OuiSi · Vocabulary

One word, many cards

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Grades K–5 Teaching 35 min Plus 4 to set out, 3 to clear Class groups of 4–6 Set any Prep 12–16 cards per group

set out 4′ Two cards, one word 7′ Now three, and it costs 8′ Their turn, climbing 15′ Close 5′ clear 3′

Goal: Children find the word that sits above several different pictures. The number of cards one word has to cover is the whole difficulty dial — start at two, climb as far as the room can go.
Materials: One OuiSi Photo-Card set. Twelve to sixteen cards per group, laid out in a square. Paper for the penalty pile.

K–1: Stay at two all lesson. You are clue-giver, no penalty — the full 35 min
Grades 2–3: Two and three. Children hold the clue-giver seat in pairs — the full 35 min
Grades 4–5: Start at three and climb. Five is a genuine achievement — the full 35 min

1 · Two cards, one word

7 min

One grid of twelve cards, whole class watching. You are the clue-giver and you keep the seat for now.

Choose two cards that share one word. Do not mark them.

My word is rough. Two of these cards are rough. Which two?

Two is deliberately easy. Almost every room gets it on the first or second guess, and that is the point — everybody needs to understand the shape of the task before it gets hard.

Run it twice more with a new word each time, still at two.

2 · Now three, and it costs

8 min

This time my word covers three cards. And now a wrong guess costs you — I take two cards off the board.

Introduce the penalty only once the task is understood. Added at two it feels arbitrary. Added at three it changes how the room talks, immediately — children start conferring before anyone points.

After the round, ask the question the lesson is built on.

Why was rough a good word? What would have been a bad one?

They will find both failures themselves. Write them up where they stay visible.

Too small — only one card fits. Too big — every card fits, which is the same as none.

3 · Their turn, climbing

15 min

Groups of four to six, twelve to sixteen cards each, one clue-giver rotating every round.

Start at two. When your group gets two easily, go to three. Then four. See how high you can get.

Write your word down before you say it.

Writing it first stops the clue sliding to fit whatever gets guessed, and it leaves evidence for the argument afterward. The argument is the vocabulary work.

The rule that keeps the clue-giver honest.

Clue-giver, once you have said your word you cannot speak again. Not a hint, not a face.

4 · Close

5 min

What is the highest number anyone got to? What was the word?

Collect three or four onto the board. A word that covered four or five cards is a genuinely good word, and the list is a vocabulary bank written by the children.

Watch for

Starting too high. The most likely way this fails. Two feels insultingly easy to a teacher and lands perfectly with a class — do not skip it.
Cards chosen first, word second. Backward, and it produces words nobody can use. The word is picked to cover the cards, which is why it gets written down.
Hinting. Faces, nods, and leaning all count. Say so before the first round and enforce it in the first round.
Arguing afterward. Welcome it. Whether a word really covers a card is the thinking, not a delay before the thinking.

Adapt

Multilingual learners — the strongest fit in the library. Naming the category above a set is the vocabulary depth that gets skipped. Take the home-language word first, then supply the English and put both up.
Anxiety — the clue-giver seat is exposed. Make it optional, or let two children hold it together.
Want it harder — ban adjectives, so the word has to be a noun or a verb. Much harder, and the conversation changes completely.
Tie to a unit — clue words come from the current topic's vocabulary list.

Curriculum links. Finding one word that covers several different examples · Judging whether a word is too narrow or too broad · Raising difficulty by widening the set a word must cover · Committing to a word before testing it.
Standard codes vary by state and district — these are the skills exercised, for you to map to your own.

From OuiSi Capture. Capture's clue mechanic, with the card count opened up as a difficulty dial. For the Capture grid without the clue-giving, see Grid references.
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