Category: Games

Posted in Games, Vocabulary Classes, Young Learners

MES flashcards: Games for young learners

Posted on by Tim Warre

This is a post in a series of 30  minute classes for young learners. They have been made for groups I teach which range from 4th to 6th of primary.

This is post is simply a list of games to use with the amazing free resources from:

http://www.mes-english.com/

They have a fantastic selection of downloadable flashcards divided into loads of categories. Each week I have been picking a new category, printing the flashcards and they game cards and playing one of the following games with my groups, it’s a great and fun way to quickly expand students vocabulary.

First stick the set of flashcards to the board and elicit the vocabulary and drill pronunciation.

Games:

Bingo – Students draw a 3×3 grid on a piece of paper and fill each box with a piece of vocabulary. You then read out sentences about each character, for example: “I breath fire and fly over the castle.” (Dragon) “I do magic and mix magic potions” (wizard) they cross off the characters they have as you describe them until they get a line or bingo (when they have crossed off all 9 squares).

Mimic – Print out the set of fantasy game cards from MES as well. Split the class into groups of 3-4, encourage the groups to think of an English name for their team. Then they take it in turns to send one member up to the board, this member then has 1 minute to mimic as many of the different characters using the game cards. Their team receives one point for each correctly guessed character. The team with the most points wins.

Board Games – Print out this great pirate gameboard:

Put students in groups of 3-4. Number the flashcards on the board 1-33 (cards will have more than 1 number) students then play the board game but every time they land on a square they have to make a sentence with the corresponding piece of vocabulary: EG “I brush my teeth with a toothbrush.”

Memory/Go fish – Print out multiple sets of the MES game cards, split students into groups of 3-4. Give them two sets of game cards, they spread the cards out face down on the table and play pairs/memory/go fish/whatever you call it where you’re from. Every time they turn over a card they have to say the vocab word and when they find a pair they have to make a complete sentence.

I welcome any more suggestions you might have for other flashcard games.

Posted in Games, Vocabulary Classes

Make or Do: Place Your Bets

Posted on by Tim Warre

betting

 

This is another post in the series of 30 minute activities for moody teenagers. It’s based around a betting game to review make/do collocations.

Tell students that this week we are in the casino. What do people do in a casino?

Try to Elicit some vocabulary: bet, gamble, win, lose etc.

Split the class into groups of 2-3. Tell each group to think of a team name and put them on the board.

Tell each group they have €100 (dollars/pounds etc.) to spend in the casino and that they should spend it carefully. The winning team is the one that finished the class with the most money.

On the board draw pictures of poker chips representing €10 €20 and €50. Tell students that they can bet their money in these three quantities.

Start with a simple example:

I always _____ my homework.

Tell students to discuss whether it is make/do in their groups. They then place their bets using the structure:

We bet €10/€20/€50 on “I always do my homework” – Ensure that they repeat the whole sentences when they place their bets so that the collocation is repeated.

Once everyone has placed their bets you reveal the correct answer. Any team who selected the correct answer doubles their money: a €50 bet wins €100 so that team would now have €150.

Then drill the correct collocation with the whole class.

Note: it’s important that you rotate the team that places their bet first and ensure that the teams bet in order because they will copy each other.

Continue the game using the following sentences:

1. This company _____ business with big corporations. (Answer: does)

2. The young children ______ a lot of noise in class. (make)

3. I need to _____ my make-up before I go out. (do)

4. You need to ______ an effort, if you’re going to pass the exam. (make)

5. John _____ well in his exams. (did)

6. I need to _____ an appointment to see the dentist. (make)

7. My best friend _____ me a favour by helping me move house. (did)

8. I had to ______ a speech in front of the whole school. (make)

9. My Mum always ______ the ironing. (does)

10. You need to ______ a decision about your holidays. (make)

11. I have _____ plans for the weekend. (made)

12. The fresh air will _____ you good. (do)

13. He _____ a promise to help his Mum with the housework. (made)

14. He’s always _____ excuses to avoid doing his homework. (making)

Wrap up

Test the student memory of the collocations with a quiz.

Posted in Conversation Classes, Games, Grammar Classes

Modals of Obligation, Necessity and Prohibition: Pictionary!

Posted on by Tim Warre

Just a quick note…

Before you use these materials… We’ve created a new podcast aimed at B2+ level English students and teachers alike. You can listen for free at our SoundCloud page below. You can download teacher’s notes to accompany them from our Facebook page or from this blog. All comments and feedback welcome! Give us a like and a share 😉

https://soundcloud.com/2tspod


https://www.facebook.com/2tspodcast/

Modals of Obligation, Necessity and Prohibition: Pictionary!

