Snowball fight!

This idea was shared by Carissa Peck, in her blog, Trying to Teach.

Snowball fight!

Basically, get each student to write a relevant question in the target language on a scrap piece of paper. (You could use vocabulary items instead of questions if you want - but in either case, the answer should not be written down, just the question.)
Then, they scrunch the piece of paper up into a ball and wait for a signal from you, when everyone is ready.

then - 30 seconds of chaos while they throw "snowballs" at each other.

When time is up (I'd recommend a VERY clear signal!) each student grabs the "snowball" closest to them. Select students to read out and (try to) answer the question.

I personally like Carissa's suggestion of making it into a team competition - divide the class into two before the snowballs go flying, on opposite sides of the room. "At the end if they answer their review question right, their team gets 10 points. If they don't get it right, let their team help them out and if as a team they are correct they get 5 points. (Let the other team steal after that for 5 points if you wish)"
Carissa has a couple of other suggestions for different versions on her blog. Her version in full is here.  You have to admit that it would be a memorable lesson, which the "teaching the brain" theorists state is a key part to get students to remember what they learned in the lesson.  Have fun!

An alphabet game

This is a variation on a quick Number game that I have previously written about (instructions here).
I learned of this version at an AIM gesture method conference for French last year.

The idea is to get whole class participating in giving a word for each letter of the alphabet in order - but with a catch...

You start off with one person (and only one person) standing up and giving a word that begins with A. Then they sit down and someone else stands up and gives a word starting with B - BUT only one person can speak at a time, and no organisation of who will speak when is allowed. If two or more people stand up or speak, then it's back to the start again. No taking turns in a neat, organised way; no pointing or otherwise indicating who should speak... Yes, there will be a lot of times that the class won't get past the letter B - so you may want to have a rule that students may not use a word that has already been said for the letters you've covered in earlier attempts on the same day.

It was suggested that it's helpful to have a count-down from 5 if no one is offering a word for a particular letter - and if you get to zero, then it's back to A.   Sound frustrating for the kids? Yes, but they do really want to get there and will keep trying and trying.

Time is an important factor here - have a clear time limit (eg play with only 5 mins left of class once everyone knows the rules) and see how far into the alphabet your class can get - Keep a scoreboard and see if they can beat a previous record - or it's also great for inter-class competition - have fun!

 

SHOUTING dictation

This is a variation on running dictation in a lot of ways, but even noisier. It worked fantastically well with my big Year 7 class, less well with my small upper school class (7 students).

I learned of this game via the amazing Moya McLauchlan - these are her instructions.

Shouting dictation - it's dictation; it's fun; and yes, it's loud. It's an information gap activity or barrier game for pairs of students that gets them into using language maintenance and repair strategies as they help each other to complete a written text.

How does it work?

Each student starts with a written copy of a text but the alternate lines are blank. Texts such as song lyrics, dialogues and poems work particularly well for shouting dictation.


Shouting dictation @ Scotch College
Example
Student A

• Australians all let us rejoice
• ______________________
• With golden soil and wealth for toil
• ______________________
Student B

• _______________________
• For we are young and free
• ______________________
• Our land is girt by sea

Students take turns dictating the missing lines to their partner so that both end up with a complete text. They can't show the line to their partner, of course, and all communication must be in the target language.

Then there's the fun part. To make it more interesting and realistic (Imagine a conversation by telephone, in a crowded market, at a football game, in a nightclub.) students sit several metres apart in a noisy room. Music is especially good to create a noisy room.

What language skills do students practise?

• Listening and Reading and Responding
• Language learning strategies, particularly conversation maintenance and repair strategies.

We need to teach students the language for maintaining and repairing a conversation, for example:
• Please say it again.
• How do you spell .... ?
• Can you say it more slowly?
• What's the word/letter after ... ?
• Next line please.
• Is that P as in ... or B as in ...?

One word of warning, however: consider the classes around you before conducting a shouting dictation. At the very least, inform neighbouring teachers of the purpose and noise level of this learning activity.

Shouting dictation is a useful activity in any language learning program. Have you tried it?

