Example

For Older learners

For Young Learners

AREA

Game

Focus

To win..

Materials

Rules

VOCABULARY & GRAMMAR

Call my Bluff

to revise vocabulary; to encourage using it in a sentence  to develop dictionary skills   (upper levels)

To trick opposing team into selecting sentence in which the vocabulary in used inappropriately or inaccurately. To collect points for one’s team or group.

paper & pen dictionaries

Each group is given 5-6 words and a dictionary; they are encouraged  to look up the words and write four (or three, or two, up to the teacher) sentences all of which contain the word, three used incorrectly. When the groups are ready for the ‘ confrontation’ stage, each students reads out one of the four sentences and the opposing groups have to pick out the one who has read the correct sentence.

VOCABULARY, GRAMMAR

Snap

to revise grammatical categories e.g. phrasal/ multiword verbs followed by gerund or infinitive, irregular verbs, plurals/ adjectives etc. or to revise lexical areas such as collocation, derivatives etc.

Collect as many cards as possible for oneself

sets of cards with possible match ups depending on focus, e.g. if practising phrasal verbs, make cards with lots of verbs and prepositions.

The cards are dealt out equally to the members of the group. Each player puts down a card. If the next player has a card that matches the top card on the table, s/he must shout SNAP and collect all the cards in the pile. 

GRAMMAR & SYNTAX

Grammatical Consequences

to practise the parts of speech; to make even younger learners aware of them in a ‘ painless’ way; to practise editing & correcting

To write out nonsense sentences and read them out for fun at the end.

paper & pen/ board

The teacher writes an example sentence on the board as well what part of speech it is like this:

Example for Older learners for Young Learners

The old               adjective                          what kind word          

Teacher               noun                               person, animal, thing

Gave                   verb                                doing word

The silly              adjective                          what kind word

Shopkeeper         noun                               person, animal, thing                                                                person animal or thing 

A funny              adjective                           what kind word          

Dog                     noun                               person, animal, thing

Then the class plays a game of consequences; each pupil writes a word called out by the teacher by the teacher, folds the paper over, passes it on, then the teacher calls out another word category, etc. When the sentence is finished all open papers, look, edit, correct their sentences and the funniest ones are read out.

VOCABULARY, GRAMMAR

Noughts & 

Crosses

to revise areas of vocabulary or different aspects  of words; or to revise areas of grammar or anything else you like!!!

Put three Xs or Os across, down or diagonally for one’s team.

board

The teacher nominates the squares / boxes as desired in a Noughts & Crosses grid (e.g. if practicing phrasal verbs, each square is filled with a preposition) and teams call out the category they want to do. The teacher then asks a question which must be answered for the team to get their X or O in that position.

VOCABULARY

Taboo

To recall/revise lexical areas. To develop speaking skills, esp. defining, paraphrasing asking clarification questions                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Your team must guess maximum number of target words for one’s team within given time

Sets of cards with target word& words to avoid using in defining target

Cards are placed face down. One member of each team is asked to pick a card and describe the target word to his team without mentioning any of the other words listed on the card. Points are won for words guessed within time limit. The winning team is the one with the highest number of points at the end the game. The opposing team acts as referee to check that words listed are not used. 

IDIOMS

Charades

To revise or extend knowledge and use of idioms 

As in the original charades game, teams collect points by guessing the idiom mimed to them by one of their members

Paper slips with two or three examples of idioms to get the game going;

Dictionaries or dictionary of Idioms

Each round of the game proceeds as follows:

1. A player from Team A draws a phrase slip from Team B’s basket. After he/she has had a short time to review the slip, the timekeeper for team B notes the time and tells the player to start. Team A then has three minutes to guess the phrase. If they figure it out, the timekeeper records how long it took. If they do not figure it out in three minutes, the timekeeper announces that the time is up, and records a time of three minutes. 
2. A player from Team B draws a phrase slip from Team A’s basket, and play proceeds as above. 

Normally the game continues until every player has had a chance to “act out” a phrase. 

Gestures To act out a phrase, one usually starts by how many words are in the phrase. From then on, the usual procedure is to act out the words one at a time (although not necessarily in the order that they appear in the phrase).  At the end, act out the “entire concept” of the idiom at once.

WRITING

Threesomes & Foursomes

To make learners aware of & give them practice in identifying discourse features such as pronoun reference, verb forms, lexical& grammatical cohesion

To collect sets of 3 or 4 cards in one’s hand and ‘ finish’

sets of cards with sample exchanges split up in three or four parts  

This game can be played like gin rummy with a pack of 52 or fewer cards, some of which are distributed  to the learners equally. 

The rest are placed faced down, one is opened and play begins!

Learners pick up and put down threesomes and foursomes that make up well connected dialogue. 

The same idea can be used with sentences from a number of small paragraphs. 

A lot of used texts can be revised/rehashed this way. To be able to put down a set, it must make sense/fit and all  players should agree.

Exam  Revision Grammar, Vicabulary, etc.

PROFICIENCY PURSUITS

To revise areas for this or other examinations (First Certificate, Michigan, etc.) 

 If using a TRIVIAL PURSUITS BOARD, the winner is the student (or .pair or team) who manages to collect all the pieces of “pie” in the usual way It is possible to play without the board; use your imagination for the scoring system.

Sets of cards with colour coded questions (and their answers on the back) The questions categories can be any you like (IDIOMS, DERIVATIVES, SYNONYMS, ERROR CORRECTION, etc)

 Set up the board and play as the rule of the original game

WITHOUT THE BOARD

Each player or team picks up a card and reads out the questions to the opposing team.

This way is probably more time efficient as each player (or group of players) can be asked ALL the questions on one card and a score can be kept of how many correct answers they gave. 

After the game: Each team/ group can write one or two more game cards by reviewing and using language information from recently covered work or coursebook units.

LITERATURE

Get rid of your adjective

To discuss characters in a set text or reader by attempting to match up adjectives with actions, descriptions or lines spoken by characters

Get rid of all the adjectives cards one has been dealt by succeeding in using them as attributes suggested by the fact, descriptions or quotes cards.

sets of cards with facts,  descriptions or lines spoken by Characters in book; sets of cards with adjectives

A set of cards with facts, character descriptions or lines spoken by characters or about them in the book is placed face down in the middle. Deal out an even number of adjectives cards to each student in the group. The number will vary depending on the number of students and the time you wish to spend on this game. Each student in turn picks up one of the cards in the middle and either reads it out or an appointed group reader does this. The player then attempts to link one of the adjectives in his/ her hand to the content of the card. If the rest of the group agrees that this is justified, she/he gets rid of the adjective card. If not, the adjective card cannot be discarded and to content card is returned to the bottom of the pile. The game continues with the next player.

LITERATURE

Happy Families 1 (for literary devices)

To make learners aware of & give them practice in identifying the various devices used of similes, metaphors, in literary & other etc. texts

To make sets of 4 or 5 tricks and put them down to ‘ finish’.

sets of cards with examples from a set text or from a literary excerpt  

Write the words SIMILE, METAPHOR, PERSONIFICATION, HYPERBOLE, PUN, IDIOM, IRONY, ANTICLIMAX, EUPHEMISM, ITALICS, QUOTATION MARKS, DASHES, PARAPHRASE, ect. On the board and revise their uses in texts you have worked with. Deal out four or five cards with examples to each student who must hide them from others. In turn, each student asks anyone in their group if they’ve got one of the ‘ tricks’/ devices which they need in order to make a set. If the co- player has the relevant card they must give it away. If the answer id no, the asker may challenge by asking the teacher’s verification.