This is part of a series of 30 minute lesson plans I have been writing for conversation classes with small groups of teenagers. Each one covers a specific grammar point and features a game to encourage surly teens to use it.

Introduction

Write “rules” on the board. Tell students to tell you all the rules that their school imposes on them and board them all.  Try to elicit the following structures:

Prohibition:

Mustn’t/can’t/not allowed to

You mustn’t run in the classroom. You’re not allowed to use your mobile phones in class. You can’t smoke in school.

Obligation:

Must/have to

You have to study. You have to be at school at 9am. You must bring your gym kit for PE.

Lack of obligation:

Don’t have to (careful with this one, ensure they understand the difference between mustn’t and don’t have to)

You don’t have to come to school on Saturday. Children over 11 don’t have to wear uniform.

 

Once you have brainstormed all the different rules, ask the students this:

Which rules do you follow?

Which rules do you break?

Which rules annoy you the most?

Do any teachers let you break the rules?

 

Pictionary

Print and cut up the handout.

Draw the following picture on the board:

nosmoking

Elicit the prohibition: You mustn’t smoke.

Split the class into teams of 3-4. Tell them they are going to play pictionary. However, some of the rules are a little strange. Give students time to think of a team name and invite the first person from the first team to the board. They have a minute and a half to draw as many rules as they can for their team, for each rule they guess they get 1 point. The winning team is the one that gets the most point after 2-3 rounds. If you run out of rules, get students to come up with new ones for the other teams to draw and guess. Encourage them to make them as strange and difficult as possible.

Here are the rules from the handout:

You mustn’t sleep in your car

 

 You have to wear a helmet
You are not allowed to feed the lions.

 

 You mustn’t touch the dolphin.
You have to switch off your mobile.

 

 You mustn’t play ping-pong when it’s raining.
You have to be in bed at 10pm.

 

 You mustn’t speak during the opera.
You have to wear long trousers. You’re not allowed to drink in the computer room.
You mustn’t sing to the monkeys.

 

 You’re not allowed to play video games after 11pm.
You have to take your medicine before going to bed. You’re not allowed to go skiing in the dark.
You mustn’t drink the water. You have to have a shower before going in the swimming pool.
Posted in Conversation Classes, Games

The Interpreter: Game to practice direct / indirect questions and reported speech.

Posted on by Tim Warre

interpreter

Before you use these materials, why not check out our new podcast for learners and teachers alike? It’s called 2Ts in a Pod, have a listen here:

This is a game for upper intermediate students and upwards. The main focus is the differences in structure between direct and indirect questions, something even the highest level English speakers struggle with.

Arrange students into groups of 3. In each group you have 1 interviewer, 1 celebrity and 1 interpreter. Tell students that the interviewer and the celebrity don’t speak the same language (in fact they do, everyone must speak English during the exercise). The interviewer asks a question to the celebrity but for the celebrity to understand the question it must be “translated” into an indirect question by the interpreter. The celebrity can then answer the question but the interpreter must report his / her answer back to the interviewer in reported speech. It can get a little complicated, and careful monitoring is required but students tend to enjoy focusing on the specific grammar point in use. Here is an example of a typical exchange:

Interviewer: Where did you go to school?

Interpreter: He would like to know where you went to school.

Celebrity: I went to school in a big boarding school in the English countryside.

Interpreter: He says that he went to a big boarding school in the English countryside. OR He said that he had been to a big boarding school in the English countryside.

For lower levels encourage the interpreters to report in the present tense to make it easier. There is a lot of pressure on the interpreter, they’re basically doing all the hard grammar work, so make sure you switch roles often.

Other indirect question beginnings could be:

Could you tell us…………….

He /she is interested to know……………..

He / she was wondering……………

Remember the form for yes / no questions:

Direct: Did you like your school?

Indirect: She was wondering if you liked your school.

If students need subjects to ask and answer questions about you can use some of the following:

  1. your favourite film
  2. your first day at school
  3. what you did last weekend
  4. your favourite place in the whole world
  5. the best / worst thing about living where you live

The celebrity students can give true answers about themselves or they can invent fantastical lives for their celebrity persona.

Let me know how it goes in the comments.

Posted in Games

Adventure Game 2

Posted on by Tim Warre

Game board

This is an adventure game that works best with kids or low level adults.

Download the game board and instructions here you will also need 2 dice:

Game board: https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=79CFF252BEEA0A7D!275&authkey=!ANCVAjV4J-oSn9g

Game instructions: https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=79CFF252BEEA0A7D!276&authkey=!AFCw3ws1u4W1-Zk

The game is a simple problem solving task using a board based on the cult game “Angband”. Letters and other symbols represent different monsters and characters that the students encounter. For example, a “V” is a vampire, whereas a “D” is a dragon. These boards are easy to make, just use Microsoft paint and children really enjoy the adventures. Most importantly they learn new vocabulary and practice it thoroughly.

