Ann Vermeulen
2 Baso B
22/11/’07
Engels: 10 usefun games
10. Bingo with irregular verbs
Rules: The teacher calls out verbs in their present tense form. The students look for
the associated past tense form in their grids. When they’ve indicated five irregular
verbs in a diagonal, a horizontal or a vertical row, they shout BINGO and in doing so
win the game!
Material: a large variety of 5x5 grids with 25 irregular verbs in the past tense in it
Target group: This game can be used as a revision in the initial stage or in the
evaluation stage especially in the 3rd form because that’s where these irregular verb
forms are introduced. It can also be played to revise the irregular forms by older
students.
Skills: Listening + Speaking
9. My neighbour’s cat
Rules: The teacher draws a cat on the blackboard and introduces it as his
neighbour’s cat. He/She says: “My neighbour’s cat is an anxious cat.”. The teacher
writes the letter A on the blackboard and adds anxious. The other letters of the
alphabet are also written on the blackboard. The students then have to suggest
possible adjectives beginning with the letter B to describe their neighbour’s cat, for
example: “My neighbour’s cat is a black cat.”. They’ll have to try to find adjectives for
every letter of the alphabet.
Material: a blackboard and chalk
Target group: Every class where they have learned or where they are learning about
adjectives (~ 3rd form).
Skills: Speaking + Listening
8. Mimes
Rules: Each student gets a card with an action on it in the present progressive
structure, for example “You are playing soccer.”. The student has to mime this action
in front of the class. Each student in turn will try to guess what she/he’s doing by
posing a question with a present continuous structure in it like: “Are you playing
soccer?”. The student in front has to answer “Yes I am.” or “No, I am not.”. When
they guess what she/he’s doing, the student is replaced by someone else with a
card.
Material: cards with actions in the present progressive tense
Target group: Students in the 3rd form are able to perform this exercise since they
learn about the formation of the present continuous.
Skills: Speaking
7. Sing Along Song
Rules: The teacher distributes papers with the lyrics of a song. This text is not in the
right order. It’s up to the students to listen to the song and put the lyrics in the right
order. The first student who manages to find the right composition has won the
game.
Material: papers with the lines in the wrong order + accompanying music
Target group: This game can be played in all levels. It is possible in the initial stage,
during the lesson, or in the evaluation stage.
Skills: Reading + Listening
6. Associations
Rules: The teacher suggests an evocative word like ‘warm’ for example. It’s then a
student’s turn to say what the word ‘warm’ suggests to him/her which might be ‘sun’.
The next student suggests an association with the word ‘sun’ and so on round the
class.
Material: /
Target group: Associations can be played in all stages of the lesson, with students
from all levels.
Skills: Speaking + Listening
5. Hangman
Rules: This is a word game in which the students have to guess a secret word letter
by letter. If they guess a letter that is in the secret word, the letter shall appear
everywhere it appears in the word. If they guess a letter that is not in the word, a
part will be added to the hanged man (head, chest, arms, legs,…). If a student
guesses all the letters in the word, he/she wins!
Material: the blackboard and chalk
Target group: This game is appropriate for all levels in every stage of a lesson.
Skills: Speaking + Listening + Writing + Reading (all skills on word level)
4. Embarrassing moments
Rules: The pupils get five minutes to write down a short text about an embarrassing
situation they’ve experienced themselves or that they might have experienced. The
teacher then indicates a student who’ll tell his story. The others have to guess
whether this tale was true or false.
Material: a sheet of paper
Target group: The target group here is a language-minded class in the third form or
older, which is rather willing to speak about embarrassing situations in the evaluation
stage of the lesson.
Skills: Writing + Speaking + Listening + Reading (all skills!)
3. If I …, …
Rules: There are three possible ‘sentences’ to begin with:
1. If I were (~name of a famous person), …
2. If I had lots of money, …
3. If I lived in …, …
The students have to pick one of these possibilities. They’ll get one minute to write
an end to it while paying attention to the second conditional. The teacher then
collects the papers and gives one of the papers to a student. This student has to
read out loud what’s on the paper. At that moment the others have to guess who
wrote this conditional and explain why they think so.
Material: a sheet of paper
Target group: This is a nice game in the evaluation stage of a lesson about the
second conditional in a 3rd form.
Skills: Writing + Reading + Listening + Speaking (all skills!)
2. Don’t say yes or no
Rules: One student stands in front of the classroom (or in the middle of the circle).
The rest fire questions at this person, with the aim of eliciting the answer ‘yes’ or
‘no’. The student has to avoid mentioning these two words in his truthful answers to
the questions by using for example tag answers. He is questioned during one minute.
If he doesn’t say the forbidden words, he wins the game. If he does mention one of
the words, he is replaced by another student.
Material: /
Target group: This game is appropriate for all levels, but it can be played in
particular at the end of a lesson about (tag)questions in the 3 rd year. This way the
structure of such sentences can be practised easily.
Skills: Listening + Speaking
1. Who am I?
Rules: Every student gets a label with for example a profession on it. This label
should be taped on his/her forehead. Everybody is seated in a circle so they can read
all stickers but their own. One student can start the game by asking a yes or no
question. If the answer is yes, he/she can ask another question. If the answer is no,
it’s up to someone else’s turn to ask a question. Play until everybody has guessed his
profession.
This game can be played with a huge variety of other subjects on the labels.
Material: labels with different professions
Target group: “Who am I?” is a game to be used in all levels, whenever a new
subject is taught with .
Skills: Speaking