Objective

1. Students will use phonetic and structural analysis and knowledge of words to expand their vocabulary.

Activities

1. Write the letters and point values on the board before the students arrive.
2. Give the students a couple of minutes to create the highest scoring word out of the letters of the day.  Remind them that if they use all 7 letters, they score a Scrabble “bingo” and get a 50 point bonus.
3. Ask the students to volunteer the words they have created and list those words on the board with their point values. Make sure to point out homophones, homonyms, prefixes, suffixes, word roots and words with more than one definition. 
4. Today’s highest scoring words are CAVEAT and VACATE with a point value of 11 points.  If no one in the class identifies either word, then take a few minutes to introduce the words by discussing their (1) spelling (2) pronunciation, (3) definition, (4) part of speech and (5) use in a sentence.

·         CAVEAT            a warning or caution, qualification or explanation

·         VACATE            to leave the area

5. Here are some other words that can be derived from today’s set of letters.  The definitions come from the Scrabble dictionary.

·         AVERT              to turn away; to keep from happening

·         CATER              to provide food; to provide whatever is needed

·         CRAVE              to desire intensely

·         AVER                to assert

6. Ask students to reflect on the strategies they used to create their highest scoring word.
7. Ask students to add these new words to their vocabulary notebook.