Games

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Websites, videos & random stuff I use in class

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Hi everyone!

Today’s post is all over da place… but goooooooooood (me thinks). I am sharing with you a few things I used in class, plan on using in class, and some things some of my Facebook friends shared with me!! So, let’s share folks!

I was teaching question tags and I came across My English Page website and it is pretty good. You can get the question tag lesson material (theory) here and exercises here. I would not use this for weak students or lower level learners. I’d say it is better for A2+. I usually go to the Grammar Bank website when I am looking for theory + exercises (online), but I thought I’d try this one a try as well.

My learner asked me to find videos/material that would help him familiarise himself with the Aussie accent. I grew up in Sydney but only have an Oz twang as I have been told and my accent is not as Aussie as it used to. So, anyway, I asked my Facebook teacher friends for help and many made suggestions, so I am sharing these suggestions here as well (thanks to everyone!!).

So, Aussie accent lesson plan from ELT stories.

Katherine suggested I checked out Elllo. I had never heard about this website. I just had a quick look and there are various videos with different accents (from all over the world) and listening questions (plus the transcript of whatever the person in the video says). There are even EAP videos (yup) Interesting!!! You should check it out.

I discovered ABC News Australia. Videos that last for 90 secs. You can find them here.

I used this article again in class and had forgotten how good it is to get students talking. I have two words for you. Language Police. You can read the article here and use it in class as you wish.

Harvard Business Review Podcasts: I am going to use this podcast in a lesson later on (if I make a lesson plan, I will share it here). The podcast about productivity is worth listening to though, especially with your Business English students/ higher level learners (lawyers/ CEOs etc.). I love the part about reading and the flashlight/ naps.

Quick fun game (saw this in a planner group).

Tell your students:

So,you have $10.000 but you can only buy things that start with the first letter of your name. What do you get???

My answer: I’d get  jumpers, jugs, jelly beans- jelly babies, juice, Jo Malone perfumes, a jigsaw puzzle (not sure about that one), Japanese beauty products (that’s cheating) : Dunno what else….

But, how can you make this part of a lesson? Well, you can do this when teaching nouns, or as a speaking task before teaching story telling. It could be part of a lesson where you teach reasons or the use of because.

Something random

(coz everything else mentioned so far is connected :p)

Lettering is a ‘thing’ and I am trying to improve my lettering skills. I found some pdf files on some websites and if you want to try lettering with your students or improve your own calligraphy skills, you should check out this website.

So, that’s all for now guys. If you have found anything worth sharing, do let me know in the comments section below. By the way, I often wonder what you think when you read my posts, I mean, I am so informal!! But I am me and I am talking to you guys like I would if we were in the office, sharing ideas. OK. I am off now!!

Till next time……

P.S. EAP pre- sessional tutor posts have  started to get advertised on Baleap and indeed.org.uk. You should check them out and you can also read my tips regarding pre-sessional EAP courses/ interviews and so on.

Hey, I missed you guys. Haven’t written a (kinda) proper post in ages!!!This is actually my 200th post!!! Thanks for being here xx ❤ ❤ ❤ 

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Christmas Countdown Activities

Hi everyone,

For the 3rd year, I have prepared a day-to-day activity calendar/ countdown up to the Christmas break. There are loads of shorter and longer tasks you can try with your learners. If you do not like all the tasks, I have added some extras at the end of this post. I hope you like my suggestions!!

Cuntdown.jpg

Possible preparation before the tasks start:

Depending on your budget, you may need to ask students to contribute.

  • You may need to order blank Christmas stockings. You can find a 6 pack on Amazon here.
  • Ask your students to bring in small stocking fillers/ pressies, so you can use them in the pass the parcel game. You can set a price limit.
  • Buy chocolates for various activities (if you have the budget)

Thursday 1

Decorate the classroom part 1

Ideas:

Decorate the Christmas tree.

Print Holiday Season colouring pages and hang on the wall

Friday 2

Decorate the classroom part 2

Gingerbread Streamers

Christmas gingerbread men streamers. Get a string of paper and get each student to draw a gingerbread man. Then cut out the men and make a hole on the top of the paper and hang it in the class.

 

Picture from http://www.enchantedlearning.com. Found here

Educational twist: teach your students the parts of the body while making the streamers.

