The games in this section are speaking games or incorporate reusable materials like flashcards. They can be used in a variety of classrooms situations and can be adapted to different lesson material.
When planning rewards for games here are some considerations:
You can use the same word cards for a few games to allow students more time to memorize them.
If you play an instrument bring it along. Make your own instruments out of PET bottles. Fill them with sand, beans, rice (or anything else that will fit and make noise) and shake along with the weird foreign music!
Try teaching dance steps: The Hustle, The Bus Stop, The Nutbush, Australian bush dancing, line dancing, The Chicken Dance. Teaching dance steps is a good way to practice essential English words like left, right, up down, stop, go, kick, twist, shimmy, shake etc.
On cards, write the words you want students to learn. One at a time give them to students. Without talking the student must draw a picture on the blackboard and the other students must guess the word from the drawing. The student who elicits the fastest correct response wins.
This game was used to complement a lesson from my textbook. In this example, food is used but this game can be adapted for other vocabulary building or textbook work. You just need to switch the spoken dialogue and row labels.
Give each row of students a word e.g. vegieburgers, potato chips, noodles, donuts, cookies, popcorn. The teacher calls out "I'm hungry. Please give me more vegieburgers!" The vegieburger row must stand up, put their hands up and shout "I like vegieburgers!" The last student to do so is "in". The "in" student remains standing and must say to the teacher "You eat too much. That's not good for you." The teacher responds, "Don't worry, I jog every day."
The "in" student remains standing and repeats the teacher's lines, i.e. "I'm hungry. Please give me more potato chips!" The potato chips row must stand up, put their hands up and shout "I like potato chips!" The last student to do so is now "in". And so on.
Each row of students is one team. Rows of students participate against each other. One at a time, students leave the room. Outside the classroom, they are quietly their teacher quietly tells them a number, word or expression. They all return to the classroom and when the teacher says "Go" each student turns to the next one in the row and says the secret number/word/expression. The last person in the team must run to the blackboard and write it on the blackboard in their team's designated space. The first team to do this correctly wins. To play several times, rotate the students — they can move back one place in the row so the person writing on the blackboard changes each time.
This game works well with numbers. Large numbers are especially fun!
As corrections are made in front of the class, everyone gets to watch and learn. It is a team effort. As passing on information can lead to errors, the students writing on the blackboard don't need to accept full responsibility for the final outcome!
Students sit in a circle. The teacher goes around the circle giving each student a word e.g. apple, pear, banana, orange, etc. When each student has a word, the game can begin.
A person is chosen to be "in", and stands in the middle. A teacher can be this person to start. The "in" person chooses a word, e.g. apple. The "in" person says the word "apple" or a new line of dialogue that uses "apple", e.g. "May I have some apple please?"
On hearing the word "apple" mentioned the "apples" must jump from their seats and change with another "apple". The "in" person competes with them for a seat. The person left over is the new "in" person and chooses the next players to change seats. If an "in" person says "FRUIT SALAD!" then all players must switch seats.
It is fun to make a rule that you cannot swap seats with a person sitting immediately next to you.
As with "I like vegieburgers" you can alter the dialogue between the new and old "in" people to practice specific phrases.
Students ask a designated person questions. He or she must answer the question without saying "Yes" or "No". If the taboo words are spoken the player is out.
Q: Do you like cats?
A: I like cats.
Q: Are you a student?
A: I am a student.
Shiritori is a good way to test vocabulary. The teacher (or anyone really) chooses a word e.g. "duck", and throws a ball/soft toy to the next player. The next player must think of a word beginning with the last letter of the previous word e.g. "koala". This is a traditional Japanese game, though people here play using the last syllable of the previous word. (i.e. megane, negi) This is a useful game as many Japanese people have difficulty pronouncing English word endings properly (which is why Brad Pitt is often called Bra Pi).
A person chooses an object, person, animal etc. and other players are allowed to ask 20 questions before guessing at what it is. Unlike the game Taboo (above), the answers to the questions must always be "yes" or "no". Obviously you can restrict the number of questions to 5 or 10 depending on the students' abilities.
This game is basically designed for two people, although it could work with students playing together against the teacher or one other student. Players ask each other questions. The first to respond with a sentence rather than another question is out. Good training for future politicians!
Player 1: Do you always respond to a question with a question?
Player 2: What's wrong with that?
Player 1: Aren't you worried people will think you are
insubstantial?
Player 2: Are you worried?
Player chooses a famous person (e.g. Madonna) and others ask questions in order to guess the identity of the secret celebrity (e.g. Are you female? Are you English?). Variations on the game limit the kind of questions or answers that can be given. For example, the answers must always be "yes" or "no", or the questions must always use a certain verb form etc..
Get students to read dialogues from the textbook, other books, from cards, or from the blackboard. Maybe they can write their own scripts or parody famous scripts. Do an English version of a popular television commercial for example. Advanced students can perform scenes from plays or movies. Many screenplays are commercially available. Otherwise, you can download them from sites like Drew's ScriptoRama on the internet (do a search for screenplays or scripts). Be sparing with paper: collect after class to reuse.
Materials: 3 balls for each student, background music (dance music is good), space (move those desks aside or go outside!)
The reason why it is so important to celebrate throwing the ball away with a big "YES!!" is because many people have difficulty throwing a ball once they have caught it. This upsets their rhythm and they cannot keep juggling after they have thrown their balls once.
Juggling requires some practice, though within a few days you can be a capable juggler. Maybe you won't be able to sit on a unicycle juggling five flaming torches in one hand on your first day but you will be able to impress people at parties with a little bit of work! Encourage students to practice in their own time, and if your students are keen and you are kind you may wish to help them out at lunchtimes or after school. It is recommended that you practice over a bed or desk so you don't have to bend down to the floor all the time to pick up the dropped balls.
Juggling is a good warm up activity for classroom teaching. It can be done for fifteen minutes or so at the start of each lesson. It gets both hemispheres of the brain working. It is also a good confidence booster and a cool party trick.