Fun Ways to Practice Homophones

Looking for some fun ways to practice homophones?

Try this list of fun ways to practice homophones to get you started.

Many are ready to go but a few will require some planning on your part.

These are free ideas for teachers and homeschool families from www.freewordwork.com.

What are homophones?

Homophones are important words for students to memorize.

Even in my sixth grade classroom, I am finding that many of my students often confuse words such as to, too, and two. It’s important that they receive the practice they need in order to memorize the difference.

I’ve put together a list of ideas you might use when working with your children.

I hope they find these ideas fun!

Try these fun ways to practice homophones!

1. Homophone Scavenger Hunt – Create a list of homophones and challenge students to find examples of them in books, magazines, and newspapers. They can make a list in their word work notebooks or you can create an anchor chart for all students to add to.
2. Homophone Bingo – Create bingo cards with homophones and call out definitions or sentences containing homophones to see who can get a bingo first. Use this homophone list to get you started!
3. Homophone Charades – Act out homophones and see if students can guess which ones you are demonstrating. Next, challenge the students to do the acting. This can be done in small groups so more students can act out the words.
4. Homophone Matching Game – Create cards with homophones and their corresponding definitions or pictures, and challenge students to match them up. Even better, have the students create the matching cards and illustrations!
5. Homophone Pictionary – Draw pictures of homophones and see if students can guess which words you are representing.
6. Homophone Mad Libs – Create Mad Libs stories with blanks that students can fill in with homophones.
7. Homophone Riddles – Create riddles that use homophones as the answer, and challenge students to solve them.
8. Homophone Word Search – Create a word search puzzle with homophones, and challenge students to find them all.
9. Homophone Tic Tac Toe – Create a tic tac toe board with homophones. Have students use them in sentences to earn their X or O.
10. Homophone Relay Race – Divide students into teams and have them race to write sentences using homophones, passing the marker to the next team member when they finish. The first team to complete a set number of sentences is the winning team!

Need help with ideas for the riddles? Here is an example:

I’m a thing of beauty, a sight to behold, In gardens and meadows, my colors unfold. I come in many shapes, sizes, and hues, And I’m often given as a gift to amuse.

What am I?

Answer: Flower

I’m a powder that’s white and fine, Used in baking, I’m a staple of mine. I’m made from wheat, rye, or corn, And without me, your cakes would be forlorn.

What am I?

Answer: Flour

Want a sample Mad Libs story for homophones? Try this one:

Yesterday, my friends and I went to the county (1) ______ (homophone). We were so excited to ride all of (2) ______ (homophone) favorite attractions, but we didn’t (3) ______ (homophone) what to expect.

First, we didn’t realize the fairgrounds were so big! We had to ask (4) ____________ (homophone) directions to find the rides. Once we got there, we saw a (5) ______ (homophone) and white tent in the distance. We didn’t (6) ______ (homophone) what was inside, but we were curious.

We (7) ___________ (homophone) the Ferris wheel, the bumper cars, and the tilt-a-whirl, (8) ______ (homophone)! But after a while, we started to get (9) ______ (homophone). That’s when we remembered the tent! We walked (10) ______ (homophone) the crowds and found our way inside. It was a magic show, and we saw a (11) ______ (homophone) disappear right before our eyes.

We left the fair tired but happy, and excited to come back next year.

Note: Students can fill in the blanks with any appropriate homophones they choose, which may result in some silly or unexpected combinations!

These are the words that make sense…

fair, our, know, for, red, know, rode, too, bored, through, bear

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