Donut Game

Also known as:

  • Circle game

Description

Students get a deck of cards and place them face down in a circle. They play janken to decide who goes first.

The player turns over one card in the circle and uses that card to say the target English. Then, he/she puts that card face up in the center of the circle. If the card they turned over matches the card turned over on the previous turn, they take all the discarded cards from the center.  Once there are no cards left in the circle, the students count the cards they took. They get one point for each card they have. Then, they shuffle and play again.

Notes

  • This game can be done to practice just vocabulary or grammar. It can also be used to practice asking and answering questions – the group can ask the player a question who then answers it based on the card they receive.
Posted byAdriana on April 27, 2022(last edited April 28, 2022)

2 comments on “Donut Game”

  1. Paul says:
    permalink
    One variation of this game can be that each time the students find a match, they count the cards to get their points, then immediately shuffle them back into the circle. This takes a little longer (and means the students need to remember their points between rounds), but it means the game can be played with far fewer cards! In this version, you only need two sets of each vocabulary card rather than multiples, and there's no risk that a card will ever not have a match within the circle somewhere.
  2. Chris says:
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    Other variant would be to eliminate the matching, and put in some jokers. We've used doubled-sided question mark cards or even once a teacher I had used character cards instead. When they turn over the joker, they take all the cards. Game ends when all the jokers are revealed.

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