In each room students are presented with a different scenario and must work out the solution in order to continue the adventure.

Here is the solution to the adventure:

Dungeon game instructions

Students start game in room one (top left corner), they each have 10 hit points.

Room 1

Question monster – What is the capital of Germany?

1st chest contains special soft shoes for sneaking.

2nd chest contains a delicious hamburger.

Room 2

Contains 4 sleeping vampires and a closed window, it is sunny outside.

Solution: Put on special shoes and sneak past vampires to open window which lets the sunlight in and kills them all. Students must roll higher on the dice than the teacher. If they roll lower the vampires wake up and bite them -1 hit point

Room 3

Contains a very fat man and a locked door.

Solution: Give hamburger to Fat man, fat man gives you a gold key, unlock door.

Room 4

Contains a pit full of snakes and a rope.

Chest contains 2 gold coins.

Solution: Use rope to swing over pit of snakes, students must beat the teachers roll on a dice. If they roll lower snake bites them -1 hit point.

Room 5

Contains 2 question monsters and a shop. Shop keeper has a gun with 6 silver bullets and a big block of ice, they cost 1 gold coin each.

Questions:

Who is the fastest man in the world? Usain Bolt

What is 24 X 4?   96

Solution: Answer questions and buy gun and ice with coins.

Room 6

Contains a huge fire breathing dragon! There are lots of bones on the floor.

Solution: Give the dragon the block of ice to cool his fire. SS must roll higher than teacher.

Room 7

Contains 3 Werewolves!

Solution: Shoot the werewolves with the silver bullets. Students must roll higher than teacher three times. If they run out of bullets they must go and ask the shop keeper for more.

Room 8

Contains lots of small hungry dogs, If students try to enter the dogs bite them, and a big treasure chest.

Solution: Go back to room 6 and collect the bones, give them to the dogs. Stusents open the treasure chest and get lots of treasure, congratulations.

Teaching ideas:

Depending on the level of the class you can present the adventure in different ways. For example you can start by teaching the vocabulary the students are going to need in the adventure:

verbs: sneak, open, shoot, put on, give, buy, etc.

nouns: bones, treasure chest, gun, bullet, rope, window, shoes, coins, bones, ice, snakes, etc.

For higher level students I also had them retell the adventure in the past once they had completed it. “In this room we sneaked past the vampires and opened the window.”

Follow up:

Children make their own adventure games in small groups. They can draw the easily on paper with letters representing different monsters. Alternatively if you have access to computers they could create them on MS paint. Then they swap maps and complete each others, or the whole class plays each group’s map.

Posted in Games, Grammar Classes

Grammar: The future

Posted on by Tim Warre

future

This class is composed of a powerpoint presentation explaining different ways of talking about the future and a grammar betting game to practice afterwards.

Grammar explanation presentation:

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=79CFF252BEEA0A7D!269&authkey=!ABDso4m8bIbeqfk

Place your bets gambling grammar game:

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=79CFF252BEEA0A7D!268&authkey=!AFWO_RrAMckakGY

Posted in Games

Call my bluff game

Posted on by Tim Warre

Game – Red Herrings / Call my bluff – you will need big English dictionaries.

callmybluff

Here is the handout with examples of strange English words and the correct definition, students have to invent fake definitions.

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=79CFF252BEEA0A7D!267&authkey=!AIvDEVoJg4J4mVo

Use the sheet Red Herrings to introduce the game. Choose one of the examples from the sheet and put it on the board.

There are strange words with 3 possible definitions, put SS in teams, pairs or threes depending on numbers. SS have to decide which is the correct definition, encourage them to explain why they think it is correct, they should use modal verbs of deduction:

  • It can’t be number 1 because
  • It could be number 2 because
  • It must be number 3 because

Each team gets 1 point for each correct guess.

Do 2 examples if necessary. Then you can either give the students the strange English words with the correct definition (on the handout) and they have to invent to fake ones, or you give them the dictionaries and they find strange words themselves.

Students must prepare 3 definitions (1 real, 2 fake) with a sentence example. Teacher must check definitions and sentences for accuracy before they’re used in the game, if there are mistakes it is obvious which ones have been invented.

Give SS time to write their definitions and correct them, then play the game as a class, each team reads out a word and the 3 definitions and the others must guess which one and explain their decisions. SS get 1 point for a correct guess and the team whose word it is gets 1 point for each team they tricked the others into guessing a fake definition.