GAME DATABASE No. Game Participants Aim Grade Time Instructions Tips GENERAL TIPS FOR GAMES - - Divide the class in three or four groups. Call them group A/B/C/D… Later on, when students know more words, you can give them names as well (animals, colors, etc.) or ask them to think of a name themselves. Make sure every student knows their group by repeating the group name over and over. Let them cheer when they get an extra star. Give every group three stars to start with. At the beginning of the lesson, remove stars for the noisiest group, until the entire class is quiet. Repeat this if they get too noisy again. Don’t write all the stars yourself. Ask students to help you. You can have either one student permanently at the board or you can ask the student who won a star to write it. Useful utilities in class: magnets, flashcards (not only the letters and respective words, try to get many), sticky ball, plastic hammer, extra warm-up video’s and songs. After you have played a game with some students at the front of the class, repeat the words and sounds for the entire class so they stay involved with the learning material. When playing a game, always start with the simplest possible version (basic game, simple words) and start by playing it with the best students. Once things go well, you can start elaborating and inviting the weaker students. Smile a lot and compliment the students. Use positive rewards: the better students master the language items, the more chances they get to earn stars (instead of giving every student a star, no matter how they perform). Always make students do an exercice before giving them a star! Don’t play a game ‘just for fun’. 1. Slap the Board Reading skill 2-3 students Listening skill Any 5-10 min - - 2. Pang / Pang 2 students Reading Skill Learn New Words Warm-up 1-2 5-10 min - - 3. Bull’s Eye Choose students to come to the front Speaking skill 1-3 5-10 min - 4. Simon Says The whole class Listening Skill Warm-up Any 5-10 min - Flashcards go on the board. Teacher says a word/ sentence and then the students have to hit the flashcard. Ask students not to hit it once, but to keep the ruler on the flashcard until the teacher says the next word/ sentence. Then the teacher can say the next word/ sentence faster and faster, until one of the students makes a mistake. When saying the words/ sentences, teacher says simple words/ sentences first. More difficult words/ sentences can be integrated more and more as the game is going better. Give students a ruler to hit the flashcard. Otherwise, they might hit the flashcard too hard and it will drop to the floor. Alternatively, draw shapes under the flashcards for the students to slap. If everything is going well, ask a student to say the words/ sentences instead of the teacher. Ask two students to come to the front of the class. They have to stand back to back. If you can’t explain, use gestures to make clear. After that, give each student a flashcard. Put it on their forehead so that they can’t see the flashcard. Ask them to hold it. After that, teacher counts to three. Every time teacher counts, students take one step forward. Then teacher says ‘Pang, pang’, and the students turn around. Now they can see the front of the flashcard that the other student is holding. The student that can read the other flashcard first is the winner. When teachers says ‘Pang, Pang’ students pretend to hold a gun. Draw a darts board on the board with two outer circles and one bull’s eye. Ask a student to the front of the class. If they can answer your question correctly, they can throw the ball. Make sure every student throws from the same distance, otherwise, students might get angry at each other. Make sure they pick up the ball after they throw and return it to the teacher. Outer circle is one star, inner circle two, bull’s eye three stars. Teachers gives many instructions in a short time but students only follow the instruction when teacher begins with “Teacher says…” Remove stars if for the group that acted out the - Variation: make a paper plane for students to throw. Older students can make their own. Great game to start or end the class. Possible instructions: stand up, sit down, open your book, close your book, put away instruction. Reward the best group. your book, take your book, clap your hands, raise your hands, wave your hands, shake your hands, one hand up, two hands up, one hand down, touch your nose, ear, mouth, etc. - - 5. Sleep / Wake The Whole class up Reading Skill 1-2 5 min - First teach the students the words sleep / wake up, by using gestures. Then ask two or three students to come up front. Ask them to sleep and make sure their eyes are closed. Then show a flashcard with a picture or a gapped sentence to all students, but make sure they don’t shout it out yet. Then you say ‘wake up’ and the first student to guess the word, is the winner. - 6. Tic-Tac-Toe Choose students to come to the front 2 students 7. BOINNK 8. Sounds and The whole Words on the Speaking skill Warm-up Pronunciation Speaking skill Warm-up Listening skill Remembering Any 1-2 Draw a grid on the board with 9 boxes. Divide the class in two groups. Think of a suitable assignment according to the lesson material and reward the students by letting them put an X (group 1) or O (group 2) in the grid. First one to have three in a row is the winner. - Every time a student makes a mistake the teacher or another student will hit the