Materials for the class

 A mask of wolf
Cd player
Sound of wolf’s howl
Sound of birds singing
Boxes for recycling such as shoe boxes or other  packaging boxes or cubes  of school material  (alphabet games, lego bricks)
White sticker labels
Markers

Layout of the classroom

A spacious classroom is required. Alternatively, the gym  could be used.

Three desks are placed in three different corners  of the classroom.

All other kind of school furniture and things are moved, to maximize  space  between the three desks.

Phase 1

The teacher writes on white sticker  labels,   words that have a common feature or pattern. (One word on one sticker label).

For example:  10  words with the “ake” sound and letter combination in common (make, cake, fake etc.), 10 with “ick” (thick, brick etc.) and  10 with “ock” (lock, block, etc).

He/ she sticks each of them on a different box/cube on one of the 4 vertical sides. He/she also sticks a blank sticker label on the other two vertical sides of    each box/cube. So, finally,  there are  3 vertical sides of each box/cube covered with labels: one written and two blank.

(Note that the teacher can choose other word families corresponding to the specific goals of the lesson.)

The teacher shows a mask of wolf and   says that there are three Families, afraid of a big bad Wolf.: The Family Ake, the Family Ick and the Family Ock who try  to build a solid house   to be safe.

The children are divided into three groups as the number of the Families. One  child  becomes Wolf.

Each Family chooses  a nice hill (one of the 3 desks) to build a solid house.

The teacher puts  an A4 paper on each desk with the name of the corresponding family so the children be able to see their  name.

The teacher puts the  boxes or cubes  mixed, everywhere on the floor.

Then he/she explains the rules of the game:

Each house needs 10 special bricks to be built that match  with their family name.

When the birds sing (sound of CD),   the three Families should go out of their hiding place behind the hill (the desk) and look  for special bricks (boxes/cubes) in the woodland (the classroom) while the big bad Wolf sleeps in it. When the Families find the special bricks, they should carry them   to the hill and put them one on top of   the other  to build the house.

When the wolf howls (sound of CD), the three Families should return quickly to their hiding place behind the hill (the desk).

The Wolf visits the houses and blows them down if   bricks are less than 10 or they not the right ones.

 Phase 2

With bird’s sound, the game starts: The Families search the appropriate boxes/cubes and build their house while the Wolf sleeps in the woodland.

With wolf’s howl, the Families go behind  the     desk and  the wolf wakes up, counts the boxes/cubes and throws down the unfinished houses.

The procedure may be repeated some times until all Families manage  to put the boxes/ cubes with the 10 words of the same word family.

Phase 3

The teacher announces that this time, the big bad Wolf returns stronger after training and  drinking fresh fruit juices. So  the 3  Families need   to make their house more solid.

The Family  Ake, needs the bricks (words) of  the  Family Ick, the Family  Ick needs   the Family Ock’s bricks  and the Family  Ock needs   the  Family Ake’s bricks.

The  birds sing again and the   Families go out of their hiding place.

The Family Ake goes to   the house of Family Ick, read the words on the bricks, comes back      and copies these words on the blank labels of its own bricks. The Family Ick  visits the house of Family  Ock  and copies the words of this family on its own bricks and the Family Ock visits the house of Family Ake and copies the Ake’s words on the bricks.

The Wolf howls again and he/she   checks the houses. He/she destroys the houses with less than 10 bricks written.

The game stops when one Family achieves the construction of the house: writes 10 words of a second word Family.

Phase 4

The same procedure may be repeated: The students write the words of the third Family on the bricks.

Phase 5

 In the next lesson, students propose new words themselves and the game is played again. A new blank label is stuck on the 4^th vertical side of the cubes.

The same story could be used to teach    derivatives.