Description
The game plays similar to the standard map game with a few changes. Please refer to the attached pdf for rules and how to prepare the slides.
Time: 20 minutes
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.”
Similar Games
Super Castle Wars
Description
This follows the standard pattern for class review games in which the student split into groups, each group member is assigned a letter and is called upon to possibly answer a question following a peer check period. This PowerPoint has groups battling to destroy each other’s castles while repairing their own. You can adjust the rules to suit your needs. You can choose to assign points, add bonus points for having a complete castle, minus points for each castle part that is destroyed. It’s up to you.
Battleship
Description
Using the worksheet, the students first draw their ‘battleships’ on the top half of the page. In the grid of squares, they shade out one row of 4, two rows of 3 and one row of 2. These can be horizontal or vertical, but not diagonal.
Next, making sure their partner can’t see their worksheet, they make sentences by combining the two parts of the sentences on the left and top axis of the grid. Each combination points to a particular space on the grid. If their answer matches a space taken up by a ‘battleship’ on their partner’s worksheet, their partner says ‘hit’. The student can mark that space on the bottom half of the page with a circle. If their answer matches an unused space, their partner says ‘miss’, and they can mark it with a cross.
The students take turns until all the first player is able to hit all the spaces their partner chose. If you print the worksheet as double-sided, they can draw their battleships in new places and play a second game if time allows.
Notes
Students may not know or understand ‘hit’ or ‘miss’, so saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ (or anything more appropriate to the target English) may be more appropriate.
Mastermind
Description
Students make a sentence by picking 1 option from 3 different sections, then try to guess their partner’s sentence.
Their partner tells them how many parts (out of 3) they got right.
The students must piece together the sentence by process of elimination – the sooner they guess it correctly, the more points they get. Once both students have finished their sentences they can make a new sentence (either with the same partner or in new pairs).
Asleep/Awake
Description
Students make groups and pick a number (1-5). They each get a worksheet. All students go to ‘sleep’ – i.e. they close their eyes and put their heads on their desks.
One student at a time in each group is called by their number to be ‘awake’ – i.e. they can open their eyes and look at the board. A word or two from a mixed up sentence is written on it and they need to remember it without saying it out loud or writing it down.
The student then goes back to ‘sleep’ and the next group member ‘wakes up’ and reads the next part of the sentence. All students in the group then wake up and work together to put together the sentence. At this point they can write each other’s words on the worksheet and put the sentence in order.
Five Guesses
Description
Students pick an item out of a set list (i.e. from vocabulary that they have been studying). They make pairs and try to guess what item their partner picked. If they guess correctly the first time, they win 5 points. If they guess correctly the second time they get 4, and so on. If they can’t guess in 5 turns, their partner can tell them the answer.
Notes
- The number of guesses can be reduced, particularly if there aren’t many options to choose between.
- A variation of this game is to have the students pick more than one item, and their partner gets one point for each item that they guess correctly.
Two truths, one lie
Also known as:
- Truth or lie
- True or lie
Description
Each student writes three sentences that follow whatever current grammatical pattern they are currently learning. Two sentences are true, and one is a lie.
They then make pairs and listen to each other’s sentences, and try to guess which one the lie is. If they guess correctly the first time, they win 3 points. If they guess correctly the second time, they win two points, and if they guess on the final try, they win one point.
Notes
Some students write an outlandish and obviously false lie. There’s nothing wrong with this, but it makes it very easy for their partners to guess! It may be best to recommend they try and make it difficult to guess which one is not true.
Double Puzzle
Description
Students make groups and each receive a set of puzzle pieces. The pieces have a split up picture on one side and parts of a sentence on the other.
The groups must first find out what the picture is, then flip the cards over and put the sentence in order. The sentence will have a blanked out word which is represented by the picture on the other side (e.g. if the picture is of a dog, the missing word in the sentence will be ‘dog’.).
The students write their answers on their worksheets. When they have their answer, they raise their hands and read it to the teacher. If the answer is correct, they get a new set of puzzle pieces.
Notes
- Printing the template double-sided should line up everything as intended, but it might be best to do a trial run first.
- The first puzzle is an enlarged version intended to be used for a demonstration.
Hex
Also known as:
- Hexagon Game
Description
Each pair of students gets a worksheet that has several hexagons in a grid. Each hexagon has an image that represents a vocabulary word that the students have been studying. The goal is to try and make a complete line from one end to the other.
One player marks their hexagons with circles, and tries to go from the top to the bottom. The other marks with crosses, and tries to go from left to right. Each turn, a student marks their hexagon and asks their partner the question that matches the vocabulary word in that space.
The first player to complete a line wins. Once a student has picked a certain hexagon, their partner cannot pick that same space. Students can ‘block’ their partner’s line by picking a space that interrupts it.
Notes
The example worksheet can be printed double-sided, which lets each pair play 3 games. After that, they will either need a new worksheet or to erase their previous spaces to continue playing.