One Word. Two Meanings. Three Ways to Play.
A picture of a hand appears next to a palm tree. “What word connects these two pictures?” One student says hand. Another says tree. Then someone gets it: palm. Suddenly the class is talking about vocabulary they thought they already knew.
Words Students Know, Meanings They Might Not
Homonyms are words with the same spelling and pronunciation but different meanings, and English is full of them. A student may know what a ring is but not that you can ring someone on the phone. They may know a park is a place to relax but never have used park as a verb. These are not difficult words. That is exactly what makes them interesting. A student can recognize a word instantly and still be surprised by what else it means.
One Board, Three Ways to Guess
Each game opens with twelve colorful, numbered cards. Students choose a number, and the teacher opens the challenge. The clues can appear as two pictures, two short definitions, or two sentences with the same missing word. A hand and a palm tree become “the inside part of your hand” and “a tall tree that grows near the beach.” Teachers can switch between the three modes at any time without restarting the game or leaving the card. If students get stuck on the sentences, switch to pictures for a little help. Or start with pictures and move to definitions to make the challenge harder.
Points or No Points
Some classes want competition. Divide students into teams, keep score, and let them discuss their guesses, defend their answers, and try to outsmart the other side. Other classes do better without a scoreboard, so skip the points and let everyone work out the answers together. When the teacher presses Reveal, the word appears with the completed examples. Audio plays as well, so students hear the pronunciation. The game works as well on a classroom projector as it does in a one-on-one lesson over Zoom.
Take It Beyond the Game
Each volume includes a printable worksheet. Students work through pairs of definitions, complete sentences that use the same word in two contexts, and review the words away from the screen. Teachers can print it or save it as a PDF, with answers available when needed.
Three Volumes, Ready to Play
All three volumes of the Homonyms Game are available to Cool English subscribers in the Fun section. Choose a volume, pick a card, and see how many words your students only thought they knew.
What I appreciate about Basketball Bros is that I can develop my own playing style instead of copying every move I see. I have more fun experimenting and finding little tricks that work for me.