English Game

Grammar Game 4

2009-04-10T18:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-05T18:36:00.000-07:00

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."

Vocabulary Game 2

2009-03-30T17:39:00.000-07:00

King Says ....

This game is better played out door. Sit around in a grassy field, under a shady tree. A little bit cookies can be served with drinks and snacks. All students sit around in a circle with a teacher in the center. This game explores some words, considered important, for beginning up to intermediate level.

Purposes:
- To introduce some words.
- To help students memorize certain words.
- To recover students’ bank of words.

Preparation:
- Set or choose a nice place to play.

How to play:
- All students must sit in a circle.
- The teacher, as a King, is in the centre of the circle.
- Change the names of students with targeted words.

For instance:

Theme of play: kitchen

Robert renamed into PAN
Emil renamed into KNIFE
James renamed into STOVE
Tom renamed into SPOON
Etc.

The theme of play can be changed in accordance with our needs.

- Focus of this play is mention him/herself name then mention another name.
- The teacher or “The King” begins this play by saying: “The King says Pan!”
- In a second, Robert that now named Pan shouts: “Pan says Spoon!”
- Then immediately, Tom, now spoon, shouts: “Spoon says Stove!”
- And so on.
- One who misses or forgets his/her new name must be punished. May be they must be out of the circle to perform a task or punishment. The funnier the punishment, the more interesting is this game.

Speaking Game 4

2009-03-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

WHISPERING MESSAGE

Don't believe a rumour. This game is designed to teach that wiseword. If you hear a rumour, you must check or confirm it. You have to listen carefully what you hear, unless you will send a wrong information to others.

This game is often played in some occassions, but we can apply it in accordance with our purposes in teching English.

Purposes:
- To review grammar and other lessons, such as: proverb, moral value, wise words, etc.
- To train the students send an information correctly.
- To train the students listen an information carefully.

Level:
- Intermediate to advance

Preparation:
- Some sentences/messages written in a paper.

How to play:
- Make groups of 10 students, or up to the amount of your students in a class.
- Members of the group must stay stand in a row, about 1 meter in distance for each, and face in a front direction.
- Ask the most back side member to read a sentence/message silently and memorize it completely.
- Then, that member whisper it to a friend in front of him/her.
- Then, he/she whisper it again to another friend in front of him/her.
- And so forth they do the same until the last member in the front position.
- The last member, then, write the sentence/message in the board.
- The winner is the group who can write the sentence/message as close as the original sentence/message given by the teacher.

Note:
We can make sentences/messages to whisper based on students level.
We will find different sentences/messages from the original ones. That's why it's funny.

Speaking Game 3

2009-03-18T22:00:00.000-07:00

FIND YOUR PARTNER: TELEPHONE CALLS

This is a fast fun way to pair students for another activity. Just print this page, copy on to colored paper if you want, cut each sentence: questions and answers.

Students should walk around the room and find the missing half of their exchange. Combinations must be logical. This sheet has a total of nine exchanges, which allows for eighteen students. If your class size is larger than this, just duplicate one sentence for every two extra students.

As an alternative, you could make multiple copies of this page, cut the same as above, divide students into groups, and give each group all the exchanges to match.

Telephone Calls and Answers

May I please speak to Jerry?

He's not here right now. May I take a message?

I'd like to make a reservation.

For how many people?

Is this the Animal Defense League?

The Animal...what? Sorry, I think you have the wrong number.

May I please speak to Maria Shigematzu in Accounting?

She just stepped out for a minute. Can I have her call you back?

Sorry to bother you but-

Do you know what time it is?

I'd like to order a large pizza with Canadian bacon and pineapple.

Delivery or pick-up?

I'd like to place an order for 500 red pens.

Sorry, we're out of red. We should be getting more in next week.

I really have to get back to my English homework.

Oh, I'll let you go. Give me a call when you have some time.

I'm sorry I didn't call you last night. I fell asleep early.

That's okay. I wasn't here anyway.

Karin's ESL PartyLand/ ©1999 by Karin M. Cintron & Karl Graham/Reproducible for Classroom Use

Grammar Game 2

2009-03-18T20:09:00.000-07:00

Chained Sentences with "if"

This game needs students understanding about Conditional Sentence in any type, I, II, or III. It can be performed writtenly or orally.

Purposes:
- To enrich students understanding about Conditional Sentences.
- To motivate students express their ability in making sentences.

Level:
Intermediate to advance

Preparation:
-

How to play:
- Give students a conditional sentence as a starter. It can be written on the board, or spoken orally.
For instance:
"If I were a president, I would build a dam"

- Ask one of students continue that sentence, started with
"If I built a dam, (SUBJECT) would (VERB) ..........."

- Then, ask another student to continue, with
"If (SUBJECT) (VERB II) , .........................................."

Remember that sentence with "if" is converted from the former sentence of condition.

Example results:

If I were a president, I would build a dam.
If I built a dam, all people would help me.
If all people helped me, I could take a rest.
If I took a rest, I would eat a lot of bananas.
If I ate a lot of bananas, my stomach would be sick.
If my stomach were sick, ...........................................

