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School SCRABBLE® Activities: Issue #24

Educators and parents have been asking us for more School SCRABBLE® activities. Here they are! Every two weeks, a new page will be posted. We welcome your questions and suggestions. Send them to Cindy McCaffery.

THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW

August 13-27, 2001

Many English words are difficult to pronounce and spell because they do not follow any of the standard spelling and pronunciation rules. You can show your students this with the following activity:

  • Write the word OUGHT on the chalkboard and call on a volunteer to pronounce the word.

  • Then, write the following list of words on the board: THOUGHT, BOUGH, ENOUGH, SLOUGH, THOUGH, TOUGH, TROUGH.

  • Ask students what the words have in common (they all contain the letters -OUGH-). Point out that while the spelling of the words is similar, the pronunciation of -OUGH- is not.

  • Divide students into small groups. Distribute dictionaries to each group.

  • Call on students to look up each word, its meaning and its pronunciation.

  • Have groups share their findings. Post the seven words on the bulletin board. Ask students to look for other words that contain the grapheme -OUGH-.

  • Have groups post a new word on the bulletin board next to the word with the same pronunciation.

[image of OUGH tiles]

MISSED AN ISSUE?

Browse our archives for back issues from 2000 (issues #1-8) and 2001 (issue #9 and on).

elsewhere on this web site, you can: find out-of-the-box tips, print score sheets, scorecards and challenge slips or buy a copy of the Official SCRABBLE® Players Dictionary, Third Edition

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