Wacky Words – Bay Area Discovery Museum

Wacky Words

Wacky Words

Tickle your family pink and boost your child’s vocabulary skills when you invent sentences with word ticklers. Great for children who are learning their letters, learning to read, or are reading fluently.

Learning Goals

  • Communicate Thinking
  • Take Risks and Persist Through Challenge

Materials Required

  • Paper
  • Something to write with

Instructions

  • Work with your child to write down a list of word ticklers by putting together random streams of letters. If your child needs help to get started writing word ticklers, ask them to imagine a box of alphabet letters jumbled up. Mentally pick one out at a time, then write it down. Here are a few examples to get started:
    • Kcslkdfsfpoicvm
    • Jzifnovdmi
    • Pocdvujp
    • Mnzxcbudnf'
  • Look at the first word tickler and generate a sentence. Sometimes it helps to read the letters out loud. What comes to mind when seeing and/or hearing those letters together? The sentence doesn’t have to make complete sense. Here are a few examples:
    • Osidfzhobu = “Outside is freezing, how about you?
    • Jruhowieurskesoim = “Just how weird you ski sometimes.”
    • Urjoegijrop = “Urgent egg drop.”

Extend the Activity

  • Come up with multiple sentences for each word tickler.
  • Set a timer. See how quickly your child can come up with more wacky sentences.
  • If you have friends or family members nearby, you can each come up with wacky word sentences from the same word tickler. Share around with your group to hear what others came up with. Did you have any similar words? Were your sentences very different?
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