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I think this can work with any age group, however I would say grade 5 and up can understand the concept of word associations. The game can be modified for different levels by selecting harder or easier topics. The ideal time is 5 8 - 10 minutes.

Learning objectives

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Instructions to set up the activity

(I found it helped to introduce the idea of word associations first)

Let's talk about word associations. Often times, when we hear a word, we think of something that goes with it. For example, what is the first word that comes to mind when I say "coffee" (kids say out words) what about "blue" (continue to say first word that comes to mind), "summer" (or use anything you like).

Now we're going to use word associations to create a scene together. One person starts in the middle of the circle, acts something out, and says what they are. Then someone else thinks of something that would go together in a scene and joins them in the middle to act it out. Then a third person joins them to act out something that goes together with the scene. (Depending on their level, either the third person stays and continues to act or they all leave and a new scene starts - easier version).

(To help think of associations) "What goes with X?" "Would you find X and Y together?" "How would they interact?"

Letting it run

Depending on how outgoing the students are and what their level is, you could either give them complete freedom to choose whatever they want, or give specific topics such as "at the beach", "school", "summer", etc. I found it was easier for them when I gave them a topic.

This would be a great way If you want to work on a specific topic , you could make flashcards with word ideas as scaffolding in case students get stuck.

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already covered in class.

At the end of the game, we all created one last scene together which was a lot of fun.