adapt it for your own purposes

I made it up myself:)

But don't we all...

 

 

Explanation of game:

 

You can put students in pairs or teams for this activity.

 

Give students a short text to read.

Let them look at it for awhile.

They are going to present it to the class.

Choose one team to present first (Team A)

One student will read it, while the others act it out through mime.

 

When they are finished the other team/s can answer why first.

 

Then the A team asks the other team a bunch of questions about their text.

 

EG. How many bananas did she buy?

What was the name of the newspaper?

What was wrong with the apple?

Why did she buy the paper?

 

 

An example of a short text for activity:

 

“A girl walked into a shop. She bought two bananas, an apple and a newspaper. The newpaper was called “ The Daily Telegraph”.

Her brother was in the newspaper because his hockey team had won the National School Games. When she left the shop she waved goodbye to the shopkeeper. She noticed he was wearing a yellow shirt. Outside the shop the girl took a bite of the apple.

She realised it was all bruised. She went back into the shop to tell the shop keeper. She saw that now he was wearing a blue shirt. Why?”

If you want to complicate don’t ask any questions be asked until all the teams have finished presenting. Test their memories!

 

 

Nerissa Dowling

Australia

 

TIC TAC TOE

 

This is a great game to review just about anything: vocabulary, grammar, etc. I am an ESL teacher in the U.S., so you will need to adjust the my pedagogical content for your specific audience.

 

After working on a certain lifeskill such as medical ailments, let's say you want to review Y/N questions with "do and don't"; to play tic tac toe, draw a large grid on the board. In each box, hang up a large visual-such as a picture of a person with a headache, stomachache, fever, etc. You'll need 9 visuals in all. Divide the class into 2 teams "X" and "O". Number each box 1-9. Go over the pictures first. Then flip a coin to see which team goes first. In order for the team to receive the "X" or the "O" for the box they have chosen, they must answer your question correctly. So let's say a student chooses box 5; it has a visual of a person with a fever. You ask the student, "Do you have a stomachache?" The student must respond, "No, I don't." in order to win that box for his of her team. You keep alternating between the teams until one team has tic tac toe, or it is a draw. After a team wins a box, remove the visual a put an "X" or and "O" in that box. The students love it. They become very competitive, especially when someone on their team chooses the wrong box. You can play this game to review just about anything- from vocabulary to prepostions of place, or from simple Yes/No questions to really anything else you can think of. This activity works great with illiterate adults, because they don't have to know how to read in order to play. All they need to know is their numbers. Most students are already familiar with the ailments, and they have very little trouble identifying the visuals. Most countries have tic tac toe or the students are familiar with BINGO, so they catch on to the game quickly. Have fun!

 

Name Game

I´m sure many of you know the "Name Game": A chant made up based on a mono- or multi-syllabic name.

 

For example:

 

Chris Chris

bo bis

banana fana fo fis

me my mo mis Chris

 

It is really easy to target problem sounds by substituting them. For example /l/ /r/ would become

 

Chris Chris

ro ris

banana lana lo lis

le ry lo ris

Chris

 

Students get just as much of a kick out of hearing their name song as I did... You could even do a whole song with multiple choruses, famous names, and different sounds in each chorus. Enjoy!

 

Hot Seat

 

Level: Beginner to Advanced

 

Skills Practised

 

Speaking and listening.

 

Time

 

Flexible.

 

Preparation

 

1. Prepare a list of five to nine words your class has recently learned.

2. Draw a scoring table on the board, like this:

 

 

 

 

How it Works

 

1. Ask your students to form two teams and have them move their chairs forward to form two groups facing the board. After explaining the game and modelling the roles if necessary, ask for one player from each team to move his or her chair forward again and turn it to face his or her group. These players then sit in their chairs (now 'hot seats') with their backs to the board.

 

2. Write the first word on the board, making sure the players in the 'hot seats' can't see it. After you say 'Go!', the members of each team try to elicit this word from their team-member in the 'hot seat' without saying the word or giving any clues as to its spelling (such as the first letter). For example, if the word is 'vitamins', players could make statements such as 'We need lots of these in our food' or ask leading questions such as 'What does fruit have a lot of?'. The team whose 'hot seat' player first says the target word wins a point.

 

3. The two players in the 'hot seats' then swap seats with another member of their respective teams. After writing the second word on the board, say 'Go!' again, and so on. The game continues until all the words have been used, with the team having the most points at the end of the game winning.

 

Notes:

- If neither of the players in the 'hot seats' has stated the word within a reasonable length of time, move on to the next word without having the players swap seats.

- It's a good idea to tell the players the total number of words you intend to write on the board before play begins. This allows players to gauge their team's chances of winning as the game progresses.

 

Variations: There are many possible variations on this game. You could write the names of famous people instead of recently-learned words, or movie titles, song titles, countries, famous places, etc.

