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Snowman

The snowman is melting.
Hurry! Find the word that will save him from disappearing.

Braille Activity

  • Literacy
  • Spelling
  • Strategy

Level: 3

Number of players: 2 and +

Duration: 15

Skills:

  • Read, write words

  • Collect / organise information

  • Ask relevant questions

  • Make hypotheses

To guess your partner’s secret word, you’re allowed several attempts. But at every wrong guess, the snowman melts a little bit more!…

Goals

To improve spelling and word-deciphering.
To practise literacy skills.

So, Skye, can you think of a word?
Write it using your alphabet base plate
and write it at the bottom.
But don’t tell us.
I think we have a word.
How many letters?
Six letters in the word.
First, I have to give Skye the snowman.
Okay.
And be careful
he is not melting too fast.
So first question.
-Skye,
is there a letter ‘D’ in your word?
-No.
So you just take one brick
and you place it on the table.
That’s it. Second question.
Is there a letter ‘A’?
No.
Skye, remember to remove
one more letter.
From here?
-Yes.
Is there a letter ‘E’?
-Yes.
How many? And where?
One ‘E’.
It’s the fifth letter.
Is there a letter ‘F’ in your word?
-Yes.
One ‘F’ at the very beginning of the word.
So that goes in there… and that goes in there.
Is there a letter ‘T’ in your word?
-No.
Is there…
A letter ‘I’?
No.
Please stop being terrifying.
Oh, dear.
The snowman’s almost dead.
Oh!
-Nearly dead.
Is there a letter ‘O’?
Yes.
Where and how many?
Just one?
One ‘O’.
It’s one, two, three.
Okay, I will take a gamble.
Is there a letter ‘L’?
Yes.
One ‘L’,
And it is the second letter.
Is there a letter ‘R’?
Yes.
Where and how many?
At the very end of the word.
And it is one ‘R’.
Ah! Is there a ‘W’?
-Yes!
The word is ‘flower’.
Yes, it is.
I did it!
And just in time.
Because the snowman
had only three guesses.
So just in time. That was great.

The adult prepares

  • 4 baseplates (1 blank and 1 alphabet for each player)

  • All the letter-bricks.

  • 8 equal-sign bricks

  • 8 other math symbol bricks

  • 1 bowl

The children play

1

Player 1 builds a pile (the snowman) with the 8 math-bricks and chooses a secret word (max 8 letters).
They write it on the baseplate and tell player 2 the number of letters in the word.
 
Player 2 takes the same number of equal sign-bricks and places one brick per letter to be found.

2

Player 2 guesses a letter and removes it from the alphabet. If the answer is no, player 2 places the letter in the bowl, Player 1 removes a brick from the snowman.

3

Player 2 tries another letter.
If the answer is yes, player 1 indicates the number and placement of the letter in the word.
Player 2 places the letters on top of the corresponding equal-sign bricks.
Play continues until player 2 guesses the word … or the snowman melts completely.

Facilitation tips

  • Increase the number of players by taking turns to guess the word.

  • Vary the height of the snowman.

  • Ask player 1: What is your strategy for choosing a secret word?

  • Suggest player 2 begins guessing vowels first.

  • Player 1 helps with hints: It’s an animal, a vegetable, a famous character.

This activity is adapted from an original game called ‘Hangman’.