Materials: Small cards

Pass the Bomb

Description

Each group receives a deck of cards and a bomb token. Each deck contains a mix of target English cards and ONE explosion card.

The deck in shuffled and placed in the center of the group. Students play janken to decide who starts with the bomb token. Each student starts with 5 points. The starting student flips over the top card of the deck and repeats the target English on the card.

The student then passes the bomb token left/right/across depending on the direction of the arrow on the card and the number or places (e.g. 2 left, 3 right etc). The student who receives the bomb token then flips over the next card. If a student flips over the explosion card, the round ends and the student loses one point.

All cards are then shuffled back into the deck and the next round is played. Play continues until the teacher calls ‘finished.’ Students then count how many points they have remaining and the student with the most points left is the winner.

Notes

  • The file attached is for the target English “I want to be a~” but can be changed for any other target English. 
  • The first sheet of cards is enough for one group. 
  • You can add more than one explosion card to the deck but the students tend to find it more exciting if there’s only one in the deck.

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Timer Dice

Description

STS make groups and get a set of cards. Each group picks 3 cards. At the start, all cards are worth 3 points. The STS repeat the HRT/ALT as they call out the vocabulary until the timer goes off. The HRT/ALT then rolls a dice. The number from the dice becomes how many points the last card that was called is worth. After 6 rounds, the game is finished and the groups see how many points their 3 cards are worth in total.

Notes

  • The number of cards each group picks will depend on how many total cards there are in the set. The more cards in total, the more cards the students should pick at the start of the round (a good amount is roughly 50%).
  • The amount of cards picked can change each round to add a sense of development in the game.

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Card Battle

Description

  • Students get pairs and a set of cards. Split the cards evenly between them, leaving one out (kept secret!). Students can see their own cards, but are secret from their pair.
  • The teacher gives values 1-9 to each card on the board. Higher cards win, except a 1 will beat a 9.
  • Janken. The winner asks the question, and loser answer with any of their cards. Loser then asks the question, and the winner answers with a card.
  • The card with the higher value wins, and that student gets 1 point.
  • Check points and switch pairs every few minutes.

Notes

  • With multiple sets of cards this could be done with a group, although I haven’t tried it.
  • You could do this with just the answer as well.
  • 1 beats 9 so the 9 card isn’t too strong. Feel free to experiment with different values and rules to make it more difficult/strategic. 
  • Inspired by the board game Stratego.

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Territory Game

Description

Students make pairs. They get one set of cards and a territory game board. They shuffle and place 6 of the cards on the middle two rows of the board. The teacher sets a timer and the students janken. The loser asks the winner the question, and the winner answers by choosing a certain card. They can then move the card to an adjacent space, as long as there is no other card on that space already. A card can’t be moved more than one space at a time, or past any other card that’s blocking the path. When time is up, each student gets one point for each card that is on their half of the board.

Notes

  • If using the template version, print it at A3 size and the spaces will be the right size for small (roughly 9.2 x 6.5cm) cards to go on in the spaces.
  • This game can be used to practice vocabulary, grammar, or questions and answers.
  • To practice vocabulary or grammar without using a question, the students janken and the winner simply says the target English that matches the card they choose to move.

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Search Game

Description

The students put all their cards face down. The teacher calls out the target English and the students repeat, until a timer goes off. The last card that was called is the key word. Students each pick one card and turn it over when the teacher says ‘go’. If a student turns over a card that matches the key word, they get one point. If no one gets the matching card, each student picks another card and turns it over when the teacher says ‘go’ again, until the card is found. They then shuffle the cards face down and start the next round.

Notes

  • An important point to this game is you don’t want students racing to turn over cards, as that will make things messy and disorganised (and unfair). Make sure that students wait for you to say ‘go’ before turning over one single card. You’ll need to say ‘go’ as many times it would take for each group to turn over every card, even if some groups find it on the first or second try.
  • The size of groups will depend on the number of cards you have in each set. For example, if you have 6 cards, it makes sense to play in pairs as this would give both players 3 chances to find the keyword. If you have 9 cards, playing in groups of 3 also gives each player 3 chances.
  • If you have a number of cards that doesn’t divide evenly between the students playing (e.g. prime numbers where the number isn’t equal to the number of students playing), one or more cards will not be turned over in a round. For example, if there are 7 cards and students are playing in pairs, after 3 chances to find the keyword there will be one card left. If this left over card is the keyword, then no one wins a point for that round.