Stories & sequences

Good morning!
As you can tell, I've been inspired to go back and fill in a few holes in this blog - games that I had neglected to add before plus some new ones I've come across. Hope thy are helpful!
This game is great in that it isn't just aimed at drilling single words or really short snippets - instead, students tell a story based on picture prompts.

Firstly, line up a series of related pictures (perhaps 4 to 12 pictures, depending on age & ability of your students). Get students to give a sentence for each picture to create a story. As each sentence is added, go back to the start and say all of the sentences thus far in order (probably chorally). Once you have covered all of the pictures, get students to close their eyes and remove one or two pictures, then students re-tell the whole story, including the missing pictures. Repeat until no pics left.
If getting individuals to tell back the story rather than the whole class chorally, I would be more than happy if my students were paraphrasing as the pictures disappear rather than sticking to the memorised / rehearsed sentences, but there's the support of "rehearsedness" for those who aren't quite ready for that. Retelling the story chorally gives that extra support of "class memory" also.

I can't believe I haven't already added these...

A couple more stand-by games that I'm sure that everyone already knows, but just in case (and also because a reminder is always handy!) It may be that I have already added these but I just skimmed over them when I went looking to see what was missing!

1) 20 questions.
I have already commented that I believe we don't give students anywhere near enough opportunities to practice asking questions - we tend to focus on getting answers from them. 20 questions is great for getting students to ask questions & think a bit laterally - even though it does focus on yes / no questions. I'm sure that the instructions for playing 20 questions are already online in a million places - let me know if you think it is worth adding them here.


2) Celebrity heads
Stick a sticky label on each student's back with the name of someone they all recognise - a celebrity, sports star, a well known TV / film character, even a teacher from your school. (it's best if the sticky labels are pre-prepared!) Students need to ask questions (again, often this is confined to yes / no questions) to work out who they are. In schools, celebrity heads is often played by seating 3 or 4 kids at the front of the class with the celebrity names written above and behind them - but this means just those 3 or 4 students get the practice asking questions. By putting a different name on each student's back, everyone is involved. I generally have some extra labels pre-prepared just in case anyone guesses super-fast. It can be great to get students to nominate celebrity names also - but you may need to vet them first.
There is some specialist vocabulary required (such as various careers) but this can be given out & often comes in handy when the students are talking about themselves or needing to describe others anyway. :)
I have occasionally used students' names as part of the mix for this game, but you need to know your students well to make sure that there won't be any hurt feelings. Putting a student's own name on their back can be fun too after you've played it a couple of times...

Order up!

Another game "borrowed" from peer support and a dozen other places.

I wrote numbers on sticky labels and stuck one on each student's back without them seeing. They then had to get into order from smallest to largest without using any English.

I have also done this by giving each student their number so they can see, but not anyone else - this way, I could avoid having one clever child simply moving everyone else into the right spot.

To make things harder, the numbers were non-sequential (with a couple of sequential numbers thrown in), and included some huge numbers that I knew they couldn't say just yet in the target language because I wanted to talk about problem solving when it comes to language.
very successful, got the kids out of the seat and talking to each other and there were some interesting solutions to communicating the large numbers - and yes, they did only use Indonesian :)

The more common context for the game is to get everyone in age order (or birthday order) without speaking at all. You could do the same thing for other sorting activities - eg, alphabetical order, or to get them into groups (eg types of animals - mammals, reptiles etc)

Any other ideas?

Not really a game, but...

I tried this with my new Year 7 class at the start of the week, and it worked well so I thought I'd share. I created a worksheet with about 10 speech bubbles, alternating from each side of the page (see picture). I gave the students a topic (in this case, getting to know you)and one sheet each and asked them to fill in the first speech bubble... then they had to get out of their seats and write something in the next speech bubble on another sheet, then another, and another and so on. It meant that they had to read what came earlier to avoid repetition and to ensure the conversation made sense.

The results? I saw students discussing the language they were using and correcting each other - and going back and correcting themselves. When something was (almost) unintelligible, one clever student used repair strategies ("Can you repeat that please?") in their written dialogue. Lots of learning took place from what was intended as just a variation on drilling the basic getting to know you language - and, what's best - the students really enjoyed it.

