In the next activity with our foster children in the island, we are planning to play a word game. Each child draws a few cards of his/her choice from a deck of a word group and uses the words to create a sentence(s). When it comes to an essay, their writing contents usually stay within very general matters. Thus we’d like to help children little by little, no rush, gain vocabulary, get used to write, and develop their ability to think.
For them to create imaginative sentences, originally we wanted to collect a lot of onomatopoeia (imitative and mimetic words) and adjective verbs. In Cambodia, however, grammar and expression methods are different and we couldn't find the perfect words for "fluffy", "clatter", "sneakingly", etc. There are ways to express those situations but some consist of phrases rather than a single word, and the idea that children create their own sentences cannot be practiced. The local education system for these children is also limited, so we decided not to raise the difficulty too much.
As a noun, we include the name of the king who built the Angkor dynasty and the names of animals living outside of Cambodia. If they don't know those, it will be an opportunity to learn new words. The word group also contains adverbs that represent places such as below and inside. I think it will broaden the range of sentences they make.
Furthermore, since we want to avoid children making sentences with just common verbs like “see” and “go,” we have also prepared some unusual verbs such as “dig,” “roll,” and “wrap.” Once the children have practiced a few times and got used to the game, we want them to draw cards including these.
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