Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Fishead soup]

I'm curruntly teaching large Public school classes. I would like some simple games I could play. Please don't mention Jeopardy. I've already done that, It's way overated. I've also already used Chinese Whispers, Fast words,20 Questions, Peer dictation races, Find someone who, Speed quiz, Pictionary.

I would like to try something new.

[ernie]

my current faves:
-taboo
-categories/specifics memory game
-switch places game
-lateral thinking puzzles

tried these? i'll give details if necessary

[Boodleheimer]

Boggle. get them into teams and give them like 5 minutes.

another option: Sentence Board Games. i draw a big board on the board with different topics in each square. if you land on the square, each person in the group has to come up with a sentence about the topic. add in 'lose a turn', 'go ahead 2', 'go back 3' or 'sing a song' for fun. oh, and you should make a huge die for them to roll.

[vox]

Practice drill dice game
These days with the elementary kids I'm doing a dice game in fours. If you have, say, a menu of vocabulary or expressions you want them plugging into a sentence, you could set it up so the answers are numbered and then get the kids in groups of four and have them have a contest to see who can get the word first after the dice are rolled. 16 dice usually covers the class (2 to a table). Actually you could make a million variations on this but that's the one that works for us.

bingo chart variation
I don't do jeopardy but I do something similar with floods and tornadoes and turning questions on other teams for multiple teams winning points. Is that what you do for jeopardy? Have you tried using cards or card games?

Listening game
This is a weird bingo game my Korean teacher used in a grade 6 class. They line up 8 cards on their desk (order unimportant) you call out cards. They're only allowed to take from the ends. First person with 2 left (the center two) shouts bingo.

Spiderman game
I got this off of Genki English. I've printed, cut and laminated three spidermans (for three teams) and three spiderman villains, plus a little cutout of a hapless victim with my face on the front (very funny). I draw a building outline with windows and each question you ask, the villains always crawl up one floor. If a team gets the answer right, their spiderman goes up two floors. Your cutout goes on the top, preferably with the words 'help me'! Do the villains get you or does spidey save you?
Good for all kinds of review.

[vox]

[ddeubel]

I have a lesson in a Can - a daily lesson feature. Check out the explanation of battleships there...

http://eflclassroom.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=826870%3ATopic%3A10395&page=2

I also like full class bingo, surveys, find your match in the class and so many more. If you have a computer and screen, my own versions of Top 5, Price is right, Who what where, Fling the Teacher and more are popular.

I have a directory of flash games now and many are playable with a larger class. Nice wheel of fortune one....many levels.

http://eflclassroom.ning.com/page/page/show?id=826870%3APage%3A14690

Send your students there for independent study and review. Only the best educational games get listed.

[Atavistic]

BOMB GAME. My kids love it.

[BS.Dos.]

A few pretty simple exercises that I have been using of late. Great if you've 10-minutes to kill although I generally save this kind of thing for my conversation based lessons (HS 3rd Graders) or my club activity lessons. Split the class into teams and play about 3 or 4 of them as it gives it a good competitive edge and locks them in for the hour, especially boys if there's sweets/candy involved.

1. Sentence Jumble ~ write up some jumbled sentences, learners have to rearrange. e.g On playing he always computer was his ~ He was always playing on his computer

2. Sentence Correcting ~ As above only insert a mistake (tense etc) and ask students to spot and correct. e.g. I used to playing football / What are you doing last Thursday ? (were)

3. Homophones Game Game ~ get students to explain the differences between these words:
Our ~ Hour
Eight ~ Ate
Be ~ Bee
Hear ~ Here
There ~ Their
To ~ Two ~ Too
See ~ Sea
For ~ Four
Right ~ Write
Meet ~ Meat
I ~ Eye
Where ~ Wear
Sun ~ Son
By ~ Buy
Red ~ Read
Some ~ Sum
Mail ~ Male
Lesson ~ Lessen
Not ~ Knot
Pale ~ Pail
Night ~ Knight
Accept ~ Except
Way ~ Weigh ~
Wait ~ Weight
Piece ~ Peace
Tale ~ Tail
Dear ~ Deer
Won ~ One
So ~ Sew
Oh ~ Owe
Flour ~ Flower
Week ~ Weak
Die ~ Dye
Hair ~ Hare
Great ~ Grate
Air ~ Heir
Him ~ Hymn
Site ~ Sight
Principal ~ Principle
Current ~ Currant
Council ~ Counsel
Mourning ~ Morning
Waist ~ Waste
Witch ~ Which
More ~ Moor
Prey ~ Pray
Sole ~ Soul
Read ~ Reed
Toe ~ Tow


4. Homonyms Game Instruct students to identify the different meanings of:
Can, light, room, left, pipe, like, ring, stick, rest, bank, fire, match, kind, iron, lie, type, grave, wave, cry, mind, beat, box, capital, order, cool, miss, well, mean, bear, case, general, bright, land, party, patient, cell, coach, civil, board, rock, sink, srping, found, even, succeed, concrete, figure, long, band, conduct, post, draw

5. Vocabulary Steps ~ Students have to decide the order that a given number of words shall go in e.g. Cold, Cool, Warm, Hot. Get them to list things like speed (fast, slow, quick etc), size, weight, dangerous animals etc, size of animals. Either give them the words to use or get them to think of their own.

6. Change the Word ~ Write a simple sentence on the board and instruct the students to change one word e.g.
The President said the situation was unstable
The Policeman said the situation was unstable
The Policeman said the situation was dangerous etc.

Obviously, the sentence must remain both comprehensible and grammatically correct.

7. Drawing Game ~ Tell students that you are going to transform the classroom into a zoo/hospital/office/restaurant etc and that you need to plan it first. Draw a big square on the board and ask the learners to come up and draw all the things that they'll need to open a zoo (animals, cages, food, toys, vet, customers, places to picnic etc.

8. Alphabet Letter Game. ~ Write up 3 (or more) letters on the board and ask learners to think of as many food/clothing/animals/vehicals/countries/cities/colours as they can e.g. P/B/R = Pizza, Bread, Rice etc
That's it. Lunchy time.

9. Word String Game. ~ Write a word on the board and get students to make a new word using the last letter e.g. Hat -> Teacher etc. Alternatively, make them stay within a theme/topic or, for higher level learners, instruct them to make a new word using the last 2 letters e.g. train -> inside -> decide etc.

10. Picture game. ~ Pictures are excellent for getting the learners perked up. Download some latest news pics onto A4 or display them on your classroom monitor or OHP. Flash up each picture for a couple of \seconds and illicit from the learners what they saw. After a few minutes, flash again and extract more information. Continue if neccessary. Eventually, hold up the picture so that they can all see it. Once they've seen it ask them things like where do you think this is, what are they doing, why are they doing it etc. The first part is very good for reviewing how we describe things and it may be useful to recap on the SVO e.g He is Holding a Gun etc. Additionally, tell the learners that you haven't seen the picture and that they have to describe it to you etc.

Another variation using news pictures (disaster and accident pics work well) is to get groups of learners to pretned that they are preparing a stroy that will go out on the evening news and that they have to explain what has happened. Prompt with Wh questions like:
What is happening?
Where did it happen?
Why did it happen?
How many killed/injured?
How can this be prevented from happening again etc

That's it. Lunchy time.