Bingo ice-breaker

This is great if you have students with some language knowledge but who don't really know each other - or it can be used for students to get to know each other better.

Before the class, you'll need to prepare a bingo grid (size to suit how long you want the game to take - 5 squares by 5 is a good size.) In each square put a piece of information in the target language - some examples are below:

* has two younger siblings
* lives close to school
* likes playing basketball
* doesn't like watching football
* is wearing red shoes

Students need to ask each other in the target language to find someone who matches the description and ask them to sign the relevant square. The aim is to get a full straight line of signatures (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) - then call out "Bingo" (or an appropriate TL word).

Turn Around

I have been told of another name for this, but I can't remember! If you do know it, please let me know.

Students work in pairs to spell words on the whiteboard as fast as they can in competition with other pairs of students. However, there is a twist...

Both students in each pair need a whiteboard marker. The two students link left arms (so one student will be facing the whiteboard and one student will be facing the class). The teacher calls out a word to be spelled (or translated) and the student facing the board writes the first letter of the word on the board then the pair must spin so that the second student can write. Each student can only write one letter, and must write one letter. If a student wishes to correct the letter that their partner has written they can erase it and replace it, but then must spin. So, they take turns writing a letter then spinning so that the other student can write. Students can not talk to each other or tell their partner what to write.

It's best if you match up left handed students with left handed students and RH students with RH students as much as possible - Left handed students will need to link right arms if working together.

You can make it harder by saying that if a mistake is made and recognised the student who recognises the error can erase the incorrect letter but can't add another letter, and by saying that both students *must* take their turn to write.

If you have a large whiteboard, you can have 3 or 4 pairs of students at the board at once. If you're restricted to a smallish whiteboard though you may only be able to have two pairs at the board. With a tiny whiteboard, one pair at a time but time how long it takes - possibly by having the rest of the class counting out loud in the target language.

It must be legible - feel free to be mean if letters or accents are not clear!

I think this could be adapted for scripted languages by having students take turns at drawing the strokes that make up the characters?

not a game - lots of great creative ideas to get your class using the target language.

Good morning! I've been following the fantastic Shelly Terrell on Twitter (@ShellTerrell) pretty much since I signed up. She teaches English as a Foreign Language (mostly to littlies) and has lots of great ideas. Her blog (Teacher Boot Camp) has lots of great ideas - here are some of Shelly's ideas for using Drama games in the classroom. Some do require a fair bit of target language, but most can be adapted, or might get you thinking about other ways to use games or drama in your class.

While you're at it - please check out the games and ideas on the other sites listed to the right of screen.

have a wonderful day!
Danielle

Pass the parcel

Just like the kids' party game, but under each layer of newspaper you have a question in the target language - when the music stops, the student with the parcel unwraps a layer then reads out the question & answers it.






Variations:
* the student who has the parcel when the music stops reads out the question, but picks someone else to answer it.
* include instructions in the target language as well as (or instead of) questions. simple things based on what they have learned: eg "draw a cat" "stand on the red chair and dance" ... use your imagination to challenge them!
* have a topic instead of a question. Students talk to the topic.
* specify the length of the answer required - single words, phrases, full sentences, or to really challenge: keep talking till the music starts up again!

What other ideas do you have?
How else can pass the parcel be adapted for the classroom?
What other kids' party games could be used?

An oldie but a goodie

Don't forget about hangman! Great for practicing the alphabet in language classes, as well as reviewing vocabulary.

Thanks to Joyce Arnold for her instructions / idea below for Indonesian!

Tikus!
I ask 'huruf apa?' and the kids have to use the Indonesian sound.
I don`t allow them to call out the word if they know it, they have to complete it completely first.
I use 'ada' and 'tidak ada' after they tell me the letter.
If 'tidak ada', I then draw the body of the mouse, saying 'badan tikus' adding body parts and using Indo as I go. Sometimes I change the animal.

Another quick number game...

This is another one I learned through the Peer Support Program, and have adapted it. Would only use it with real beginners with numbers, as you hear the same numbers a lot!

You need to explain the rules very clearly and carefully.