 

For a small class (3 - 6 students): Set up just one 'hot seat' and have a player write any word on the board. The other players try to elicit this word from the player in the 'hot seat'. After this player has had a chance to guess 2 or 3 different words, players alternate roles as they wish. This variation need not involve scoring.

 

What's the Question?

 

Skills: Speaking and Listening

Purpose: review question forms previously studied in class

 

This game could be used with any level in which the students have to learn question forms.

 

Procedure:

Form two teams (three will work, but two seems to add just the right amount of competitive tension).

 

Explain and model the game, with a few examples of answers in search of questions. Ask, 'What's the question?', and get students to correctly say the corresponding questions for your answer.

 

Have two players--one from each team--come to the front. Style it like a game show if you like, with the students standing side-by-side. Next, read an answer to a question and say, 'What's the question?' The fastest player to respond wins a point for her/his team. New contestants come to the front for a new round.

 

 

What´s the Word?

 

Level: Beginner

 

Skills: Vocabulary recall and sentence construction.

 

 

In this game players take turns miming in order to elicit a word or verb phrase. Other players call out words or phrases until someone calls out the correct one. This player earns a point for his or her team and the chance to earn another point by correctly using the word or phrase in a sentence.

 

Preparation:

1. Print out a set of cards, either animals, jobs, or actions, or make a similar set yourself.

2. Draw a scoring table on the board, like this:

 

 

 

After explaining the game and modelling the roles, divide the class into two teams and have each team choose a name. Then place the cards face down in a pile at the front of the classroom.

 

Ask for any member of the first team to come forward. This player then takes the top card and acts in such a way as to suggest (without speaking) whatever is written on the card.

 

If any member of either team thinks he or she knows what is written, they call it out. The first player to call it out correctly earns a point for his or her team. This player can then earn another point by correctly using the word or words in a sentence.

 

A player from the second team then comes forward and picks up the next card and mimes whatever is written on it, and so on. Play continues until all the cards have been used, with the team earning the most points winning.

 

Notes:

- If no-one has guessed what is written on the card within a reasonable length of time, ask for the 'actor' to state it before continuing the game as usual.

- To play a shorter game, either set a time limit for the game as a whole or use just a few of the cards.

 

 

"CHRISTMAS PUDDING"(ANAGRAMS)

 

 

Level: Intermediate-Advanced

 

Procedure: Make as many words as you can out of the letters CHRISTMAS PUDDING; (obviously this would work with many words or phrases)

 

Examples: mud, camp, or aspirin. Have the students work individually, then check in small groups. Common words get crossed out, and the teacher could make point scale. Try again with different words, if desired.

 

Extra: give an anagram list of hard words. Words from the list are worth double.

 

SPELLING BEE

 

 

 

TEAM ACTIVITY THAT CAN BE USED TO PRACTICE ALMOST ANYTHING

Put your students into two teams. Divide the whiteboard into two halfs, one for team one and one for team two. They them that you are going to write a question on the board, one member of the team has to come up and answer the question, completely correctly, the first team to do so wins. Each member of the team must participate and come to the board and write an answer. The teams must cycle through all of the people. Keep a tally of the points on the board and the team with the most points wins.

 

You can use this for anything really, vocabulary, put up a word they have to use it in sentence. Conditional statements, you put up the conditional clause and they have to finish the sentence by stating a consequence of the condition. You can do this with any grammar or sentence structure that you have.

 

VARIATION: Do this with scrambled sentences, the first team to put them in the right order wins.

It is a good activity because the students get excited and become competitive, which is entertaining for you and them.

 

 

HANGMAN

This is really easy and fun to practice any vocabulary that they are having difficulty with, just put up a word and have the class compete against you to see if they can spell the word before you hang the man.

 

1. Two or more students pretend to be actors that forgot their parts.

2. One student plays the part of a prompter. He tries to prompt as quiet as possible for the rest of the class not to hear anything.

3. The task of the "actors" is to reproduce prompter speech

 

Right and Wrong Chair**

 

The objective of the game is to let students decipher if a statement is formed correctly. First, the teacher will place two chairs in front of the classroom. Then, he or she will divide the students in their groups. Once the students are in their teams, one team member from each group will be called up to the front of the class. The teacher will then read off a statement. And the two students will have to decide if the sentence has the appropriate grammar structure, verb tenses, and etc. If the student thinks the sentence is correct, he or she has to sit on the "right" chair. But if the student believes the statement is incorrect, then he or she has to sit on the "wrong" chair. However, it will be up to the teacher to let them know if the sentence is indeed correct. There will be times when both students will go for the same chair. But whoever sits on it first, then he or she takes the chair. Of course, the student has to hope that he or she is sitting on the right one. Afterwards, the teacher will write the full sentence on the board and explain why it´s right or wrong.

 

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Have some fun activities/ideas?  How about worksheets, review sheets or songs?

Send your ideas to malloryforseth@gmail.com. Please include a short summary of the activity along with any worksheets or extra materials needed for the activity.