LANGUAGE GAMES Whispering Game

Objective: The purpose of this game is to have students practicing speaking English words, phrases, or sentences in a game situation. Rules for Playing the Game:
1. Divide students into three equal teams. One or two remaining students can be teachers helpers. 2. Each team lines up in a row. 3. The first student in each team goes to meet with the teacher. 4. The teacher passes a message to these three students. 5. The messages are one to three words long. 6. The students quickly go back to their teams and whisper the message to the next student in the row. The message shouldnt be heard by other students. 7. The message is whispered from one student to next student in the row until reaching the last student 8. The last student raises a hand to indicate he or she has received the message, but does not say the message yet. 9. The teacher asks the last student in the three teams to say the message aloud. 10.The scoring rules are: o The first team to complete and correctly pass the message scores 3 points o The second team to complete and correctly pass the message scores 2 points o The last team to complete and correctly pass the message scores 1 point 11.The first student in the team becomes the last student in the row. The second student becomes the first student. 12.Repeat the game as time allows. 13.Declare the wining team.

Preparation: Prepare a set of 30 words that start with letters from A to F.

Crazy Story Telling Game

Objective: The purpose of this game is to make students speak in class and be creative. Rules for Playing the Game:
1. 2. 3. 4. Each student writes an action word (verb) on a piece of paper. Students cant show their word to anyone. The teacher starts telling a story, stops, and chooses a student. That student has to continue the story (one or two sentences) and must use his/her action word. 5. This student then stops and chooses the next student to continue the story. 6. The last student must make a conclusion for the story. 7. After the story is over, the students try to guess what words each student has written on his/her paper. The student who guesses the most words wins the game.

Variation for Team Competition

1. Divide students into four teams. 2. Explain the game rules and give an example. 3. Each student writes an action word (verb) on a piece of paper. Students cant show their words to anyone. 4. The teacher starts telling a story, then stops. 5. The first student on the team continues the story (one or two sentences) and must use his/her action word. 6. Then the next student on the team continues the story and uses the action word on his/her paper. 7. The last student on the team makes a conclusion of the story. 8. After the story is over, the students on the other three teams try to guess what words each student has written on his/her paper. The team who guesses the most words wins the round. (or each team gets one point for each word guessed) 9. Repeat the process for the other three teams. 10.The team that wins the most rounds (or points) is the winner of the game.

Preparation: Prepare the commonly used action words for students.

Charades (Acting Out) Game

Objective: The purpose of this game is to have students acting out the word for other students to guess. Rules for Playing the Game:
1. 2. 3. 4. Ask a student to be the actor. The teacher whispers a word or shows a word card to the actor. The actor acts out that word without making any sounds. The first student who correctly guesses the word becomes the next actor. The game works very well with action words. 5. Continue the game until all students have a chance to act out a word or time runs out.

Game Variation: Divide the class into three teams the first student correctly guesses the word wins a point for his/her team. The next actor comes from the second team, then the third team. Play until all have a chance to act out a word. Determine the winning team. Preparation:
1. A list of action words 2. Review the action words with the students, if necessary. 3. Have a prize for the winners (optional).

Explosion Game
Objective: The purpose of this game is to have students saying words, phrases, or sentences before the time runs out. Rules for Playing the Game:
1. Seat students in a circle. 2. The teacher stands at the center. 3. The teacher says a topic or category (example: fruits) and passes the bomb (example: a box) to a student. The teacher will say how long until the bomb will explode (example: 30 seconds). 4. The student has to say a word in that category (example: apple). 5. If the answer is correct, then he/she quickly passes the bomb to next student. If the answer is incorrect, then the bomb will explode and the student with the bomb will sit out the game. The time will be reset. 6. The next student has to say a word in that category and can not repeat the words said by previous students. If the answer is correct, then quickly pass the bomb to the next student. If it is incorrect, then the bomb explodes and he/she will sit out. 7. The teacher may want to start a new topic or category after the bomb has exploded each time. 8. The bomb will explode when the time runs out. The student who has the bomb when it explodes should sit out. 9. Continue the game until only one student is left in the game. He/she is the winner of the game.

Preparation:
1. Topics or Categories 2. A pretend bomb 3. A clock-like device that can be set to explode or ring. Alternatively, since the teacher determines if the answers are correct, the teacher might want to have a noise-maker that he/she can use when the bomb explodes.

Cross the River Game

Objective: The purpose of this game is to have students making and saying words, phrases, sentences, and asking questions that are on the flashcards on the floor in order to step on them and cross the river. Rules for Playing the Game:
1. 2. 3. 4. Divide the class up into three teams. The teams take turns being judges. Draw two lines on the floor to indicate the two sides of the river. Place 6 to 7 flashcards that form stepping stones for crossing the river. Each stepping stone has one judge to determine if students answer is proper. 5. The first student jumps to the first flashcard. o If a letter is on the flashcard, the student should say aloud a word that begins with that letter. o If a word is on the flashcard, the student should say a phrase or a sentence that contains that word. o If a phrase is on the flashcard, the student should say a sentence that contains that phrase. 6. Students who successfully say the answer will jump to next flashcard. 7. Students who fail to say the proper answer to a stepping stone (flashcard) will be out of the game. 8. Students who successfully cross the river earn a point for his/her team. 9. Tabulate the score for each team after one round. 10.Repeat the same process to start the second round. 11.Continue the game until time runs out. 12.Decide the winning team based on the accumulated points.

Preparation:
Create a series of flashcards for letters, words, and phrases Alphabets: 26 uppercase and lowercase letters Words: words that match current learning contents Phrases: phrases that match current learning contents

Unscramble Game
Whole group The purpose of this game is to practice unscrambling the words from their scrambled letters. Follow these steps to conduct the competition:
1. Divide students into four teams. 2. Explain the game rules and give two examples. 3. Write a word on the board that has its letters all mixed up. Examples: eigrt for tiger igthe for eight 4. Give each team 30 seconds or 1 minute to unscramble the word. 5. The teams that have unscrambled the word raise their hands to signal to the teacher, but do not say the word. 6. The teacher records the team order of completing the word. 7. When the time runs out, the teacher asks the first team who raised hands to say the word and spell the word. The correct word awards 3 points. 8. Do the same to the second team who raised hands. The team earns 2 points if their word is correct. 9. Do the same to the last team who raised their hands. They earn 1 point for their correct answer. 10.The team does not earn any point if they miss the correct answer or they cant get the word before the time runs out. 11.Write another scrambled word on the board to continue the game. 12.Continue the game until the time runs out. 13.Decide the winner at the end of the game.

Variation: You can also do this as a large group activity. The first three students who answer correctly earn the points. Preparation: Prepare 20-30 words that you want students to practice.