1) The aim is to see how high the class can count.
2) Only one person can call out each number.
3) There can NOT be any arranging of who calls out each number. Similarly, no prompting anyone else.
4) If 2 or more people say the same number, we start again.

There will be a few times when the class doesn't make it past 2! But a fun, engaging activity - perhaps have a couple of goes at the start (or end) of a couple of lessons to see how high your class can count.

Ada berapa? (How many? Number off!!)

As students enter the room, assign each a number (use consecutive numbers rather than random numbers, but they can be given out in random order rather than in numerical order around the room)

Have a run through - students count as a class by calling out their number at the appropriate moment. See how fast the class can get through it (with correct pronunciation of course!). Explain that some time during the lesson you will call out a key word (like "number off!" or "Ada berapa?") without giving any other prompting. At that time they will need to count again - good to see who is listening and paying attention to what is happening in the class! You might like to assign yourself the number 1, or choose to give the number 1 to someone reliable and / or near the front so that it won't totally fall flat.

Good for drilling numbers when first learning them.

a comment...

I am teaching Year 7s for the first time this year, and am discovering just how much younger they are than Year 8s. So the next few games may be more primary oriented. If you have any games for primary students (or any other games not mentioned here yet!), please get in touch!
Danielle

stepping stones

Another version of a Q&A activity - can be vocab or longer answers...

Place stepping stones across the room (these can be pieces of paper, or the students love it if you use chairs or desks for them to walk across). As a student answers a question correctly, they take a step forward. This can be done as a team game, with the first team to get all members across winning. In this case, you may like to make rules which allow for students who have already made it across to go back across the stepping stones to help out a weaker student.

Another variation - "human checkers". Students can deliberately block others through their choice of where to step. (Or you can use real checkers rules to allow students to get other students out by "jumping over" them.

my word!

In some ways this is a variation of banned words or key words. Each student is given a secret word. They need to use this word as often as they can without anyone else guessing what word they have been given.

It can also be reversed - each student has a secret "banned" word, which they can't use for the lesson. The challenge can either be for them to simply get through the lesson, or they need to get other students to guess what the word is (kind of like charades, but talking is permitted)

I have also used this as a short, small group, card based game. I make up cards which have at the top a word which the student needs to get the others in the group to guess. To make it challenging, I add some other words which the student also may not use to the card. Example cards could be:
TEA (drink, hot, coffee)
UNIVERSITY (study/learn, student, school)

In Indonesian, I will often use a base-word (eg "ajar") which the students can not use. It means that they can use a different word that means the same thing if they can think of it, but also increases the range of banned words as they can not use any words that use that base.

At the end of the game, you can ask students to make their own suggestions for cards to use in the future. I have been using the same set of cards for a few years now, just adding to it from time to time. Once you've made up the cards, it's easy!

Banned words

Easily adapted to a variety of levels by the word you choose to "ban" for the set time period (this could be 10 minutes, a full lesson, a week or longer!)
With Upper school students this can be a great way to get them to practice circumlocution or finding synonyms.
With younger students or those with less knowledge, it can be for just practicing creativity & problem solving.

Reverse quiz

Very quick instructions for this: you supply the answers, students need to give the questions. (I really think students don't get enough opportunity to practice asking questions) Many of the other games can be adapted to this, or you can throw in a couple of "reverse questions" into a regular quiz or Q&A activity.

Form up!

An easy number game, great for younger students. Have the students stand up around the room / space (outdoors is good). Call out a number, students have to form groups of that size. The race to form groups can make it exciting for little ones. Congratulate the group that forms the quickest!

What's the time, Mr Wolf?

A 3rd suggestion from Ida Harsojo. This is played the same as the normal version, but in the target language, of course! Great for primary classes & littlies...

I've taking this explanation from Wikipedia (click the link for variations)

One player is chosen to be Mr Wolf (the name usually remains "Mr Wolf" irrespective of the gender of the player). Mr Wolf stands at the opposite end of the playing field from the other players, facing away from them. A call-and-response then takes place: all players except Mr Wolf chant in unison "What's the time, Mr Wolf?", and Mr Wolf will answer in one of two ways:

* Mr Wolf may call a clock time - usually an hour ending in "o'clock" ("Three o'clock!").

