Shark on the board

Draw a staircase with eight steps and a person on the bottom step. Then draw the sea and an open-mouthed shark. Think of a word connected with water, eg rain, wave, swimming and indicate the number of letters in the word with dashes. Students say letters of the alphabet to try to guess the word. Correct guesses should be added to the word in the correct place, while incorrect guesses mean the person moves one step nearer to the shark. The aim is for students to guess the word before reaching the shark.

You can do it with any semantic field.