Homemade Scrabble/Boggle Letter Dice Game for Writing, Spelling lesson plans

Here's a fun, easy DIY game to make and play with children and tweens to keep reading, writing and spelling skills fresh. I love the word games Boggle and Scrabble in which players make words from random letters. Both Scrabble and Boggle are superb games for spelling and reading practice. Here's a game that combines the scoring of Scrabble with the letter mix-up of Boggle. And best of all, it's easy to make, fun to play, has endless variations and is adaptable. This game can be played in the car, at the store, on a place, while waiting in line; anywhere you go it goes. I call it 'Scraggle'. Here's how to make your own Scraggle game.

You will need

12 dice: Recycle die from old games like Kismet or Yahtzee.
Dice can be purchased at almost any store for under $2).

Permanent markers

Blank stickers (round or square white stickers are best)

Note pad

small pencils

watch or timer

small box

To make Scraggle: (Scrabble plus Boggle)

Affix a sticker to each of the six sides of the die.

Label each die side with a different letter. With 12 dice times six sides you will have room for 72 letters. Since some letters are more popular, label dice this way. It makes no difference where on the dice you put which letters, Just be sure to get this many letters in.

  -four times each, letters: A, E, I, O, U, R, S, T, L, N

  -three times each letters: B, C, D, F, G, H, M, P

  -one time each, letters: J, K, Q, V, W, X, Y, Z

  -dictionary to check spelling

To play Scraggle:

Distribute pencils and pads. Players take turns shaking box with letter dice, to rearrange.

Player open box and make sure all dice are flat and showing letters.

Time players for three to five minutes, to see how many words they can make with letters showing.

Scoring is as follows;

  -3 letter words = 5 points

  -4 letter words = 10 points

  -5 letter words = 20 points

  -6 letter words = 50 points

  -7 letter words = 100 points

  -8 letter words = 200 points

Players should check each others words for accuracy.

Reading response journal activities for book report alternatives, ELA lesson plans

March is National Reading Month, starting with the NEA's "Read Across America." Looking for ideas to inspire a life-long love of books? Here are reading response activities, interactive ELA (English language arts) lessons, book-based crafts and literature response lessons. Book activities are hands-on, multi-sensory, cross-curricular Montessori-style. Use for interactive Readers Workshop, special education students, reluctant readers, divergent learners and summer reading enrichment.

Reading response journal. Have kids create personalized reading logs, respond to literature and complete book-based activities. Check off ELA activities as completed. Check out my other post for a reading response journal rubric. 

Homemade books. Cut book covers from cereal box. Cover with scrap wrapping paper or wallpaper. Cover with magazine picture collage. Decoupage by painting pictures with watered-down school glue, front and back. Cut lined paper pages (for text) and blank paper (for illustrations). Or use scrap paper and draw in text lines. These make great hands on reading response activities for readers workshop and writers workshop. They are the perfect book report alternative for English language arts lesson plans. 

Book-based promotional materials. Have kids play marketer for their favorite book or author. Make posters, book covers advertising literature. Create 3-D sculptures, models or dioramas based on books. Make book-based merchandise: toys, snacks, food, games. In homeschooling, my 6th grade son designed a "Hobbit Holes" cereal box designed on his favorite J.R.R. Tolkien novel.

Book diorama book report alternative. Create scenes from books using recycled products. Arrange scene in shoe box. Use small dolls (Lego, Fisher-Price, Little Tikes, Polly Pockets) as characters.

Story-reading audio/video presentations. Using cellphones, have students create videos of themselves reading books. Encourage them to create a literature podcasts or vlogs. Upload videos to Youtube or Tik Tok. Reading aloud boosts confidence in ELA subject matter. 

Story-telling. Students read aloud to younger students. Students act out children's books and present to younger or special needs classes. In high school, our oldest daughter acted out a Shel Silverstein's poem "Noise Day" for special education kids. They loved when she skateboarded across the stage! Talk about an interactive reading response activity! 

Book-music connections. Create music playlists based on books. Select metaphorical songs. Kids will love choosing modern songs to represent story themes. Our family saw a production of "Macbeth." The play was set to Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance," "The Decemberists "This is Why We Fight" and "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked" by Cage the Elephant. It really resonated with students and helped them understand and relate to Shakespeare. Plays and music help connect English language art activities to life. 

Help students brainstorm on creative book report alternatives and reading response activites. 

Free Printable City of Ember Lesson Activities

The "City of Ember" book series, by Jeanne DuPrau, (2003) is a science-fiction post-apocalyptic fantasy series loved by students and educators alike. Many elementary, intermediate and middle schools are incorporating City of Ember books into their classroom curriculum. With the release of a movie version students can read and study the books and follow up with the film version for comparison. Here are free printable City of Ember book activities, movie study guides and lesson plans.

The series chronologically is City of Ember, People of Sparks, Prophet of Yonwood and Diamond of Darkhold. Not all have been made into film so there are movie study guides only for City of Ember. But there are book activities for all books. Here are free printable lesson plans for teaching the City of Ember book series. Lesson Planet is a pay site with some free book activities to print. Here arefree printable City of Ember lesson plans. Scholastic also charges for many of their printables. But here is a City of Ember book discussion guide to print free. 

This free printable lesson plans kit includes story maps, worksheets, book activities, character webs, comprehension questions, movie study guides, vocabulary, grammar, symbolism, cause and effect, analysis and application questions, synthesis and evaluation questions, book activities, games, reading response rubrics, charts, quizzes and more. The City of Ember books are a dystopian series that tells of a people that has suffered depletion. They've gone underground, to re-emerge at a given time in the future. City of Ember is Orwellian science fiction, reminiscent of 1984, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. Use book activities and movie study guides for units on science fiction.

Free Printable Reading Response Journal Rubric

Looking for creative ways to teach reading or literature units? Use reading response journals. Here's a template to make student reading response journal. Use for English, ELA (English language arts), literature, reading and writing classes. Use for Readers Workshop (a popular interactive reading group method used in elementary and middle school). Here's the reading response journal format.

Give each student a single subject notebook (wireless notebooks work best). Use the same one for all lesson plans or start a new one for each unit or book genre study. In middle and high school, students should make separate response journals for longer books and more comprehensive literature studies. All written assignments are completed in this notebook (except a final project).

Create a blocked calendar chart, like a bingo card, with 5 columns and 5 rows of squares. Label columns with main components of ELA curriculum: reading, writing, speaking, listening and multisensory response. Label rows with higher order thinking skills (HOTS): Recall/Comprehension, Analysis (structure), Applications (text to text, text-to-life connections), Synthesis (text to new use), Evaluation (thoughts, feelings, opinions, rationale).

Write 25 literature response activities for a month or of assignments. List one assignment per box. Leave room to write in specifics. Photocopy (students complete similar activities for each book or genre studied). Attach to inside front cover of journal.

Tailor activities to state objectives, and student ability. Make it flexible enough for special needs accommodations and student learning styles, Give options. Let students choose 22 out of the 25 activities and do the last three for extra credit if desired. Students may complete assignments in any order. They can double up on slower days and skip assignments on busier days.

Each assignment should take 30 minutes to complete: two paragraphs of writing or 30 minutes of reading, speaking and listening. Assignments are completed in the notebook, labeled according by chosen activity and dated.

Initial completed activities in each box and note the points (in pen). Make notes or correction on the response page. Keep copies of each students chart for your records or keep digital copies. Each activity is worth 30 points: 18 points for content and quality, 7 for mechanics (spelling, punctuation and grammar), 3 for neatness/clarity, 1 for being on time (calculated at the end of the month) and 1 for proper labeling. (name, date, class, period),