Useful games and activities

Sellotape Game

Topic: Myself and others, My family

Strand: Communicative Competence, Intercultural Awareness

Strand unit/ Language skill: Spoken Interaction, Listening

Time: 15 mins.

Description:

Prepare some labels – these could be names, feelings, professions and attach them to theforeheads of the pupils. Pick a scene – start the role play. The participants should notindicate to each other what they observe but rather treat people according to their label.Pupils should discover what their label is through reactions of others. Once discovered theycan play along with their ‘typecasting’ or against it!

Truth and Lies

Topic: All topics

Strand: Communicative Competence, Intercultural Awareness

Strand unit/ Language skill: Spoken Interaction, Listening

Time: 20 mins.

Description:

The class divides into pairs. In each pair, one is the questioner and the other the answerer.Have some identity profiles prepared for the class – the answerer takes on this identity – itis possible to use characters from well known stories so pupils can use prior knowledge. Thequestioner asks questions in rapid succession. The answerer must answer the questions,alternating between true answers and lies - must not hesitate or laugh. If the answererhesitates or laughs, or if he/she fails to alternate between truth and lies, he/she is "out" andthe partners reverse roles

Relaxation

Topic: Body + space

Strand: Communicative Competence

Strand unit/ Language skill: 1. Listening, 2. Listening + Spoken Production

Time: 3-5 mins.

Description:

The aim of the warm up is to relax everybody, mentally and physically, and reduce inhibitions. During the warm up the class concentrates. A positive start helps everyone toget down to work. A warm up can be done with pupils still sitting at their tables but it ismore effective standing up, behind the tables if need be, or ideally in a wider space.Pupils find a space by stretching their arms out and swinging them to make sure that theywon’t hit each other. Initially the teacher leads the warm-up exercises but later on a pupilwho is confident enough with the target language can be invited to lead.Start warming up by shaking all over (in time to a lively music if possible), rub the handstogether and slap them on different parts of the body. Continue with head movements,then shoulders, hips…

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GAMES ONLINE

This resource offers games of different level. You only have to choose to your liking.

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Board Race

• Split the class into two teams and give each team a colored marker.
• If you have a very large class, it may be better to split the students into teams of 3 or 4.
• Draw a line down the middle of the board and write a topic at the top.
• The students must then write as many words as you require related to the topic in the form of a relay race.
• Each team wins one point for each correct word. Any words that are unreadable or misspelled are not counted.

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Pictionary

Pictionary can help students practice their vocabulary and it tests to see if they're remembering the words you've been teaching.

• Before the class starts, prepare a bunch of words and put them in a bag.
• Split the class into teams of 2 and draw a line down the middle of the board.
• Give one team member from each team a pen and ask them to choose a word from the bag.
• Tell the students to draw the word as a picture on the board and encourage their team to guess the word.
• The first team to shout the correct answer gets a point.
• The student who has completed drawing should then nominate someone else to draw for their team.
• Repeat this until all the words are gone - make sure you have enough words that each student gets to draw at least once!

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What's My Problem?

• Write ailments or problems related to your most recent lesson on post-it notes and stick one post-it note on each student's back.
• The students must mingle and ask for advice from other students to solve their problem.
• Students should be able to guess their problem based on the advice they get from their peers.
• Use more complicated or obscure problems to make the game more interesting for older students. For lower levels and younger students, announce a category or reference a recent lesson, like "Health", to help them along.

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Pick a bag

Topic: Myself and Others

Strand: Communicative Competence (Cultural Awareness)

Strand unit/ Language skill: Listening, Spoken Interaction

Time: 3-5 mins.

It is useful to have a number of bags as part of your basic equipment: a shopping bag, a hand bag, a school bag, a brief-case, a hand-bag, shoulder-bag, even a suitcase.In the target language ask pupils to stand or sit in a circle. Ask pupils to pick a bag and take their character from the kind of bag it is. For example: the school bag for a lively young child, the shopping bag for the hard-working preoccupied-looking house-wife...

First see characters individually and use as a guessing game where the class guess what character is being mimed. As the class may not necessarily know the language needed, find out from each pupil what character they are miming and list the characters in writing on the board/IWB.

Then couple the characters in suitable pairs at a specific location, such as the bus stop, outside the school, in the queue outside the cinema, in the zoo, on the ferry, at the airport, ... and ask them to mime the encounter. This then works as guessing game where the rest of the class are asked to guess the location. A choice of locations on flashcards is posted up on the board. This sequence of miming exercises is very useful as a preliminary activity for the introduction of short dialogues and potentially in developing into full blown role plays. The bags can be replaced by other props, this game then becomes: Pick a chair/hat/aball/glasses/any prop.