Word Family Warm-Up Game

This game I'm about to show is a classroom favorite, but it came about from faculty room discards!  I was re-organizing my games and activities mid-year and just put it together one day.

1. Each student gets 4 or 5 letter dice, depending on how many students are playing.  Then I pick an ending from the deck. 

Excuse the glasses...sometimes we get goofy.

2. Students (and teachers who like to play games) can only use one side of their letter dice to make a word.  You can't have two of the same words.  The cool part about this is if you get stuck on a letter you already had, you can go back to a dice you already used and try and change it- I love teaching strategy!

3. After students have written their word lists, they tally their scores and compare to the group.  We have a running competition in my class!

4.  I have the students choose 2 words to write sentences for at the bottom of their papers, then we share them out loud.

5. This is a great ELL game because they are constantly saying the words out loud to see if they make sense, and I have a rule that they can't ask me until they try to use it in a sentence.  It's great for pronunciation practice, spelling, and handwriting practice.  

So here's my challenge: Word Family Warm-Up Game is not exactly a student friendly name.  Can you think of a better one?  

**Update** My students liked Michelle's Battle of the Words the best! Congrats Michelle!