Introduction
Teaching children to differentiate between homophones can be easily and enthusiastically intertwined into the classroom. There are quite a handful of homophones in the English language. This activity focuses on two:
Where
- Where is the restaurant? (adverb)
- She lives where the sun is always shining. (conjunction)
- He moved to a country where he could speak German. (pronoun)
Wear
- In the car, you must wear your seat belt. (verb)
Target group and Time
This type of game could be played by children between 4th grade and 6th grade. Smaller groups of no more than ten children is preferable, to help prevent children keep their focus. Having around 20 minutes are needed for this game because merely needing to introduce the difference between the homophones can already take up a good portion of time.
Learning objectives
This type of game could be played by between 4th grade and 6th grade. Smaller groups of 10 are preferable, to prevent possibility of children losing their attention. Around 20 minutes for this game are needed because merely introducing the difference between the two homophones can take up a significant amount of time.
Instructions to set up the activity
- Students create a "move" for all homophones together with the teacher. (For example: "wear" could be represented by a movement that signifies putting on clothes and "where" by making a gesture as if the person is looking for something/someone.)
- Cards with various sentences* are spread across the classroom – the sentences are incomplete and require the students to fill in the gap with either "where" or "wear"
- Students choose a card from the floor and are asked one after another to share their card with the group
- Every student reveals their card, reads aloud while doing the appropriate movement
- If the student answers correctly, they keep their card which can be seen as a point.
Examples of cards that could be used.
Letting it run
If the children are advanced, one could let them form their own sentences OR even introduce a new set of homophones (eg. there, their, they're). If children are overwhelmed by the activity, one could allow other students to aid help them, perhaps by explaining why they chose the homophone they did.
