An activity for new vocabulary

This is not something I would do with a class that doesn't have a good sense of humor.

I wanted to introduce several new vocabulary words that didn't have much of a common thread between them. I was pressed for time, so telling a story wasn't an option, and I wanted context and a lot of repetition.

So I chose some of the more evocative vocabulary and wrote it on the board, and we played a sort of combination of Balderdash and Apples to Apples.

Choose four or so vocab words for which you want a lot of repetition, and which have colorful definitions. I chose:

cernuat (he falls headfirst)

deosculabar (I was kissing affectionately, as a family member or close friend)

casu (by accident)

cruor (gore)

Select one, and tell your students what its part of speech is. Practice using words like it in context - I was doing x, I was doing y, etc.

Give them a minute or two to write a sentence using that word...but don't tell them what the word means.

Then have each pair read their sentence aloud, making sure students understand the sentence (minus the unknown word). With all the sentences read, tell the students what the word means. Allow for some giggling. :) Go back through all the sentences, and circle through this time. Let kids vote on which sentence is now the best.

We had people dance accidentally, the gore told someone goodbye (which ended up being quite threatening), and someone who was accidentally ugly. It was entertaining, and the next day, they had a very clear memory of the vocabulary that was included in the activity.