Alliteration acrobatics

Objective: Write a text (for example, a poem, song, short story or biography) using words starting with a particular letter only.

How to play:

1. Assign pairs of students a letter and a text type such as poem, song, short story or biography.
2. Students choose one text type and attempt to use words only starting with the assigned letter.
3. The winner is the pair who writes the most with the letter assigned. Bonus points should be assigned to pairs who can only use the letter provided.

Alphabet attack

Objective: Think of unique words for given categories starting with a specified letter.

How to play:

1. Make a list of 6 categories (for example, food, nature, countries, colours, animals and objects) and then number them 1-6.
2. Roll a dice to determine the category.
3. Set a timer for 3 minutes.
4. Write down words for each letter of the alphabet for the category rolled.
5. After time is up, compare answers and score unique entries.

Letter quest / Letter scramble

Objective: Find as many words as possible in the grid of letters.

How to play:

1. Create a grid of letters using pen and paper or letter tiles.
2. Set a timer for 3 minutes.
3. Find and write down words formed by connecting adjacent letters.
4. When time is up, compare and score your words.

Story chain

Objective: Improve storytelling and creative writing skills.

How to play:

1. Teacher starts a story with one sentence.
2. Each student adds one sentence to continue the story.
3. The story continues until everyone has added a sentence.
4. Discuss the completed story as a class.

Tip: Record and share in the Literacy Statewide Staffroom (staff only)

Word relay

Objective: Enhance vocabulary and spelling.

How to play:

1. Divide the class into 2 teams.
2. Write a word on the board.
3. The first student in each team runs to the board, writes a word that starts with the last letter of the given word, and runs back.
4. The next student continues with a new word starting with the last letter of the previous word.
5. The team with the most correct words in a set time wins.

Variation: Students sit in a circle and say a new word.

Vocabulary bingo

Objective: Revise vocabulary and develop word consciousness.

How to play:

1. Provide students with a list of words.
2. Students write down 9 words of their choice from the list.
3. The teacher calls out either the words or a definition of the word.
4. Students mark off the words as they are called out or described.
5. The first person to mark off all their list words wins.

More word game ideas

• Bananagrams, Scrabble, Articulate, 5 Second Rule
• Online word games such as Wordle and Wordiply
• Hangman
• I spy
• Create your own crosswords or find-a-words

Area race

Objective: Cover your area first. Revisit multiplication facts.

How to play:

1. Each player needs a sheet of grid paper with a defined area to play in.
2. In pairs students take turns to roll two dice to indicate two values.
3. Multiply the numbers to determine the area of the shape. Draw the shape on the grid and record the area.
4. Continue rolling, drawing, and recording until one player covers the entire grid.
5. The first player to cover the whole grid with shapes wins.

Beat the teacher (dice game)

Objective: Practise place value knowledge. Create a higher total than the teacher by rolling dice and choosing place value columns

How to play:

1. The teacher rolls a dice.
2. Students choose one of the place value columns (ones, tens, hundreds, etc.) to add the rolled number. The teacher does the same but does not reveal their number.
3. Repeat until all place value columns have a number. You may not move them around once you’ve chosen where to place the rolled number.
4. After a set number of rounds, the teacher reveals their total. Students compare to see if they beat the teacher or not!

Variation: Play multiple rounds and calculate a score by adding the numbers created in each round.

High 5

Objective: Practise advanced arithmetic and probability.

How to play:

1. Use a standard deck of cards.
2. Assign values to face cards (for example, Jack = 11, Queen = 12, King = 13).
3. Deal 5 cards to each player.
4. Players create the highest-scoring hand using addition, subtraction, multiplication or division.
5. The player with the highest total score wins.

Variation: Create the highest-scoring hand using more advanced operations including fractions, percentages, ratios and square roots.

Numeracy battle (card game)

Objective: Practise basic numeracy skills.

How to play:

1. Use a standard deck of cards with face cards removed or use cards with numbers.
2. Divide the deck evenly between 2 players.
3. Each player flips over a card at the same time and solves a numeracy problem (addition, subtraction, multiplication) using the numbers on the cards.
4. The player with the highest answer wins both cards. If the answers are the same, it's a "battle," and players flip more cards.
5. The player with the most cards at the end wins.

Numeracy bingo

Objective: Identify personal numeracy goals.

How to play:

1. Students list 9 numeracy skills they have been working on.
2. The teacher randomly lists numeracy skills and the first player to have all their skills called wins the game.

Pig

Objective: Earn 100 points and revise numeracy skills.

How to play:

1. Set a target number, for example 100. The object of the game is to reach this number so make it large for more rounds.
2. Players take turns rolling the two dice as many times as they want within each round.
3. Players keep a running total until they decide to stop. When a player decides to stop, they bank their total by recording their score.
   • Note: If a player rolls a 1, their turn ends and they get zero for that round.
4. Players take turns swapping rolls after each round, and keeping track of how much they have banked, aiming to be the first person to reach the target number.

More numeracy games ideas

• Explore the Universal Resources Hub for numeracy games
• Sudoku
• KenKen

Ideas for speaking about literacy and numeracy which could occur during assemblies, in the classroom or as suggestions to do with families at home include:

• Invite guest speakers, parents and carers to share their experiences with literacy and numeracy in their workplace. Speakers could share insights into how they use literacy and numeracy skills in their everyday work, giving students the opportunity to learn from people in various fields.
  

• Ask students to interview family members, asking how they use literacy and numeracy at home (including in another language) and to report back on their findings.
• Watch the L&N Actually video encouraging students to see the value of mastering literacy and numeracy and the application of these skills in the workplace.
  
• Watch the Literacy and numeracy is everywhere video to hear from students and teachers about their literacy and numeracy experiences.
  

These activities could be led by student leadership teams.

• Play our quiz game challenges with 4 fun Kahoot quizzes that we have created for Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4 and Stage 5. The questions are literacy and numeracy based with examples from all Key Learning Areas. There are 20 questions in each quiz, requiring between 15 to 20 minutes to complete (available 19 August).
  • Stage 2 quiz
    
  • Stage 3 quiz
  • Stage 4 quiz
  • Stage 5 quiz

• Have fun with a literacy and numeracy scavenger hunt. Create a list of literacy and numeracy related items for students to find around the school. This can include finding words, punctuation marks, scales, a calculator, a dictionary or anything else that involves literacy and numeracy.
  

• Make the week memorable with a literacy and numeracy themed dress-up day, where students can come to school dressed in something that represents literacy or numeracy.

• Showcase literacy and numeracy in your school. Encourage classes to create a presentation or display of students’ work that highlights their literacy and numeracy skills.

• Organise a literacy and numeracy book swap, where students can bring in gently used books to exchange with their classmates.

Some creative tasks students could work on at school or at home.

• Challenge students to integrate their literacy and numeracy skills to create a new cereal box that stands out on the shelves and attracts consumers. Students will need to use literacy to communicate the product's features and numeracy to ensure accurate measurements, packaging, calculations, and pricing. Ask students to:
  • suggest a new cereal, give the cereal a creative name and write a short description convincing customers to buy it.
• create a brand and slogan for the cereal that communicates the product's key features or benefits.
  • write a clear and concise description of the cereal, highlighting its ingredients, flavours, and nutritional value.
  • include any necessary information such as, serving suggestions, allergen warnings, and contact details.
  • calculate and accurately represent the dimensions of the cereal box, including length, width, and height.
  • determine the pricing strategy for the cereal box, considering factors like production costs, profit margins, and potential discounts.
  • present their cereal box for peer feedback.