Project for Developing Chinese Language Teachers
New York University
Teaching Chinese Through Games
May 15, 2009
Games submitted by Teacher Members
1. Around the world (环游世界) by Lu Li
This is my students’ favorite game to play. Everyone gets a chance to play in the game. It integrates
learning with fun and competition. The game can be used for a variety of purposes. The example I
am giving here is for reviewing characters.
Procedure:
1
2
6
7
3
8
4
9
5
10
1. S1 leaves his seat and stands besides S2. T shows the 1st character, whoever gets it right moves to
standing besides S3.
2. It continues in this way until somebody goes back to his own seat, meaning that he has gone
“around the world”！
2. Who has ? by Lynn Lin ( Lycée Français de New York )
Game Ideas
This is an interactive game for practicing vocabulary and listening. It’s fun, fast and very effective in a
medium 10-25 size group. Good for all age groups.
Materials: participants
Flashcards with pictures or characters or pinyin
Someone calling out the items
Procedures: The main idea of this game is to help students practice and expand their vocabulary
level in a fun and engaging way.
For example, when I teach food, fruits, etc; I have a bunch of plastic fruits. Students have already
learned the names of these fruits and should be able to say them without long hesitation. However,
this game helps students be faster at identifying these items in Chinese. I give each student a food or
fruit item (they love being able to hold something, even if it’s not real).
I will proceed by calling out the name by saying “shei2 you3…” Who has… and I teach the students to
say “wo3 you3…” I have… as they say this, they’re required to hold the fruit HIGH in the air.
Modifications: Especially with food items, you can also throw in color. Maybe have 3 students with 3
apples of different colors and say “who has the green apple?” “Who has the red apple” etc. Don’t
limit your colors to “natural/normal” colors, this game can also be silly and imaginative.
You can also modify this game by asking students to switch items with each other in a group.
*Keep in mind: make sure you have something for EVERYONE or else other students will feel left out
and will not want to participate. Also, limit this game to 15-20minutes, although this is active and
engaging, they will be bored of it if you trail along the game for more than that.
Project for Developing Chinese Language Teachers
New York University
Teaching Chinese Through Games
May 15, 2009
Games submitted by Teacher Members
3. Hitting game by Amy Chau
Procedure: This can be a small or big group activity (2-6). Each group receives a set of cards,
containing either pictures or Chinese characters. All cards are spread on desk face up. Each time, the
teacher calls out a name of the picture or Chinese character, the students hit the card. Whoever hits
the right card first, the person will keep the card until the turn is over. At the end, the students are
encouraged to count the cards that he or she wins in Chinese, and records the score. The person
earns the highest score will be the winner.
Materials: small cards with either pictures or Chinese characters.
4. Jeopardy by Richard Von
This game is a tech game which Richard Von will demonstrate to us on computer.
5. Body parts learning with movement game by Yiliu Joy May
手的活动
我伸出左手去, 左手摆一摆。 拜拜！
我伸出右手去, 右手摆一摆。 拜拜！
我伸出一双手, 双手摆一摆。 拜拜！
我伸出左手去，我收回左手来。
我伸出左手摆一摆，左手收回来。
我伸出右手去，我收回右手来。
我伸出右手摆一摆，右手收回来。
我伸出双手去，我收回双手来。
我伸出双手摆一摆，双手收回来。
我举起左手来, 左手摆一摆
我举起右手来, 右手摆一摆
我举起双手摆一摆，双手放下来。
再见，再见，拜拜！
6. Character stroke relay race by Mary Ma ( Fieldston)
1. Divide class into 2-3 groups, with each group 6-8 persons
2. Each group stand in line, away from blackboard/whiteboard several feet
3. name a character and start the relay
4. each member write one stroke then pass the chalk/market to the next one
5. whichever team finish the character gets one point
6. Keep practicing 3-5 characters then calculate the points
7. The team with most points is the winner
7. “Duck” Game by Sophie Paolicelli
Goal:
Project for Developing Chinese Language Teachers
New York University
Teaching Chinese Through Games
May 15, 2009
Games submitted by Teacher Members
Students will be able to reinforce Character writing (numbers in characters, any characters by
categories, expressions) in a fast-paced and fun way.
Materials: White board, markers & erasers, or blackboard with chalk.
