Search form

Eight-Square Scrabble® Spell-Off


Share

Subjects

  • Arts & Humanities
    --Language Arts

Grade

  • K-2
  • 3-5
  • 6-8
  • 9-12

Brief Description

Build words from eight Scrabble® tiles. Who'll earn the highest score?

Objectives

Students

  • use letters provided to build words.
  • correctly tally scores based on the value of the Scrabble letter tiles.

Keywords

scrabble, game, spelling

Materials Needed

  • letter tiles from a Scrabble® game
  • timer

Lesson Plan

The beauty of this fun game is that it is so simple to organize and play. Simply provide students with 8 Scrabble letter tiles, set a time limit, and see how many words they can create using those eight letters. You might draw the eight letters at random, or you might provide pre-selected letters for students to use. (Providing letters enables you to choose letters that are common. You can also be sure that you provide several different vowels, which will enable students to create more words.)

Once you choose the letters, type them into the Scrabble Word Builder on the official Scrabble Web site. We typed in the letters C, D, P, N, Y, E, A, and U and the Word Builder provided dozens and dozens of words that could be created with those letters, including ACE, ACUTE, AUNT, CADET, CANT, CENT, DANCE, DAUNT, DUET, EAT, ENACT, NEAT, PACT, PEANUT, TEACUP, TUNA, UNCAP, and UPDATE.

Set a time limit and see how many words each student can create using the eight letters.

When time is up, have students tally the number of points for each word they created, and figure a total score. Students should use the point values associated with the Scrabble letters: (For point values, provide the list below written on a chart.)

A-1 B-3 C-3 D-2 E-1 F-4
G-2 H-4 I-1 J-8 K-5 L-1
M-3 N-1 O-1 P-3 Q-10 R-1
S-1 T-1 U-1 V-4 W-4 X-8
Y-4 Z-10        

Students should have a peer or partner do the math too. If both of them come up with the same total, it is probably correct. If they come up with different totals, they must do the math again.

From time to time, you might include a blank tile in the game. That tile will serve as a wild card; students can use it to represent any letter they choose. Once they choose what letter it is to represent, they can use it to represent only that letter.

Assessment

Which five students earned the highest final scores? They might earn special a special reward.

Lesson Plan Source

EducationWorld.com

Submitted By

Gary Hopkins

National Standards

LANGUAGE ARTS: English
GRADES K - 12
NL-ENG.K-12.3 Evaluation Strategies
NL-ENG.K-12.6 Applying Knowledge

MATHEMATICS: Number and Operations
GRADES Pre-K - 2
NM-NUM.PK-2.3 Compute Fluently and Make Reasonable Estimates
GRADES 3 - 5
NM-NUM.3-5.3 Compute Fluently and Make Reasonable Estimates
GRADES 6 - 8
NM-NUM.6-8.3 Compute Fluently and Make Reasonable Estimates
GRADES 9 - 12
NM-NUM.9-12.3 Compute Fluently and Make Reasonable Estimates

See more Lesson Plans of the Day in our Lesson Plan of the Day Archive. (There you can search for lessons by subject too.)

For additional language arts/reading lesson plans, see these Education World resources:

Education World®
Copyright© 2006 Education World

09/28/2006