SUGGESTIONS from Teachers and Parents

A. Silly Nouns stickiness:

Although rarely a problem, if the reusable Silly Noun stickers lose some of their stickiness, just wash them in warm, soapy water and they’ll be as good as new!

B. Other ways to PLAY the game:

i) To Play a Shorter Game:
a) When the first player has filled his/her story with 12 Silly Nouns, the other players immediately select Silly Nouns from the Storage Sheet and fill their stories (or pass the stories to other players to fill them). Then, players read stories aloud.

b) Play using just the Stories and the Silly Noun stickers. Take
turns filling up stories with Silly Nouns then read them aloud.

ii) Tie in Math - Try doubling the Silly Nouns. For example, if players land on a “Pick up 2 Silly Nouns” square, they double the “2” and pick up “4” Silly Nouns instead. Or players add/subtract a number to each roll. For example, for the first round, each player rolls the die and adds 8 to the number on the die; next round, they add 16 and subtract 11; next round, they multiply by 2 and subtract 9 etc. Pre-write instructions for each round on a card.

iii) Hide the Wild Words - At the beginning of a game, someone secretly selects 5 Wild Words at random and places them on the yellow stand. Players do not see them. At the end of the game, the Wild Words are revealed. Those who have Silly Noun stickers in their stories that match the Wild Words receive 2 bonus points per match. Or the matches may be noted just for fun, not points.

iv) To play cooperatively – NounSense can be played competitively or cooperatively. To play cooperatively, forgo using the Score Pad and the Wild Words or hide the Wild Words during the game, as in iii) above.

C. NounSense as a TEACHING TOOL:

i) “Point of View” lesson – Make several photocopies of one of the stories, laminate them and have each player fill a story with Silly Nouns. Discuss “Point of View”. This technique could be used for students from Grade 3 to Grade 7.

ii) ESL – Add fun to ESL lessons and promote discussion about humour in the English language.

iii) French class – Add fun and variety to your French class! Have students fill stories with Silly Nouns and translate sentences into French.

iv) Expand vocabulary – If your classroom has specific vocabulary of the week/month, make photocopies of the stories and have students write their OWN nouns in the spaces in the stories.

D. Other ways to PUT THE GAME AWAY:

i) Alphabetical order - When a game ends, it’s time to put the Silly Nouns from the Stories back onto the Storage Sheet, ready for the next game. While players are waiting to put their Silly Nouns back, they can put them in alphabetical order anywhere on their story cards.

E. Other ways to use the ACTIVITY GUIDE:

i) Save paper – Rather than make multiple copies of an Activity Sheet for all children, tape a copy of an Activity sheet onto a cardboard card. Each child will then write the answers in her/his workbook. Make up several different cardboard cards to trade around.