Does your school mandate a word wall?  I know many schools do.  And that’s not a bad thing, at all, they are actually really awesome!  One thing I didn’t want to do, however, was slap a bunch of words up on my board without student involvement.  So I came up with an idea called “Word Wall Pictionary.”

First, you need to create a list of words.

Go through your unit and generate a list of words or phrases from the unit you are working on that cover all essential vocabulary, then type them on slips of paper.  I like to use different fonts to make them extra fun and standout. The words for my Relations & Linear Functions unit look like this:

Then, print them, cut them out, and paste them to colored paper.  I usually laminate them. Then put magnets on the back. I found rolls of magnet tape that work great. These are my cards:

I change the color each unit. So my relations and functions had a green background, but my equations and inequalities from the previous unit had a purple background.  This is simply so I can keep them organize to pull quickly each year as I change units.

Now, how do you play Word Wall Pictionary??

1- Divide your class into two teams, Team A and Team B.  Or, let them choose unique team names.

2- Clear off a large whiteboard space to play. I needed to use a large whiteboard that spanned just about an entire wall to make sure there would be enough room.

3- Select one person from Team A and one person from Team B to draw.  Supply them with dry erase markers. Set a timer for two minutes. The Team A drawer selects one of the words and attempts to draw a picture to get their team to guess. Team B is not allowed to guess.  If Team A guesses correctly before the timer goes off, they get a point.  If they do not, erase, reset the timer, then allow the Team B drawer to draw with Team B allowed to guess.  If they get it correct, they get a point.  Go back and forth until one of the teams gets it correct.

4- Once a team gets the word correct, place the word above the picture.  DO NOT ERASE the picture!  Now you have a term and a picture on your wall.  A picture that the students drew!  This makes them more involved and makes this more memorable.  This is why my word wall cards never have pictures.  My students always did this 🙂

5- Keep playing and going through all word wall cards until you have a picture for each one.  If a picture ends of being a bit sloppy, you can always ask them to re-draw it later.

You also don’t have to play this all in one class period!  Break it up and play a little each day or as you have time.  The goal is to have a complete word wall with pictures by the end of the unit.

You can download my template for the word wall cards here.

I so wish I had taken a picture of this!  If you play this and wouldn’t mind sharing your final product, I would love that.  You can email pictures to me at allthingsalgebra@gmail.com.

If you use this idea, I hope you love it as much as I did!

~Gina Wilson
All Things Algebra