Students who can not make a new sentence will be punished: singing, dancing, etc, to make this game more interesting.

Speaking Game 2

2009-03-17T23:32:00.000-07:00

WHO AM I?
(another version of a language game)In this game, students can practice their ability in asking and aswering yes-no questions to guess a mistery guest/person.

Level:
- intermediate to advance

Purposes:
- to help students to communicate in English by using yes-no questions.
- to make students more familiar with certain persons
- to recover and enrich students' vocabularies.

Preparation:
- Cards of famous persons, ie: artists, politicians, teachers, singers, movie stars, etc
- Scoring board

How to play:
- Divide all students into groups of 5 or others
- One of the members of each group must be the master.
- Ask the master to stand in front of the class.
- Give the master a card with a name of a pereson in it.
- The master's members try to guess who the person's name in the card. They may ask with yes-no questions only. Remind them to start the questions with general questions and then followed by some specific one
- Continue to the next masters and groups.
- The winner is the group who can guess the most persons in the cards.

Vocabulary Game 1

2009-03-17T23:26:00.000-07:00

GROUPING with words
In some lessons we may divide our students into groups. This game is used to make groups based on the name of particular things, such as: part of body, flower, animal, etc

Purpose:
- To help students memorize the name of particular things which they belong to, for instance: Jasmine, Rose, Tulip, and Orchid are belong to FLOWER, etc.

Level:
- Beginner up to advanceThis game level can be varied, based on the difficulties or kinds of vocabulary. Simple words should be applied for the beginner, but idiomatic vocabularies are fit to the advance. Teachers should arrange or select which words are suitable for their students.

Preparation:
- Make a list of word groups. The amount of the groups or words are depend on the groups and words you want to make.

Example:
FLOWER: Rose, Jasmine, Orchid, Tulip
PART OF BODY: Hand, Knee, Head, Stomach
COMPUTER PARTS: Monitor, Keyboard, Screen, Modem

- Make cards of hard paper.
- Write those words, you have listed, onto the cards, one word for one card

How to play:
- suffle the cards and deliver to students, one by one.
- in about 3 minutes, all students must find his friends with cards in the same group.
- ones who can not find groups or join in wrong groups must be punished, ie: singing, dancing, acting, etc.
- at last, groups have been made.

Grammar Game 1

2009-03-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

GRAMMAR RACING

Background:Students often feel boring in grammar class. They need more activities than looking series of language patterns. This game tries to give them relax and fun, but useful in learning grammar.

Level: beginner up to advance, this game can be varied based on the level of grammar we want to review.

Variation:
This game is better held outside the classroom or "an out bond game".

Purpose:
To reinforce or review students’ understanding about a grammar or grammars.

Preparation:
- Make cards of words that derived from about four example sentences.
- The sentences must be correct based on the previous grammar you have taught.
- Prepare some foam boards and thumb nails to make the cards stick on them.

How to play:
- Divide the class members into groups of 4 students.
- Two groups are chosen to play at the first occasion. They must stand about 5 meters from theboards. The others performs as supporters of the two groups.
- When the teacher (referee) gives the command, the first members of the two groups rush to the board and arrange the cards into as many as possible sentences. The time is only one minute for each.
- If the time is up, the teacher gives a sign and, in turn, the second members rush up. They can create new sentences of give corrections to sentences have been created by the first members.
- And so forth, until the last members of the two groups completed their tasks.- The next two groups are chosen to play, until the last groups.
- The winner groups meet each others, till we get the FINAL PLAY.

The winner:
- The winner of this game is the group that can arrange sentences grammatically correct.
- The cards that arrange the correct sentences worth 5 point.
- The cards that arrange the incorrect sentences worth – (minus) 2 point

Speaking Game 1

2009-03-17T18:16:00.000-07:00

What is it?
In this game, students practice their ability in giving and answering yes-no questions to guess a misterious thing.

Level: intermediate - advance

Purposes:
- to develop students’ vocabularies
- to exercise with yes-no questions
- to introduce certain vocabularies
- to gain communicative purposes

Preparation:
Card of words. It can be person, thing, animal, town, etc. It’s held by teacher.

How to play:
- Divide the class into groups of 5 students.
- One of the members must be selected as the master.
- All the masters must stand in front of the class.
- The teacher gives a card of word to the 1st master.
- The members of group must guess the word, but they may ask the master by asking yes-no questions. This chance is only 3 minutes to play.
- After 1 group or master plays it, then the next master or group has a chance to play, till the last master.
- The group who can find the word most is the winner.

Example:
The word hidden in the card is FARMER

Student 1: “Is it a thing?”
Master :“No”
Student 2: “Is it occupation?”
Master : “Yes”
Student 3: “Is it for person who drive vehicles?
Master : “No”
Student 4 “Does he work in an office?”
Master : “No”
Student 5 “Does he work in a farm?”
Master : “Yes”