Contractions
Looking for some new ways to teach or practice contractions? Try these ideas.!
What is a contraction? Aside from the thing you have during labor (ha!), a contraction is a word that is made up of two or more words connected together. One (or more) letters are removed from the words when they are connected and an apostrophe is added where the letters were removed.
For example: The I will when contracted become I’ll. The w and i in will were removed and an apostrophe was put in their place.
Contraction Games
Matching Contractions: To prepare the game cards, print the templates and cut out the cards. If you desire, you can print each page double-sided with the words on one side and the game title, Matching Contractions, on the other side.
- Memory/Concentration: Place all the cards face down. Pick two cards at a time and try to make a match. If a match is made, go again. If not, turn the cards back over, and the next player takes a turn.
- Go Fish: Play as the traditional game
- Old Maid: Play by the rules of the traditional game
- Partner Search: Give half the children the red cards (contractions) and the other half the blue cards (two words). Have the students find their match.
- Group Concentration: Play a large game of Memory/Concentration as a whole class.
- Contraction Search: This is a silent game. Scatter one half of the cards (either the two words or the contractions) around the room. Give each child one of the matching cards. On the word “go” have all the children search the room for their matching card. Once they found their match, they return to a central location until everyone has found their match.
Templates are available for download. Please click HERE to download.
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What a great resource! When I first say your post title I thought this was about labor hee hee!!
Oh, I am so excited to see this!! This post couldn’t have come at a better time as my 6 year old daughter loves contractions at the moment and aks me to challenge her with some tricky ones. I am literally printing this as I am typing. You are (you’re) the greatest Steph, thank you so much!
I am so excited that it will work for you!
What great ideas Steph…you always explain things so simply!
Reminds me of when I was teaching. I used to teach ESL and the kids really struggled with contractions. They loved the memory game.
This can be quite a hard concept for some children but I love that you have turned it into a fun game. It makes them achieve that deeper level of learning and understanding. Great work. Thanks.
Simple yet brilliant 🙂
Always useful to have Steph and you’ve explained it nice and simply for others to understand. Thanks for the game suggestions and game cards. Pinning! 🙂
Not one of your best. Ha! This is great. Perfect for Miss Possum who’s only 4 and reading really decent early readers now. She has taken to reading like a wombat to dirt! This is perfect for us right now because she doesn’t really understand contractions but is reading them okay. Thanks again Steph!
That word ‘contraction’ made me wince when I first read it LOL It’s getting too close to the end of this pregnancy for me not to think of that first. These cards would be great for a couple of my advanced reception children, and definitely good for my older classes when I teach them.