Categorising activity to practice words for the topic of shopping
Stage 1 : Getting the children to think of the words for themselves
- On the board write the names of about five shops. (It helps to include supermarket for reasons that will become obvious !)
- Individually or in pairs ,the children start making a list of things they could buy in these shops. At this stage , it makes sense to use rough paper as they are writing down half remembered spellings . It doesn ‘t matter if their spelling is inventive or their memory of the words is imprecise. What matters is that they think of the words not you.
Stage 2 : Checking the spelling
- Ask the children for the words they have thought of and write these up on another part of the board. In this way you are now providing a correct version so they can check their spelling.
Stage 3 : Showing them how to categorise
- Start allocating the items to the appropriate headings on the board. You can get the children to help you :
TEACHER : Where can I buy bread ?
CHILED A: Baker.
TEACHER : Yes , at the baker’s. (Writes it under the correct heading.) Where else?
CHILED B : At the supermarket.
And so on
- Do a couple of example of examples like this and then set the children to write the category headings in their books and to copy the items into any column they think is appropriate.