student on the head using the plastic hammer. Students will go wild! Alternatively, you cam high-five if they answer correct, and give them a soft touch with your hand palm on the head if they are mistaken. The advantage of the plastic hammer is that it makes a sound. Get a cheap plastic hammer at a local shop. Teacher pronounces a letter (for example, ‘u’) while putting hands on the head, then pronounces the sound of the letter in a word (for example, /u/ in umbrella) while putting hands on the Once they get this routine, repeat it faster and faster. You can also vary the routine, for 5-10 min 5 min 5 min There are also plenty of opportunities for other games using the grid lay-out. You can for example write words in every box and let students throw the ball at the words. - 1 Let them ‘sleep’ for a while, before allowing them to wake up. They’ll find it funny when you wait a long time to say ‘wake up’ again. You can also use whole class. Ask class to ‘sleep’ whilst another student removes a flashcard. Select one student from class to guess the missing the flashcard. - Body class chest, then pronounces a word with that letter (for example, ‘umbrella’) while putting hands on the legs. - 9. Memory 2 students Reading Skill Remembering Warm-up 1-2 5-10 min - - 10. Chinese Whispering 11. Charades 3-6 students Speaking skill Listening skill The whole class Speaking skill Learn New Words Any 5-10 min Any 5-10 min - 12. Birds with Cards 2 students Learn New Words Speaking Skill 1-2 5 min - 13. Where is the…? Reading skill 5-10 students Speaking skill Warm-up 1-2 5-10 min - example by creating series head-legs-head or head-chestlegs-chest-head with the accompanying word. Draw 5 or more question marks on the board and put flashcards on top of them. Go over all the words with the entire class a few times until they (almost) remember all the words. Now the game starts, you ask two students to the front of the class. They have to close their eyes / go to sleep so they can’t see the board. Then remove one card and let the students guess the missing card. First one is the winner. Ask min. 3, max. 6 students to line up and to make a train. Then you whisper a word/ sentence into the ear of the first student. This student will then whisper it to the following student, etc. The last student has to shout the word. Make sure the students keep whispering and try to help and correct them the first few times so a good example is set. One student acts out the word and the other students guess. This game and also be played with drawing instead of acting. Keep the class quiet enough so they don’t shout the answer. - If this is going well, you can then organize a competition by making two trains. The first train that succeeds in whispering the word from front to back is the winner. - Useful to practice animals, emotions, body parts, etc. The students are usually shy so they need some help getting started. - Invite two students to the front of the class. Students have to hold a flashcard behind their back with the front visible for someone behind their back. Two students have to face each other and try to see and shout the word behind the other student. Funny because students look like birds when they try to see the flashcard behind the back of the other student. First student to shout the correct word is the winner. Make sure their moving space is limited or else they will run and chase each other. First start by randomly handing out 5 to 10 flashcards to students in the class. Put it on their desk and tell them they can’t touch it yet. Then you start recollecting the cards. Teacher asks: ‘Where is the - This good revision game tests and repeats the knowledge from previous classes. This game can also be useful …?’ and then the students have to return the card to the teacher at the front of the class. Also ask students to repeat the word/ sentence and maybe ask one additional question. - - Repeat in 14. circle Listening Skill 5-10 students Speaking skill Any 10-15 min - Fix the Order The Whole 15. / Complete the Class Sentence Reading skill Speaking skill 2-3 5-10 min - - 16. One word each 4-8 students Speaking Skill 2-3 5 min - to practice politeness and manners by saying ‘Here you are’ and ‘Thank you’ when handing over the card. Invite 5-10 students to the front of the class and ask them to make a circle. They can hold hands at first but after the circle is made don’t allow them to hold hands. Teacher is in the middle and shouts a word/ sentence. Then all the students repeat the word/ sentence. Then teacher shouts a next word/ sentence, etc. Every time all the students have to repeat the word/ sentence. Every time the teacher shouts a word/ sentence, he also points at a student at the same time. However, it usually doesn’t matter for the student if the teacher points at you or not. The only time it matters, is when he shouts a ‘special’ word/ sentence that you have told them before, for example “banana” or “computer” (anything related to the lesson). If the teacher shouts this word and points at a student at the same time, the student has to quickly sit down. It the student forgets this or if they are too slow, they lose and they have to go back to their seat. The last student standing is the winner. Elaboration of the game: if the teacher shouts the ‘special word’/ sentence and points at the student, the student still sits down. If the student forgets, he/she also loses. But if