Words are usually taught to children from their basic root syllables of Latin, Greek, German, etc., but there is another approach. A few years ago I posted Small Words for Small People on this site and the following challenge/game has developed from that.
Ask kids to make lists of words like the following:

1-letter words, 2-letter words, 3-letter words, 4-letter words, etc.

Young children don't go far with bigger words, but teens and adults do.

This is best done as a social group activity and maybe on the board devided into in 3 or 4 sections for teams. You may need a lot of markers to hand out.

Teacher can set a finish time to promote competition. It's up to you.

This is a very simple activity but children like it. They see it as a game especially working at the board as they get to stand, move around a bit and burn off that abundant energy.

a an ant ants antenna...

- be bee better between...

- cat cats call calls ....

- do did does, dolls, donkey...
.
.
zoo zips zinc Zoros Zebras Zackery.....

Further challenge: Challenge advanced classes to link all words of a chain in a single sentence or story.

Copyright 2005 Robin Day