The "Who Am I?" Guessing Game:
Type up a list of between 15-20 names of current famous people, e.g.: "Madonna", "Tom
Cruise", etc. and cut into slips of paper approx. 1 1/2 " by 3". Pin a slip of paper onto each
student's back. Students circulate and ask each other Yes or No questions about the person's
name pinned to their backs until they guess who they "are".
Twenty Questions:
The students have to guess what thing the person who is it is thinking by asking him or her at
most 20 yes/no type questions. If no one guesses the answer after 20 tries, the answer is
revealed. A "yes" answer earns the questioner another chance to ask, a "no" passes the asking
on to the next player. Some students are advanced enough to ask appropriate questions on
their own, but to facilitate shyer or more limited students you can give them examples of
questions.
Twenty Questions
Sample questions for students
Are you animal vegetable or mineral?
If ANIMAL:
Are you human?
If HUMAN:
Are you famous?
Are you a student in this school?
Are you a boy/girl?
NON-HUMAN ANIMAL:
Can I eat you?
Can I ride you?
Are you bigger than a
?
VEGETABLE:
Can I eat you?
Are you delicious?
Do you grow in Oregon?
MINERAL:
Are you metal/plastic/stone/wood?
Are you blue (other colors)?
Are you in the classroom?
Do I have you?
Can I see you?
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20 Questions with Post-it Notes:
You need a stack of small post-it notes. On each one (one for each student), write the name of a
famous person or character. Get the students to sit in small groups (for a shorter game), or in
one big circle (for a longer and funnier game). Then go around and stick a post-it note to each
student’s forehead. When they have finished laughing at the names on everyone else's heads,
and the fact that their classmates all now look silly, they have to guess the name on their own
note using a 20 Questions format (yes/no questions, a yes answer gets you another question, a
no answer means the next person starts asking).
You can use a variety of name categories: Disney characters, movie & pop stars, international
sports stars, characters from a novel you’ve read in class, etc.
Agree to Disagree:
The teacher divides the room into four corners: agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree,
and disagree. Then the teacher makes a statement like "Morelia has the best soccer team." The
students move to the corner that best depicts how they feel about the statement. The students
in each corner have a few minutes to discuss why they feel this way and then their group
presents.
Hangman with a Twist:
Place on the board the number of blanks for one word (example "police officer"). Then, provide
clues about the word such as appearance, duties, associated accessories, etc... This requires the
students to know not only the word but, what it means. Works best with occupations,
locations, animals.
Best Comparison Game Ever:
First, divide the class into 4-6 teams. Have the kids name as many adjectives as they can and
write them all on the board. Then, ask them to name 8-10 countries (write those on the board
too). Give them 10 minutes to make sentences using the adjectives and the countries (i.e.,
Canada is colder than Japan, Russia is the biggest country...) It's better if they have just one
student writing the team's sentences so that they actually work as a team. At the end of the ten
minutes, each correct sentence is a point for that team- if you want to encourage originality,
tell them that no other team can have the same sentence as them. Then switch it up- I had
them name animals and famous people.
Connect 4--Verb Sentences:
Make a large grid on the board (about 7x7). Put one verb in each box. Use different tenses for
each of the verbs. The student has to use the verb in whatever form it is on the board (I skied, I
am skiing, or I am going to ski). If they make a proper sentence then they can change the word
into an x or an o. Then the other team goes for it. The object of the game is to get four in a row.
The game takes strategy and good English. For higher level students you can throw a question
mark in the box with the verb, which means they must use the verb but make a question out of
it (Did you ski yesterday?).
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Inside Circle/Outside Circle:
Classmates choose a partner. One set of partners stands in a circle. The other set of partners
stands in another circle surround the first circle. Music starts and this indicates to the students
to start walking in circles- inside circle one way and outside circle the other way. When the
music stops, students are facing a new partner. Or, you can tell students in one of the circles to
take three steps to the left, etc. Have the students tell their new partner three kinds of foods
they like; or three examples of present progressive verbs (running, jumping, eating); or what
they did first, second, and third to get ready this morning.
Compound Word Game:
Make up a list of words that can be used to form compound words and group them in sets of
three's (e.g. nail, print, tip). Divide your class into two teams and elect one member from each
team to be the "animator". Have each "animator" draw all three words on the board. Once
their respective teams have guessed the three base words, the teams must guess the
"common" word that can be used to form a compound word with each of the base words (e.g.
finger - nail, finger - print, finger - tip).
