Games that increase vocabulary

[ahap]

DD and I did some research and came up with these for ipod etc..
Dictionary.com flashcards
Vocabulary HD
The Opposites
Accela study
Endless alphabet

Note: Some of the spellings are American.

[ourmaminhavana]

I don't really understand Mystery, as far as I can see you need at some stage to tell/teach/explain the word in order to introduce a new word.
You could perhaps play a word stem/ prefix/suffix game eg explain the meaning of 'tele' and find as many words as you can which use this prefix....

[fatbananas]

I've just opened the box for WordPlay. The box states: "Besides developing vocabulary, the game also focuses on applying and developing logic and inference skills."

A random card from Word Play Level 1: A: Sweet spread on bread: letter clue J. B: Time teller: letter clue W. Word Play level 2: A: Word common with Guitar, saxophone, tambourine; and Barometer, thermometer: letter clue I. B: Word common with Curiosity; What bank charges on a loan.

I guess you'd learn the vocabulary from looking through the answers before the game begins; and by playing the game a number of times.

[ourmaminhavana]

I forgot Tell Me!

[KS10]

FB, a crossword in a box . I suppose a crossword is easier though as in addition to the main clue you also get random letters from clues already solved.

[Blitz]

Articulate and Taboo are both fun games that get the children using and listening to new vocabulary.

[fatbananas]

FB, a crossword in a box . I suppose a crossword is easier though as in addition to the main clue you also get random letters from clues already solved.

It sounds like it, doesn't it, but then there is a board, numbered 1-40, that has various squares "lose next turn", "points doubled", "points halved" etc., which makes it more like a conventional board game.

[mystery]

Thanks everyone - keep the ideas flowing please - will have a look at them all.

OMIH, what I'm getting at is this - you can have a knowledge game like a pub quiz - where unless you already have good knowledge you're not going to win so the desire to play it might be quite low, and if you already know the answers you are not going to learn any new facts. Yes sure, over time you'll improve your general knowledge by listening to the answers of the questions that you got wrong but it's going to take a long time to learn a few new facts and there may not be sufficient repetitions of any one fact for it to go into long term memory.

Learning vocabulary is effectively like learning new facts --- except that through reading you can infer the meaning of new words and over time add them to your own personal "lexicon".

A game which was good for developing vocabulary would somehow expose you to new vocabulary and its meaning (like reading) quite often and provide repetition. For my children to play it, it would also have to be fun and they'd have to have a fair chance of winning without feeling that I was pretending I was much worse at it than I actually am.

Unless it expanded vocabulary faster than reading they'd be better off spending the time reading a bit more.

I'm thinking of devising a game of my own (just to play at home) maybe a game with different coloured cards with new words on them, and everyone can use an electronic dictionary thesaurus - maybe you would have to get rid of all your cards like in Rummy - so you could have runs of nouns, or verbs, adjectives, or adverbs for example, or synonym-antonym pairs, or 3 or 4 words with similar meanings. To put down one of your runs or pairs you have to be able to explain them all.

I'd have to select the vocabulary well. You could do it with 52 words until those were known well, and then move on to 52 more. The children could devise the game themselves maybe by finding 52 words they don't know and filling in the cards in the first place.

[KS10]

More fun as a board game, FB.

[fatbananas]

More fun as a board game, FB.

I know: as soon as mine start to hold a pen in their hands, it feels like work