Steps:
1. The teacher will group students in 4-6 teams (depends on how many students you have, normally
5-6 students for each team). I team them up by the rows of their seating. Below is my seating chart:
T5
T4
T5
T5
T5
T3
T4
T4
T4
T3
T3
T3
The Teacher
White Board
T2
T1
T2
T2
T2
2. The teacher will divide the board into 4-6 sections as below:
Team 1
Team 2
Team 3
T1
T1
T1
Team 4
Team 5
3. The teacher will explain the rules of the game:
We are going to practice writing the characters for …… You are going to play as a team. The team
that wins the highest number of Chinese Tally (正) will win the prize (in my case, stickers which they
ultimately will trade in those stickers with Chinese “红包”). When you hear I say “DUCK”, you have
to stop writing no matter what. Otherwise you will be disqualified. If you write the character
correctly, please put a tally stroke under your team name on the board. During the game, you can
only do silent cheering. Please absolutely no noise.
4 The first student of each team (the first row) will go to the designated spot on the board with their
own markers and eraser with them. The rest of the students will move one seat up so they can take
turns and rotate.
5. When the teacher says “Ready, Set…” (Of course you can say it either in English or Chinese
depending on their levels), they have to put themselves in a “ready to go” position.
6. The teacher will clearly call out the characters that she/he wants them to write, such as: 八, or 你
好，or 苹果……
7. Students have to write the characters as fast as they can without making mistakes.
8. Once the teacher sees at least one student finished the writing, she will call “DUCK!” All of the
students who are at the board writing have to duck (squad down) regardless if they finish the writing
or not. The reason I call “Duck” instead of “Hands Up” which I originally named this game, because
you can’t see their writing since their bodies and hands are in the way. By ducking down, you also
prevent them from continuing to write which is against the rules of the game.
Project for Developing Chinese Language Teachers
New York University
Teaching Chinese Through Games
May 15, 2009
Games submitted by Teacher Members
9. The teacher will check their writing and say “Team 1, 3, & 4 got it! Please write a tally stroke on
the board!” They will write one stroke of “正” each time they got it right.
10. Then whoever was at the board will go to the last row and sit down, the front row will go up to
the board, the rest of them will move up again. Keep rotating until you think it is time to stop.
Reward the winning team.
My students, no matter if they are 5th graders or HS seniors, they absolutely love this game. They
want to play it everyday. The problem is: they tend to get very excited and rowdy when they cheer
for their team mates. Make sure to emphasize on “silent cheering”. You need to have a very good
control of the class.
8. Fruit Game by Barbara Tjiong
(see powerpoint)
9. 猜谜语 Activity: GUESS! By Hong Hu from UNIS
Level: beginner Grade: M3/M4
Goal: help students master the words and expressions of body parts
Steps: 1)Study the words and expressions of body parts with picures
2) Warm up with the words through the games such as Simon SAYS
3) Ask and answer the questions of body parts, eg. 马有几条腿？
4) Guess.
Description of the activity:
Teacher tells the students that he is thing of an animal, and asks the students ask questions.
Teacher answers the questions and the students guess what animal the teacher is thinking about?
After the teacher do several examples, he/ she could ask the students do among themselves.
Example: 老师：我现在想一个动物，请猜一猜，它是什么？
学生 1：它有几条腿？
老师：它有四条腿。
学生 2：它会游泳吗？
老师：它会游泳，它游得很好。
学生３：它有尾巴吗？
Project for Developing Chinese Language Teachers
New York University
Teaching Chinese Through Games
May 15, 2009
Games submitted by Teacher Members
老师：它小的时候有，大的时候没有。
学生：青蛙。（英文）
10. Hangman--Pinyin Word Game
by Pinying Yeh
Hangman is a paper and pencil guessing game for two or more players. One player thinks of a
Chinese word and the other tries to guess it by suggesting Pinyin (letters) and tone marks.
Procedure: The word to guess is represented by a row of dashes, giving the number of letters.
If the guessing player suggests a letter which occurs in the word, the other player writes it in all its
correct positions. If the suggested letter does not occur in the word, the other player draws one
element of the hangman diagram as a tally mark. The game is over when:
The guessing player completes the word, or guesses the whole word correctly
The other player completes the diagram:
This diagram is, in fact, designed to look like a hanging man. Although debates have arisen
about the questionable taste of this picture, it is still in use today. A common alternative for teachers
of young learners is to draw an apple tree with ten apples, erasing or crossing out the apples as the
guesses are used up.
