Grammar Game 4

Karin's ESL PartyLand/ ©1997 by Karin M. Cintron/Reproducible for Classroom Use
A Passive Voice Race Game

Activity: Change to Passive

Level: High-intermediate through advanced

Preparation: around 5 minutes

Time: 30 minutes

Directions:

• Print this page.
• Fill in the blank spaces with the names of some of your students.
• Copy on to colored paper or cardstock and cut the sentences into strips.
• Divide the class into teams.

This game is played in rounds. For each round, give every team one strip. Students work together to change the active voice sentence to passive. One member of the group races to the board and rewrites the sentence in the passive--if possible.

(Almost all the sentences can be changed to passive; there are just a few that can't-- to throw a wrench into the activity.) You check the sentences with the class and keep track of each team's points on the board.

Scoring is as follows:
Grammatically perfect sentences are worth 5 points. An incorrect passive voice sentence is worth 0 points. Subtract one point for every other type of grammatical mistake.



Scientists observed the tigers for six days.

Scientists are investigating the possibility of life on other planets.

When we walked into the classroom, the teacher had already given the assignment.

Some teachers cleaned up the teachers’ room.

I think the students will have drunk most of the coffee by the time we arrive.

People believe that San Francisco is a warm city.

________ made the coffee.

_________’s cat broke the vase.

Everyone thinks that San Francisco is the most beautiful city in the US.

Our findings will intrigue the world.

Someone will tell us by this time next week.

Many people visit Disneyland every year.

Someone has washed the dishes.

Someone poisoned ________’s dinner.

What happened to you last night?

John needs to have someone fix his car.

___________ wants to have someone clean her house.

Maybe we can have someone fix the heat.

A penny hit ________ on the head.

________ could not fall asleep.

A pack of wild students attacked _______.


The United States will win the next World Cup.

_________ smoked four cigarettes.


_________ ate ________’s lunch.

The police dragged ________ away.

Grammar Game 3

UNO GAMES for Preposition

Introduction
Uno is a fast moving card game based on colours and numbers. In this version, students practice the prepositions "in," "on," "under," "by," "in front of," and "behind." Here is a sample of the cards:

Level:
Beginner - Intermediate

Setting up
First download the pdf file. (Now in full colour, thanks to Phra John)

You will need two copies of each page, giving a total of 80 cards. It is best to print out the cards onto plain paper and photocopy them onto namecards. The cards need to be 91 mm by 55 mm, with 10 on each A4 sheet.


Playing the game
Shuffle the cards and deal out seven per player. It is best to have groups of four or five students per set of cards. Place one card (not a penalty card) face up and put the remainder of the cards (the pack) face down beside it.


The aim of the game is to get rid of all your cards.


You can discard a card onto the face up pile if it is the same animal or the same preposition as the current card showing. Eg. if the card showing is "The rabbit is in the toilet" then you can throw down any "Rabbit" card or any "Toilet" card.


The penalty cards are: "Skip" - the next player skips one turn; "Reverse" - the order of play reverses - the previous student throws next; "Draw Two" - the next player takes two from the pack unless they can put any "Draw Two" card down. In the latter case, the next player who can't throw a "Draw Two" card has to pick up the total number of cards from the pack.
The "Wild" card can be played at any time and the thrower has to call out the new animal. The "Draw Four" card is similarly wild, but the next player has to draw four from the pack, unless they can play another "Draw Four."


When a player throws down their penultimate card, they must shout "Uno" before the next player takes their turn. Failure to do so results in a penalty of two cards from the pack.
Children should read the text as they throw down each card.


Note: This game works much better when the students are familiar with the game first. I recommend that you play the original Uno game with colours (red, green, blue and yellow) and numbers (1-10) instead of my animals (fish, cat, rabbit and spider) and prepositions (on, in, under, by, in front of and behind). When playing the original version, the students should discard the cards FACE DOWN. This forces them to use English to say what the card is "Red One" or "Green Reverse."