

them they should work in groups and solve

the puzzle. Their task is to produce as many

words as they can from the letters of the

phrase ‘Saint Patrick’s Day’. Explain that

within one word created they can use a given

letter as many times as it appears in the

phrase (for example, they can create a word

with 3 a’s, but not with 2 n’s). Consider giving

a time limit with a very creative and

competitive class, otherwise let groups work

until they run out of ideas. (They may of

course come up with more words than the

number of spaces provided.)

2. Before gathering ideas frontally, ask students

to unfold their worksheets and do part 2.

The definitions refer to some of the words

which they might have created in part 1.

3. Finally, check part 2 with the entire class and

ask for any other words they might have

created in part 1.

Key:

rat

cat

sad

sit

rain

tiny

star

skirt

trick

paint

pianist

captain

4. If students enjoyed the activity, you could ask

them to try to create some more words with

letters of ‘leprechaun’, ‘shamrock’ or

‘rainbow’.