Constantinople

Level: Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: writing.

Topic: vocabulary.

Materials: pencils and paper.

Time: 5 to 10 minutes.

A word is chosen - usually a fairly long word (Constantinople is an old favourite) - and students have to make as many words as they can from the letters in the chosen word. The letters can be used in any order, but a letter can be used in any one word only as many times as it occurs in the chosen word (so from the chosen word teacher you can make reheat but not treat). A time-limit can be set (say, five minutes), and the winner is either the person who finds the largest number of words, or the person who finds the largest number of words that other students have not found.