they do sit down, the two students next to him/her, have to point at the sitting student and shout the special word twice, for example “banana, banana”. The last of the two neighboring students to do this, loses. This game is a bit complicated for grade 1 and 2, however still possible if you explain step by step. Ask the TA for help. Teacher writes down a sentence but mixes the words so they are not in the correct order. Students have to place them in the right order. First student to do this, wins. Alternatively, you can keep the right order but put a blank instead of some of the words. First student to complete the sentence wins. Later, you can combine both: finding the right order and completing the blank. If you do not want to write on the board, you can prepare flashcards instead. Count the words in a specific sentence and ask the same number of students to the front of the class. Every student has to say one word and together they form the whole sentence. Do it faster and faster. Reward the best students. - Stop the 17. music The Whole Class Speaking Skill Listening Skill Warm-up - 18. Hangman The Whole Class Writing Skill Speaking Skill 2-5 10 min Guess the next The Whole 19. Class word Learn New Words Speaking Skill 2-3 5 min Any 5 min - - - Play some music and tell students to stand up and dance around. When the music stops, everyone has to sit down. Last one to sit down has to answer a question. Choose a word and write down a blank on the board for every letter. Students have to guess the word letter by letter. For every incorrect letter, teacher draws one line of a man who is getting more and more “hanged”. Teacher says one word. Students have to guess a word that starts with the last letter of the previous word. - Alternatively, tell students to pass around a ball. When the music stops, student with the ball in their hands, has to answer a question. You can also pass round flashcards and ask ‘where is the…’ have students stand up and state name of the flashcard. For older students have them formulate sentences using the words on the flashcard. Variation: For Grade 1 use a shark rather than a hangman. Draw a shark with an open mouth on the board and 3 or more steps above. Use flashcards of people or draw a stickman and for every incorrect answer move the stickman/flashcard down a step. Students take Remembering 20. Find the pairs Speaking Skill turns 1-3 5 min - 21. Roll the dice students take Speaking Skill turns Speaking Skill Warm-up 22. Slow Motion The Whole Class 23. Speed lines Speaking Skill Learn New 8-14 students Words Warm-up Any 1-2 1-2 5 min 5 min Speaking Skill Learn New Words Warm-up 1 5-10 min The Whole Class Speaking skill Warm-up 4-5 5-10 min 25. Two truths, one lie - Reveal a flashcard very slowly. First student to guess is the winner. - Students stand in two lines of 4-7 students each. Teacher shows a flashcard to the first two students in line. First one to guess can sit down. The other student has to go to the back of his/her line. First group to finish the line (everyone sits down) is the winner. - You need pairs of flashcards for this. Hand out one set to some student. When teacher shows a flashcard, the student with the same flashcard has to stand up and shout the word. Do it faster and faster so the students are standing up and sitting down rapidly. If you are too slow, you lose a star. - One student makes three statements, two are true and one is false. The class has to identify the lie. Select a representative from an opposing team to make the guess, if correct they win the point. 5-10 min The Whole 24. Up and down Class You need around 3/5 pairs of flashcards for this. Hang them on the board face down. Students take turns to turn around two flashcards. If they are the same, they go off the board and student gets one star. Go on until all flashcards are gone. If students answer a question correctly, they can throw the dice to earn more stars. A variation are the ‘gambling dice’; if the student correctly reads the sentence/word they can either receive 1 star or roll the dice. Numbers 1-3 correspond with the amount of stars the team will receive however, 4 is minus 1 star, 5 is minus 2 stars and 6 is minus 3 stars. - - 26. Categories The Whole Class Writing Skill Reading Skill 4-5 5-10 min Write 5-10 categories on the board. Assign a letter e.g. ‘e’. Students must think of a word for each category that begins with that letter. Students have to name the flashcards when they turn them around. It is easy to make a big dice by printing some numbers and sticking them to a cardboard box. Variation: ‘lightening flashcard’; select two students, quickly show the flashcard to the students, first to correctly identify the flascard correctly wins. This is a great game when played in small groups. Once a group has finished, a representative can read the words that are listed to the class. Have all the teams read theirs to to check whether they have listed anything different. - Who/what am The Whole 27. Class I? Speaking skill Verbs and 28. Emotions The Whole Class 29. Topic 5-10 students Writing skill 30. Sentence Relay 5-10 students Speaking skill Writing skill Reading skill Any 5 min 2-3 5 min 2-3 - Students must ask a series of questions to establish who/what you are. Questions can only be answered with yes or no. You can limit the number of questions based on the ability of your class. You can have teams ask other teams or have