Here are some more examples:
shoe, storm, man (common word = snow)
light, break, time (common word = day)
photo, right, cat (common word = copy)
blue, humming, brain (common word = bird)
rest, pit, chair (common word = arm)
brush, paste, pick (common word = tooth)
Crazy Cut-Up Conversations:
This idea is a fun one for beginners. The day before, have your students write a simple
conversation. Then, the teacher types up the conversations, prints them out, and cuts them up
line by line. Put each conversation in an envelope and have small groups work to put the
conversation in the proper order. HINT- Conversations work best if they are formatted like a
play script.
Mr. White: Good Morning, Mrs. Smith, can I help you?
Mrs. Smith: Yes, I´d like some potatoes and rice.
Crazy Word Chains:
This game is a good warm-up for between 5 and 10 minutes. The students sit in a circle and
begin to clap a slow rhythm. One begins by saying any English word (with the rhythm). The
teacher writes the word up on the board. The student to his/her left must then say a word that
begins with the last letter of the previous word. The next student follows suit and it might go
something like this:
APPLE...EMPTY...YES...SORRY...YELL...LIKE...
The game starts over when one student misses his/her turn. Students like to see how long they
can go before the "chain" gets broken and will often speed up the pace as they go along.
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I Spy:
Just the old classic- spot something in the room and say, "I spy with my little eye something
that begins with the letter ? Students have to ask you yes or no questions until they can
guess what the object is. The student who guesses correctly can then choose an item in the
classroom to spy.
Shongololo Shivers:
First, assign students numbers at random. DO NOT TELL THEM THEIR NUMBERS YET! Next,
students assign a number to each character in the story. Then, AFTER they have numbered the
characters, tell the students their numbers. Each time a name comes up in the text, the
students substitute the name of the student in the class who has that number.
This game works best with small groups, since the texts usually have stories with small numbers
of kids doing various things but it can be expanded by changing the numbers halfway through
the text, etc.
Mad-Libs:
Before class, write a very basic story leaving out the nouns, verbs, and adjectives, adverbs etc.
(you could also buy a Mad-Lib book). Without telling the students the story, have the students
take turns providing words to fill in the blanks where these parts of speech go. After all of the
blanks are full, read the story using the words they have provided. This also works by filling in
the blanks on an overhead transparency. When all of the blanks are full, turn on the overhead
for them to read along or follow along as you read. This is a great way to teach parts of speech
and to begin looking at sentence structure. For younger children, start by just leaving out one
part of speech at a time and gradually leave more out.
Animal Personalities:
First, have students write down their three favorite animals in order of importance. Next, write
down three adjectives for each animal that reveal something about their character/personality.
Students need to be encouraged to seek positive adjectives.
The first animal is how the student views him/herself.
The second animal is how others view the student.
The third animal is how the student really is.
This takes about ten to 15 minutes.
Silly Skits:
Divide the class into groups of 4-5 students and give each group a garbage bag. Each garbage
bag has a collection of unrelated things in it. For example: one bag might have a small Mount
Rushmore souvenir, a velour bathrobe, and a frying pan in it. Students in their groups have to
come up with a 2-3 minute skit, utilizing all the objects. The students can either perform the skit in
front of the class, or have the skits videotaped and shown in class.
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Poncho Carrancho :
Assign the name of a food to every student and write the names on the board. The teacher is
also assigned a food; for example, 'turkey'. Have the students say in a loud voice what they are.
The teacher starts the game by saying, "Pancho Carrancho doesn't eat turkey, he eats rice." The
student who is rice has a few seconds to react. Her response should be "No, Pancho Carrancho
doesn't eat rice, he eats spaghetti."
Alternatives:
verbs: Pancho Carrancho doesn't ______, he _______.
past tense: Pancho Carrancho didn't ______, he _______.
family: Pancho Carrancho looks like his ______
jobs: Pancho Carrancho wants to be a _____.
Prepositions Basketball:
This is a good game for lower levels to work on making sentences with prepositions.
Place a basket on a chair and divide the students into two teams. One student from each team
(they take turns) stands a good ways away from the basket and throws a ball. The student has
to make a sentence about where the ball lands- "The ball is on the floor", "The ball is under
Anne's foot".
I usually let them make up to 3 sentences for 1 point each. If they actually make it in the basket,
I give them an additional 5 points.
Commercials:
Divide your students into groups with 3 to 4 students each.
Ask them to brainstorm commercials they've watched on TV and list the product names
from those commercials on blackboard.
Give each group a chance to choose one product on the list.
Allow them around 10 minutes to prepare their own TV commercials.
