Transcript Document

Games for Languages Lessons
A selection of different games appropriate for teaching MFL.
You will need a whiteboard, two coloured magnets or pictures and
blue-tac, a whiteboard pen and dice.
Divide the class into two teams and place one magnet / picture on
the left hand side of the circle (team one) and the other magnet
on the right hand side (team two).
Give each team ten lives. Do this by writing TEAM 1 and
underneath it draw ten dashes, do the same for TEAM 2.
The object of the game is for each team to try and eliminate the
other by killing off their lives.
Ask Team 1 a question, if they answer correctly then they can
throw the dice. Move their corresponding magnet clockwise
around the circle. If they land on a Ghost then they can eliminate
one life from the opposing team. If they land on a Spider they
themselves lose a life and if they land on a 1up mushroom then
they gain a life. Now Team 2 have their turn and this continues
until one team loses all ten lives the winner is the team left with
lives. The game should last about fifteen minutes but you can
obviously alter the amount of lives.
_____ 1
_____ 2
Body Building Game. (Any age / topic)
1. Split the class into teams. If they are in columns of desks, saying the left
hand column is team 1, the next team 2, etc. is usually best.
2. On the board draw limbless, featureless faces and bodies (the number
you draw should correspond with the number of groups you have)
3. Tell the front person in each group to stand up.
4. You then ask the kids who are standing up a question. The quickest one to
raise their hand can answer, if they're correct, they get to roll an
inflatable die
5. If they get a "1" they can draw an eye on their team's face. If they have
a "2" they can draw an ear. Similarly, "3" is a nose, "4" is a mouth, "5" is an
arm and "6" is a leg.
6. However, each team can only have one nose, one mouth, and two each of
everything else. For example, if your team already has 2 arms, and you roll
another number "5" then that go is a "pass" because you can't add another
arm (this gives an added competitive bit to the game)
7. The next person in each group stands up and repeats from step 4,
8. The winning team is the first team to get 2 eyes, 2 ears, 1 nose, 1 mouth,
2 arms and 2 legs. If you run out of time then the team with the most
features is the winner!
Past / Present / Future Game…….
Have pupils take a scrap of paper. Tell them right away NOT to
write their name on it.
On the board, write 3 sentences.
1) 5 years ago, I (for example, had 5 legs)
2) Now, I (for example, have 2 legs)
3) In 5 years, I (for example, have 4 legs)
Give them a few minutes to fill it out. Make sure they fold the
paper in half, and hand it in to you. To show them how it works, I
randomly pick out one paper, and read it to the class. Usually, it
will get a lot of laughs. Try to guess who wrote it.
This provides some very funny answers like - I was a boy, now I'm
a girl, in 5 years, I will be a boy. They find it incredibly amusing.
Another one was, 5 years ago, I had a girlfriend, now I have
another girlfriend, in 5 years, I will have 2, etc.
You can also have them crumple up the paper, and just throw it on
the floor, then have pupils pick the papers up.
Spaghetti Dictation
You will need: A pack of Spaghetti!
Give pairs of pupils handfuls of broken up Spaghetti and then
dictate words or sentences that they have to spell out!!
Lots of self-correction and peer-correction going on. Plus, it is
great for the less academic and more kinaesthetic learners.
Snake
To play snake you need something small that students can throw
around the classroom. What they do is throw it around until you say
STOP, or play music and when the music stops who ever is holding the
object has to come to the board and write any word on it in the
chosen language. The next person up has to use the last letter of the
word on the board to make another word. Example if some wrote
hola, the next person would use the A to start their word, they
shouldn’t repeat any words. You could draw a snake on the board to
fill in and offer a prize for the person who fills in the last word / the
head etc…...
Word Chains
Divide the class into teams (no more than 5 in a team) and
give each team a pen and access to a whiteboard (or a
large piece of paper). You give each team a word to start
with and then start the timer. The pupils have a set
amount of time to write a list of words in a chain. The
last letter of the first word is the first letter of the
second word and so on. After one minute, the team with
the most words (without repeating words) wins. If there
are repetitions or spelling mistakes the count stops at
the last correct or non-repeated word.
TOPICS CHALLENGE
This works well with any level and is very simple. Just
put a load of different topics up, e.g. jobs and people,
animals, countries and cities, food and drink, shops and
places, clothes and accessories, verbs, adjectives,
things in this room, etc. Then get two teams to guess
how many related words they can say on any given topic
in one minute. Each team must raise the other's number
or call a challenge. If they are successful they win the
point. If not it goes to the other team.
TRANSLATION GAME
Suits two teams of 4 - 6.
One member of each team ('The Translator') sits with their back to
the whiteboard. Team members, all facing the board, close in around
their Translator. The teacher writes a sentence in the target
language on the whiteboard. Teams translate from target Language
into English, usually via screaming at the top of their voices - no
target language permitted for this!
Translator translates back into Target Language, with considerable
prompting from team members - translation must be perfect. This
game promotes heaps of hilarity and competitiveness.
TV ADVERTS
1) Divide your students into groups with 3 to 4 students in each.
2) Ask them to make a brainstorm of any kind of adverts they've
ever watched on TV and list the product names in those adverts on
the whiteboard.
3) Give each group a chance to choose one product on the list.
4) Allow them around 10 minutes to prepare their own TV
commercials.
5) Choose the best group and give them the best TV advert Award.
while playing this game, my students make their own advert in
different ways, like a poet, a song, and even a short play.
QUESTION SWAPPING
Before class, brainstorm and compose a list of questions
on a theme. They don’t have to be particularly insightful
or probing, especially if you have a large group. Print the
list and cut the paper so you have one question per slip of
paper. Give each student a question and then ask students
to find a partner and ask their question. The partner
answers, asks his own question, and when the pair is done,
they swap papers, find new partners, and repeat. This
doesn’t take a whole lot of creativity or innovation on the
students’ part (though it can if they want it to), and so is
usable even with quieter or more reserved groups.
COMPREHENSION GAME
Usually students answer comprehension questions after a
reading. Why not have students create their own
comprehension questions? Pupils in small groups work
together to write questions about the text. Only questions
which can be answered by the text are allowed. Opinion
questions are not allowed. After groups finish writing their
questions, they ask their questions to another group which
must answer within a specified amount of time (the teacher
decides the time according the class level). If the answer
is correct and given within the time period, the answering
team receives a point. If the answer is incorrect or not
found within the time period, the questioning group
receives a point, but they must inform the other group of
the answer. Each group takes turns asking and answering
questions.
Word grab with songs
Choose a song that the students have or have not heard
before. Choose 10-15 pieces of vocabulary from the song
and write them on separate pieces of paper. With lower
level groups you may want to go over pronunciation first.
Stick each word to the board with blue tack. Put the
students into 2 teams each one in a line before the board.
Play the song. When the 2 students at the front of their
line hear a word in the song that is on the board they must
race each other to grab that word from the board (this can
get quite violent!). They then go to the back of the line and
it's up to the next pair. The team with the most words wins.
You shouldn’t choose words that come one after the other.
If you want to make it more difficult you can put red
herrings up. You can usually play the song a couple of times
until they get all the words
Song Lyrics Listening
For this exercise you will need the lyrics of a
song in the Target language. You will need a
copy for each pupil / pair etc. Cut the lines of
the song .The students will try to put the song
in order. Play the song as many times as
necessary. The student who finishes first is the
winner.