whole class individually ask you. - Similar to charades but student selects two pieces of paper. One will be an emotion and the other a verb, e.g. angry swimming, sad skipping etc. If students are unable to read you can use small pictures rather than words. - Write the topic of the class on the board in capitals e.g. WEATHER. Invite students to individually write another word vertically starting with one of the letters e.g. wet. - Using the Learn to Read section of the book, draw 2-4 columns on the board (depending on how many teams you have), then write 1-3/4 vertically in each column to represent each sentence. Select a student from each team and have them run and write sentence 1, they then run back to their team and pass the chalk to another student who will write sentence 2 and so on. First team to finish all the sentences, wins. Two students play rock, paper, scissors, both students have to then say a word/read sentence/answer a question. This allows both students the opportunity to win a star for their team. The winner can earn another star if they can successfully throw the ball into the ‘basket’ (you can give the student that lost a stool upside down). After you have taught a body movement to the class for a word/letter/sound, invite a student up to do the body movement and have the class shout out the word/letter/sound. When a student comes up front, have the class say ‘hello teacher’, students think it’s hilarious. 5 min 1-3 5-10 min - 31. Basketball 2 students Speaking skill Reading skill Any 5 min 32. Teacher The Whole Class Speaking skill 1 Ensure to set a time limit! 3 min - - Variation – Have a basket placed in the middle between 2 students, have them say a word/read sentence/answer a question then they can both throw the ball at the basket to attempt to score a star. Variation – write vocab on the board. Invite a student from each team up to the front facing the class. Teacher points to the vocab and class acts out the body movements. First student up front to guess vocab correctly wins a star. 33. Fish 2-4 students Speaking skill 34. Word grid Reading skill 3-6 students Speaking skill 1-2 2-4 - Make fish flashcards and bend the paper where the tail is.Draw two chalk lines on the floor to mark the start and finishing line. After students have correctly named the flashcards have them race to blow the fish over the finish line. - Draw grid on the board with vocab from the current and previous lessons. Students throw the sticky ball at the grid. Students then must formulate a sentence using that word. Award stars according to the complexity of the sentence. - Divide class into two teams (A and B or boys v girls). Select a few students from each team and have them line up near the board. Draw a table on the board. At the top of each column write a word that is commonly mispronounced e.g. likes, make sure you write the word that they say instead of the correct word in another column e.g. like. Students must identify which column they wish to place their ‘counter’ in by saying the word. If they mispronounce the word, they have to put the ‘counter’ in the column that sounds closest to what they have said. E.g. if they want to place it in the column that is titled ‘likes’ but they say ‘like’ you have to place the counter in the ‘like’ column. To win the game you must have four ‘counters’ in a line, treat the board as if it is the proper game, so the counters drop to the ‘bottom’ first and they must build up the counters to go higher on the table. 3 min 5-10 min - 35. Connect 4 3-6 students Reading skill Pronunciation 2-3 5-10 min Students take Speaking Skill turns Any 5-10 min Speaking skill 37. Guns, Bombs, Whole Class Reading Skill Any 5-10 min 36. Funny Face - Draw a funny face on the board, and assign a number of stars to the mouth, ears, eyes, nose and hair (some only one star, some more). After students succesfully complete an exercice related to the lesson, blindfold them and spin them around for three times. After that, they can stick a magnet to the funny face on the board and earn stars accordingly. - Draw a grid on the board with four columns (A, B, C, D) and - If you can, assign 1 team a yellow chalk and 1 teama red chalk. Instead of working with a grid, you can let them throw the Angels - - 38. Climb the Stairs Whole class Speaking skill Reading Skill Any - four rows (1, 2, 3, 4). Whenever a student succesfully completes an assignment related to the lesson material (e.g. read a sentence or practice conversation from Learn to Speak), they can choose a box, e.g.A2 or B1. You then look at a another grid you have made for yourself, which contains a gun, bomb or angel for every box. Then award/take away stars according to what they hit: Gun: steal a star from another group. Bomb: lose one star. Angel: Win one star. Students climb a stairs. Every group is assigned an ‘avatar’ (prepare these in advance or use the flashcards of horse, rabbit, fish and bird). For every completed assignment, student can throw the dice and climb the number of stairs accordingly. Whoever reaches the top, gets three stars. Add some traps to it, e.g. there is a hole in some steps and if you fall, you get eaten by the monsters underneath. Similarly, if you go to far (the number of the dice is more then the number of steps you have to climb until the end), you fall into the deep and get eaten by the sharks. dice and assign each number to either a gun, bomb or angel.
