Roll

-A-
Sentence
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Roll-A-Sentence - PRISM 6
North Star Publishing Co.
Roll-A-Sentence
( Archi ve Set #2 - Lesson 3)
1. Student ability: B-I
2. Approximate length of lesson: 20+
3. Number of students necessary: Any
4. Recommended age/maturity of students: Children, Elem., JHS, HS, College, Adult
5. Type of lesson: Whole Class
1. Student ability is listed according to: LB-Low Beginner, B-Beginner, HB-high Beginner, LI-Low Intermediate, I-
Intermediate, HI-High Intermediate, LA-Low advanced, A-Advanced, HA-High Advanced
2. Approximate length of this lesson in minutes (not including set up explanation
3. Number of students. For example, 3+ means three students or more will work well with this lesson, two students
or less will not work as well.
4. Recommended age indicates the preferred maturity level of the students. Grouped by Child = pre-school or younger,
Elem. = Elementary, JHS =Junior High School, HS = High School, Uni. = University, Adult = beyond university
age. JHS+ means any age Junior High School and over.
5. Type of lesson means this lesson is designed to work best with Individuals, Pairs, Groups or Whole class.
* * * * * * *
Language Target: Can be used for just about anything - vocabulary development, verb practice,
conditionals, the teacher decides how to use the dice. As an example of how to use this lesson for
a children's activity, the following is given for basic Subject - Verb - object practice.
Materials needed: Scissors and tape (or glue).
Setting Up: Copy on firm paper or cardboard the stencils provided on the worksheet. Have
students cut and fold along the lines and glue or tape the figures together to make four- and six-
sided dice. Make at least three dice either four-sided, six-sided or a combination of both.
On one die, write pronouns or names of some of the students in the class, one name or
pronoun per face.
On the second die, write transitive verbs such as climbs, eats, rides. (This can also be
used for review for past-tense verbs, etc.)
On the third die, write nouns such as a tree, an apple, and a bus.
Getting Started: In class, roll all three dice and have students form correctly structured sentences,
such as Henry eats a tree. Of course the sentences may be nonsensical, which will generate
laughter and excitement from the students; nevertheless, the purpose of this lesson is to construct
grammatically correct sentences. Award a point to the first student who can provide an alternative
verb and/or noun to make the sentence make sense.
Variation 1: Add additional dice for adjectives / adverbs / prepositional phrases, etc., for
construction of longer sentences.
Variation 2: Prepare a few dice by typing or writing questions or commands on each face. In class,
select one student to roll one of the die and answer the question or obey the command that is
rolled. The die is passed to the next student.
Variation 3: Same as above, but have students compete to answer the question/ do the command.
Award points.
Variation 4: Have the students make their own questions with their own dice. On your signal, all
the dice are rolled. One student reads the question rolled and the student on his or her left reads the
question out loud then answers. [This can be a lot of fun with adult students as well, they might
write questions such as: "How old were you when you had your first kiss," -OR- "Who's your
favorite singer and Why?"] Continue around the group.
Building Fluency: Depending on the ability and age of the class, the dice can be used for simple Q
& A practice, or they can be used to tell a continuous story. For example, write adjectives such as:
'green, delicious, scary and expensive on the 4-sided die, and write nouns such as:
'ambulance, artichoke, earthquake,' on the 6-sided die.
Next, a student rolls both dice at the same time and begins to tell a story using the two words
that appear. For example, 'scary,' and 'artichoke,' turn up first. The student could say something
like: "Last night I had a very scary dream about a giant artichoke." Then the next student rolls
his/her dice and continues the story - from the beginning: "Last night I had a very scary dream
about a giant artichoke. It was driving a green ambulance to the hospital . The story
continues with each student adding another line to the story but starting at the beginning each time.
Note 1: We are looking for stencils for eight, ten and twelve-sided dice. If you know where to find
such stencils, please send the contact information (i.e., URL, address, fax number, etc., via email
to: efl4u@sda.att.ne.jp . Thanks!
Note 2: Does anyone remember how to make those origami mystery fortune-telling games that
we used to make when we were kids? Something like Pick a color, then turn over the flap,
follow the cue then turn over another flap? This would be a great lesson but for the life of me, I
cant remember what its called nor how it works. If you know or can remember, send us an email
to: efl4u@sda.att.ne.jp . PLEASE!!!
For more FREE English Lessons, please visit: www.efl4u.com
Roll-A-Sentence - PRISM 6, North Star Publishing Co.