The children are intently working on the floor in small groups while I sing the chorus of I Will Follow God’s Plan for Me over and over. They are playing the Tile Envelope Word Game. Here’s how we started:
“This is a tile.” (I hold up a real tile.) “I have some paper tiles with words on them, but sometimes part of the word is on one tile, and part of the word is one another tile. Your challenge is to put these tile words together as it comes in the song I will sing before I sing the song 8 times.” (Hold up the envelopes and the tile board.) I have asked some adults to help pass one envelope and two tile boards out to each group.”
“Find two or three friends, and make your group.” (The children move to find a friend group. I often have the teachers step in and help pair up any stragglers to a group, and to help the youngest classes with this word game. I give time for the children to adjust to finding a group.)
I tell the children: “Hint: this works best if you put all the words out on the floor so you can see them all.”
I start to sing. (This particular tile word game is for the chorus of this song.) I walk among the different groups as I sing. I watch where they are having trouble and emphasize certain words to help as I sing. I keep track of how many times I have sung. After singing the first two times through, I sometimes ask, “Would you like me to sing it again?” I often get a chorus of YESES… but please sing it slower.<Grin>
If a certain group finishes before the rest, I ask them to be the singers to help all the rest of the group figure out the puzzle.
Here is the puzzle board: Tile word puzzle board
And here are the puzzle words: I Will follow tile envelope game
You can always make your own puzzle with words, too.
The beauty of this activity is the concentration from the children on mastering the challenge. They hear the song over and over again and start to sing it in their heads so that they can repeat the puzzle. They are working together in groups. It is not a competition (although some make it to be that), but an effort for the whole group to complete the puzzle. It really helps those children who use logic and printed words to take in information. And it is a challenge for them!