The other players will then take that many steps towards Mr Wolf, counting the steps out loud as they go ("One, Two, Three!"). They then ask the question again.

* Mr Wolf may call "Dinner Time! (or, occasionally, "Lunch Time!"). "Midnight!" may also be used.

At this point, Mr Wolf will turn and chase the other players back to their starting point. If Mr Wolf successfully tags a player, that player becomes the new Mr Wolf for the next round.


(the version I played as a child was different again from the variations suggested on Wikipedia - another game with lots of different ways of playing!)

Unnamed! Suggestions, please!

Another game from Ida Harsojo! This is written with Primary MFL in mind, but could easily be adapted for older & more confident classes.

Divide the class into as many teams as you can, the more the better.

Write several questions on the board - for example:
1. Write 2 Indonesian words starting with S
2. Write a country starting with S (in English if Indonesian is too hard)
3. Write a big city starting with S (in English if Indonesian is too hard)
4. Write a fictional character starting with S

Every team should write their answers on a piece of paper. Once all finish, the teacher has to write their answers on the board so everyone can see the answers. Any answer that is the same only gets 5 marks, if a team comes up with an answer tht no one else has they get 10 marks. So the aim is to think of an answer which no one else thinks of.

Add the marks, the team who gets the most mark, wins.

King Monkey

This one has been suggested by Ida Harsojo, from NSW.

Students sit in a circle. One is out (to guess later who Raja Monyet is) – so usually he/she is sitting outside the door of the classroom. The class, sitting in a circle decide who raja Monyet(King Monkey) is. The one who is outside is called back.
He/she asks someone else ‘Siapa namamu?’ (What's your name?) the student who is asked will say their names if he/she is not Raja Monyet. When the one who is designated to be Raja Monyet is being asked, he/she has to answer ‘Raja Monyet’, and he/she will be the one out. Keep track how many guesses the students do, the one who asks the question the fewest times win. The students love being the one outside, and the others are happy to be among Raja Monyet too. This is meaningful repetition for asking ‘siapa namamu’?

You can change the question into ‘Kamu dari mana?” The students can answer their origin, while the one will be answered dari ‘hutan’ (from the jungle - for orang-utan). And he will be out. The question can be ‘Berapa umurmu?’ (how old are you?) Just decide which number is the magic one depending on the ages of the students and decide a much older age etc.

Key Words

Each student is given a word for the week (or fortnight, or even just for the lesson). Carry on your lessons as normal, but occasionally call out one of the allocated words. It could be done deliberately (eg call it out while students are doing some quiet work - if that ever happens!) or just mentioned naturally as part of the lesson depending on the words you use.
If the student recognizes it as their word and remembers to stand up, then they get a point or some kind of reward.
This can be a way to give weaker students a go - give them a word that is likely to come up more often.

Categories

this is pretty well known, and can be played orally as "Think Fast" (see below.) Otherwise, give students a time limit (between 15 and 45 seconds works well to keep everyone engaged and keep it "pacy" - but you can give longer limits if your students have the vocabulary and the attention span!) - I give a different limit each time, and don't always warn students how long they will have.

Give a category (things that are usually red, activities that don't involve a ball... the more creative the category the better, but you can stick with standard MFL categories such as words beginning with..., things you'd find in a classroom) and call out your "start!' word (in the target language.)

Students write down as many words as they can think of that fit the category. Students get one point for each correct word they have written by the end of the time limit.

A variation: Once you have stopped them (at the end of the time limit), ask the student who has come up with the most words to call out their words. If they call out a word that others have written down (they call out to say) doesn't count. All students need to cross out any words that anyone else has also written - this means students start getting creative and thinking laterally about what words to write down.

Another variation: as a team game. Give a longer time limit, and each team has one pen and one peice of paper. The paper can be sticky-taped up on the wall (each piece away from the others so that the other teams can't read them!). Students are grouped on the other side of the room so they need to run to the piece of paper, write down their word then run back to pass the pen on to the next person.

