Multiple Meaning Word Charades

I’m working on multiple meaning words with several of my students. It’s an important skill. I have several ESOL students who have language disorders, so I feel it’s even more important for them to learn to some words have more than one meaning. A couple weeks ago, I decided to try a different “game” with them and it worked really well!

I have a group of 5th grade boys who I’m constantly trying to come up with new ideas to keep their interest. We went over our MM words first. I have a list of 15-20 words that I want them to master before moving on to others. After we did that, I said we were going to play charades. On each person’s turn, they had to act out two different meanings. I had them hold up one finger for the first meaning and two fingers for the second meaning. As you can imagine, some were more difficult to act out, so I was glad we had a smaller pool of words to work from. They loved it because they got to move, and I loved it because they were learning!

I’d love to hear if you try this idea!