The exact nature of the diagram differs; some players draw the gallows before play and draw
parts of the man's body (traditionally the head, then the torso, then the left arm, then the right arm,
then the left leg, then the right leg).
Some players begin with no diagram at all, and drawing the individual elements of the gallows
as part of the game, effectively giving the guessing players more chances.
Materials: blackboard and chalk, or paper and pencil
11. Quick_Story by Lei Tang
Steps:
1. The teacher prepares in advance some topics (e.g. words the students have learned recently) and
writes them down, one topic per sheet.
2. The teacher assigns a number to each student and writes each number down on a separate sheet.
The lass is divided into two teams, the odd-number team and the even-number team.
3. The teacher puts three piles of paper on the table: one pile for topics, one pile for odd numbers,
and one pile for even numbers.
4. The teacher draws a sheet from the topic pile, shows it to the students, and asks them to think of
three sentences about the topics. After a few seconds, the teacher then draws a number from the
odd-number pile. The student whose number is drawn must immediately say his/her sentence s/he
says, the team earns two points. If that student says nothing, but other members of her/his team do
have something to say, they can do so, with the team receiving on point for each correct sentence.
5. The teacher then draws another topic and an even number, and the other team takes its turn to
get some points.
6. The game ends when all the expressions are used or when the predetermined time is up. The
team with the most points is the winner.
Project for Developing Chinese Language Teachers
New York University
Teaching Chinese Through Games
May 15, 2009
Games submitted by Teacher Members
12. What Could the Question Be? By Lei Tang
Steps:
1. The teacher devises a two-person dialogue in Chinese (either Pinyin or characters) in which
speaker A asks ten questions and speaker B gives ten answers to those questions. The teacher then
prepares a handout on which only speaker B's answers appear.
2. The teacher distributes the handouts and gives the students from five to ten minutes to "create" a
dialogue based on the answers given.
3. The teacher can either grade the student-devised dialogues outside of class or have several
students read their dialogues aloud, with the whole class correcting and commenting on the
questions.
4. The students who prepares the best dialogue is the winner.
13. Passing the Message by Lei Tang
Steps:
1. The teacher selects a sentence (at the students' proficiency level) and whispers it into the ear of
the first player, making sure that no other player can hear it.
2. The first player then whispers the sentence s/he heard to the second player, and so on.
3. After hearing the sentence, the last player says it aloud so that everyone can hear it. The teacher
then says the original sentence aloud.
4. The fun part of this game is that, after passing through several mouths, the last sentence is often
quite different from the original one.
14. Speedy Character Game by Lynn Lin
This game is designed for middle school to high school or students who are learning to write
characters to practice character writing and recognition.
Materials: Blackboard or dry erase board with makers or chalk.
Procedures: After studying vocabulary from a new lesson you can play this easy game with them.
1. Divide students into two groups. (this part is a bit tricky, as we all know not all students are
at the same levels, so you may want to keep the teams “fair” by putting students of all levels
in each group. This is also important because if one group is obviously more dominant in
writing, then the other team will most likely give up, very easily)
2. Prior to playing, you may want students to review their characters, or go over the characters
with them so it’s relatively fresh in their minds.
3. Assign each student in teach team a number 1-10 or however many students there are.
4. Tell students the Rules
RULES:
Project for Developing Chinese Language Teachers
New York University
Teaching Chinese Through Games
May 15, 2009
Games submitted by Teacher Members
a. Each student will go against the other student with the same number, 1 vs1, 2vs 2s
etc.
b. Each student has 10 seconds or LESS to write the CORRECT character(s) and pinyin
on the board.
c. Point will be awarded to the student who is both correct and fast.
d. The team with the most points, wins the game.
5. Remind students that it’s about team work.
6. Teacher will call out different vocabulary and two students will be at the board writing. If
there’s some sort of “he said she said” it’s up to the entire class to decide who will receive
the point. If they cannot come to an agreement then the teacher can just call out a new
word to “make up” for that turn.
15. Guess game--What color is it? by Amy Chau
Procedure: This is a class activity. Colored pens are placed in envelopes before the game starts. The
teacher asks 猜, 这是什么颜色的笔? Students will take turns to call out the color of the pen. The
person who guesses correctly will be asked to say the full sentence, 我猜这是__色的笔, and then
gets the colored pen as the prize. Students who have already earned the prize will be asked to let
others make the guess first.
Materials: envelopes, colored pens.