Choose the best group and give them the best TV Commercial Award.
Students can make their commercials in different ways; like a poet, a song, and even a
short play.
Grammar Uno:
This game is based on the ever handy and simple UNO; however, instead of using colors and
numbers as a basis for laying down cards, various prepositions and objects are used. Simply
make various cards (at least 28 for a group of four) with simple objects (balls, cats, mice, etc.)
and place them in various positions relative to larger objects (cars, tables, sofas, etc). Keep the
number of objects to four (like the number of colors in UNO). The starting card can be anything
but the following card must have the same preposition or object in order to lay it on the
previous (i.e., The first card is “The cat is on the table.” The second card must have either a cat
or the smaller object must be on the larger object). This game can be expanded by making the
person who lays the card on the table ask the next person, "Where is the....?" to which the
respondent must answer correctly to place his/her card on the table. The winner is the first person
to get rid of all her/his cards.
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Questions Uno:
Use a deck of UNO cards. The aim of this game is to ask and answer questions. Questions may
be relevant to work being done in class or general. Decide which cards will be "special" cards.
For example, all “ones”, “threes”, and “fives” in the deck are question cards. Each person is
given 5 cards. When a person plays one of the special cards s/he has to ask a question that the
next person has to answer. The students often try to ask difficult questions to trick their friends.
If the person answers the question correctly s/he can play, if s/he doesn’t s/he forfeits her/his
turn and gets one extra card. The winner is the person who gets rid of all her/his cards first.
Note: All regular Uno rules apply while playing this game.
This game has worked well for me with both adults and teenagers to practice listening and
either tag questions or short answers. It would work just as well to review vocabulary with
elementary students. However, little kids and teenagers can get pretty crazy and too excited.
Flyswatter:
You will need large pieces of paper (1 meter wide x 1 meter tall) and fat markers OR the
blackboard and chalk, two flyswatters (the plastic kind are best because you can hit the board
pretty hard and not hurt it).
Prepare by writing many statements (20-40) that can be followed by tag questions on a piece of
paper--these are the clues that students will listen and respond to. Depending on the students'
level you should use as many different subjects and verb tenses/modes as possible. OR for
practice with short answers, write many questions with various subjects and verbs.
On large pieces of paper (or on the board/transparency) write randomly and in big letters all
the possible tags or short answers. The advantage of using several big pieces of paper is that
you can tape them to the wall where a lot of slapping won't do any damage, you can prepare
them ahead of time, and you can reuse the game.
For example, you will have on your paper "You will walk home.", "She didn't like it.", “They are
speaking Spanish.", etc. On the large papers you will have, in random spots, "Won't you?", "Did
she?", "Aren't they?", etc..
Divide the class into two teams. Teams or parts of teams, depending on the size of the class,
line up about 3 meters or so from the papers taped to the wall. Give the first person in each line
a flyswatter. You call out a statement and they both must run to the wall and try to be the first
to slap the correct answer. If they both slap the right answer, the one whose swatter is on the
bottom gets the point. If either of the two gets it wrong, he/she has only one more chance to
find the right answer. If both teams' runners guess incorrectly twice, they must pass to the back
of the line. Solicit the correct answer from the class, and then go on to the next statement.
Waiting team members may not yell out the answer--if they do, they should be penalized one
point to discourage cheating.
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Alien Conversations:
Give a student a card with a relatively simple word on it like "mirror" or "baby."
Pretend you are from another planet and only know a few words. (i.e., dog, coffee, car). Each
time the student mentions a new noun; ask what it is, so that it goes something
like this:
A baby is a small person.
What is a person?
A person is....
Do not use drawings, but students can point to similar things or use
gestures to support their comments.
TABOO:
The game TABOO is a great way to improve vocabulary and fluency. The idea of the game
(simplified rules to use in class) is that one student has a card with a word that his/her
classmates have to identify. The player with the card can only use speech to describe this word,
and may not use key words listed on the card—they are TABOO! If you use the actual game,
you will probably have to go through the cards first and select them for the level of your group;
or you can make your own cards, listing taboo words according to the level of your students. If
you divide your class into two teams, the competition can get fierce!
The Translation Game:
Divide students into two teams of 4-6. One member of each team ('The Translator') sits with
her back to the whiteboard. Team members, all facing the board, close in around their
Translator. The teacher writes a sentence in English on the whiteboard. Teams translate from
English to L1, usually via screaming at the top of their voices—no English permitted! Translator
translates back into English, with considerable prompting from team members—translation
must be perfect. This game promotes heaps of hilarity and competitiveness.
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