Destiny Game

Description

Students make groups and pick two cards, leaving the rest face down. The teacher calls out the target English and the students repeat, until a timer goes off. If one of the cards they picked matches the last target English that was called, they can turn it over. This continues until the first group (or groups) can turn over both of their cards and win. For round two, they pick three cards, round three they pick four cards, and so on.

Go Fish

Description

The students make groups. Each group gets a deck of cards, and each student is dealt the same number of cards. Remaining cards are left in a deck in the middle. If a student has a pair of the same card, they can take it out of their hand and put it in a separate discard pile.

The player asks any other student in their group if they have a certain card, using the target English. If the student they asked doesn’t have the card, they answer ‘no’ and player must pick up an extra card from the middle deck. If the middle deck is empty, the discard pile is shuffled and used. If that student does have the card, they answer ‘yes’, and give that card to the player. When a player has a matching pair of cards, they can discard it.

The goal is to be the first player with no cards remaining in their hand.

Notes

  • It is best that each student starts with an odd number of cards, so no one can instantly win by making pairs.
  • Once a student wins, it is recommended that the game is reset and the students start again. If the remaining students play until everyone has no cards left, those first few who finish will be left out for quite a while.
  • The player can either freely ask any student they like for cards, or they always ask the student next to them in a circle. The former is more difficult to demonstrate but allows for more interesting strategy, the latter is simpler but may make the game less interesting.
  • This game generally requires a lot of cards! Assuming an average class of around 30 students split into 6 groups of 5 students, at minimum you would need around 108 cards (3 starting cards for each student plus 3 in the middle deck). 5 starting cards with 5 in the middle deck would need 180 cards total.

Search Zone

Description

The students make groups. Each group gets a set of vocabulary cards (face down) and they split the cards evenly between themselves. Any cards left over are kept in the middle of the group. The students cannot check what cards they have until the end of the round.

The teacher puts each large card into one of three ‘zones’ on the board. They set a timer and call random vocabulary until time runs out. The students repeat. The ‘zone’ of cards that the last called card is in ‘wins’. The students turn over all of their cards. Each card that matches the winning ‘zone’ is worth one point.

The students then shuffle their cards and split them between themselves for the next round, still face down.

Notes

  • When splitting cards between groups, whether there are any left over will depend on the size of the group and the number of vocabulary cards. For example, if there are 9 cards and 3 students in a group, each student will have 3 cards and none will be left over. If there are 9 cards and 4 students, each student will have 2 cards and one will be left over.
  • A ‘left over’ card could be worth one point for every student.

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Timer Zone

Description

The students make groups. Each group gets a set of vocabulary cards and they split the cards evenly between themselves. Any cards left over are kept in the middle of the group.

The teacher sets a timer and calls random vocabulary until time runs out. The students repeat. The student who has the card that matches the last called vocabulary wins one point.

After a certain number of rounds, the students shuffle and pick new cards.

Notes

  • When splitting cards between groups, whether there are any left over will depend on the size of the group and the number of vocabulary cards. For example, if there are 9 cards and 3 students in a group, each student will have 3 cards and none will be left over. If there are 9 cards and 4 students, each student will have 2 cards and one will be left over.
  • A ‘left over’ card could be worth one point for every student.

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Heads Up

Description

Students get into pairs and get a set of flashcards, and a timer is set for ~2 minutes. Student A holds the cards to face their pair. Student B asks the question, and A guesses what their own card is using the answer. They get 3 tries before they discard that card face up. If they guess correctly, they get one point, and go to the next flashcard. Students guess until the timer goes off. Pairs then switch and play again.

Notes

  • This game hasn’t been tested out yet. If you try it, please let me know how it went!
  • This could also be a good vocab review for a first game or warm up game, where students just guess the word instead of doing the question/answer.
  • The idea is it gets easier to guess the flashcard the more cards they get through, although it may result in students not using the full Q/A.

Example round:

A: *holds card facing away from them*
B: “What do you want?”
A: “I want a….book?”
B: “No! What do you want?”
A: “I want a…game!”
B: “Yes! 1 point.”

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