Of course, there are lots of other ways to adapt this one - please add your version as a comment below!

Steps

You will need a defined space for this one if playing outside. It can be played in the classroom with all the furniture left as is, or you can re-arrange or remove the desks.

Students stand up and spread themselves around the space.

The teacher asks a question and selects someone to answer (e.g. first hand up.) If the answer is correct, the student takes a step. If they can reach another student to “tag” them, the tagged student is out and must sit down. Students may chose to step further away instead.

Continue until there is just one student left standing, or until the students become a little restless.

Variations: If no one who is standing can answer a question but someone who is out can answer correctly, then that student can rejoin the game.

A magnificent answer (e.g. full sentence, demonstrating newly taught structure or something else unexpected but wonderful) earns the right to take 2 steps.

Noughts and Crosses - From Anne MacKelvie

Set the vocabulary cards up in a noughts and crosses formation on the board. Split the class into two teams, one being the noughts and one the crosses. The pupils have to correctly name the vocabulary in order to place their 0 or X.


Students from all year levels like this one!

Hatschi Patschi

From Anne MacKelvie:
Students sit in a circle on chairs (all facing into the circle).
One student is "it" and has to stand facing away from the circle. The teacher gets all students in the circle to close their eyes and then proceeds to tap 3 kids on the head. All students may then open their eyes and the person that is "it" may come into the circle.
This student will go around the circle asking individual students a question in the target language. Each student is required to give a correct answer, except for the students that have been tapped on the head. When a question is addressed to them they simply call out "Hatschi Patschi", which is the signal for all students in the circle to jump up and run to a different chair (incl. the student who was in the middle).
The new student left without a chair is now "it" and the game begins again.


(Danielle's comment: I am looking forward to trying this one with my students. The basic circle & swapping seats idea is explored in different ways under the heading of "Fruit salad" further down the page.

With beginner learners, the question can be the same one repeated over and over as a way of drilling both the question and practicing responses, and swapped (or not) with after each "hatchi patchi". With students who have a wider knowledge of the target language, you can make a rule that students can't repeat a question.)

team whispers

Write a good selection of numbers on the board (depending on the age of your children) and divide the class into 2 teams facing the board.
Stand at the back of the classroom and call one student from each line over to you. Whisper a number from the board to the students, who then have to run back to their team and whisper it to the next person in their line.
The whispers carry on down the line until they reach the person at the front who has to find the number, slam it with their hand and shout the number. This game can also be used with any vocabulary being used (fruit, family etc) simply by putting the pictures on the board.
A great game for all ages which has never let me down!

¡ƃuıpoɔǝp

Another one from Anne - a worksheet based game this time.

This fun worksheet activity is based on the popular anagram pencil puzzles. I've used it in Russian class for ages 11-13, but am currently adapting it for other languages and younger children.
Choose 10-12 vocabulary words that you would like to reinforce with your students. As you develop your list, have in mind a common idiom or well-known saying in the target language whose words contain letters found in the vocabulary list. Scramble the vocab words, placing the appropriate number of blank dashes next to each one.
At the bottom of the page, place dashes for each letter of each word of the idiom or saying that you want your students to "decode." Number each dash of the unscrambled letters that are to be transferred to dashes of the mystery phrase at the bottom. You can give clues for the anagrams, if necessary.
As your class unscrambles the words onto the dashes, they transfer the numbered letters to the dashes at the bottom, revealing the "code."
This activity is fairly quick and simple for a teacher to devise, yet also fun, reinforcing and informative for students.


Another "code" you can use when starting out with learning numbers is to assign each letter of the alphabet a number, then write the numbers out in words, if that makes sense. (So, if you go with the standard A=1, B=2, C=3 etc then the word "great" would be spelled out using "seven eighteen five one twenty" - but in the target language. eg, "tujuh delapan belas lima satu dua puluh")

(I've done something very similar by typing in a list of words, sentences or a message in Word (or similar), then changing the font to Webdings or wingdings, and providing a key at the bottom (the alphabet in both webdings and "normal" font.) Students love codes, and this has always been popular! I used it a couple of times in Saya Bisa! - Danielle)