Monday 5

Set up the secret Santa game/ activity.Explain what secret Santa is. Put all your students’ names in a bag and then each student pulls a name. Make sure there is a money limit or that everyone is making a gift instead of buying something (that’s up to you to decide).Also specify that the presents need to be gender neutral!  Tell them they must bring in their presents on X of December (give yourself time to make or purchase something if a student has forgotten to bring a purchase).

Tuesday 6

Christmas/holidays around the world project: Get your students to find information about how Christmas is celebrated around the world. It may be a good idea to do some research on how people in Australia celebrate cause it is summer over there :). Give your students about ten days to finish their projects. Inform them that they will be presenting to the rest of the class. Depending on class size, you can do this as individual/pair or group work. You can also send your learners to this website and ask them to find information. Presentation date: Friday the 16th

Wednesday 7

Holiday ABCs

Make teams and give students pieces of paper with different letters of the ABC. Each team must come up with words that have to do with the holiday season and that of curse start with the letter they have on their card.

Thursday 8

Time for some Christmas songs/ carols. Find a Christmas song you like, search for the lyrics and start singing with your students. My suggestion: Santa Claus is coming to town

                           You better watch out

                                  You better not cry

                                          Better not pout

                                                   I’m telling you why

                                                        Santa Claus is coming to town

Yu could also do a Christmas karaoke. This video has 15 songs without words just the lyrics and the music.

Friday 9

Online Christmas trivia: Get your learners to answer questions about the holidays.This can be done online in pairs or groups. You can find the quiz here.

Monday 12

Describe the object/picture:Depending on the class size make groups of 3 or more.. Give one student a Holiday related picture. The other group members cannot see the picture. The student with the picture describes the object and the other group members draw what the student is describing. Once the description is finished the students see how close to the drawing they are. This can also be done with a Holiday ornament where the student describes the ornament and the other learners draw it.

Tuesday 13

Time to watch some movies.

Christmas movies for kids

The Polar Express

Home Alone

Frosty the Snowman

Miracle on 34th Street

The Muppet Christmas Carol

It is a wonderful life

For teenagers/ adult learners that like romance ❤ ❤

You can watch Hallmark Christmas movies. A lot are available online. Just press Hallmark Christmas movies on YouTube and you will find lots of full movies online.

If you do not want to watch something for a full lesson, you can watch the Charlie Brown clip below (7 minutes long)

Educational twist: Get your students to write a film review or summarise the main points of the story.

Wednesday 14

Make a Christmas Stocking. Ask your students to bring in a  blank Christmas stocking. Use different materials to cut out ornaments/ designs that they will stick on their stockings

Thursday 15

Pass the parcel Holiday edition. You wrap chocolates or little gifts in lots of layers of paper. You make a few ‘parcels’.You give the parcel to the learners who are sitting in a circle. While the music is playing they need to be handing each other the parcel’. You, the teacher, stop  the music suddenly and the student who is holding the parcel needs to take off the wrap.

Educational twist:

When the music stops in order for the student to unwrap the parcel, you can ask a grammar/ vocabulary question. If they get it right, the take the wrap off, if they get it wrong, they don’t take it off..

Friday 16

Present the ‘Holidays around the world’ project set on the 6th of December.

Monday 19

Sock Snowman: Get your students to make a snowman out of a sock. You can watch the video with your learners and make a sock.

Educational twist: Get them to write down the instructions on how to make this. Half the class watches the video and then they have to tell their classmates (the other half) what to do. If you are interested in grammar, get them to practice countable and uncountable nouns.

Tuesday 20

Stocking filler exercise. I have written a blog post about this task. You can find it here.

Wednesday 21

Pin Rudolph’s red nose. How do you play? Find a picture of Rudolph online, blindfold your students, turn them round in circles for a bit, and then ask them to pin Rudolph’s nose. This activity is loads of fun and young learners really like it. 

f5513-untitled2brudoplph

Thursday 22

Christmas Scavengers Hunt/ Treasure hunt.

Place clues around the class/ school that will lead to a ‘treasure’ (maybe a chocolate/ cake, so that it can be shared). Depending on your class size you can organise more than one treasure hunts.

Friday 23

Party time/ Secret Santa.

Need more ideas? Try these extras.

  • Go to audible.com and use the free trial option to listen to Charles Dickens audiobook (it is 2hrs 54 mins long). This is appropriate for higher-level learners.
  • More Christmas DIY ideas video (it’s got some Itlian words, but you get the idea from watching the video 🙂 )

  • Play Christmas word snake. How is this played? Each student takes turns to write a word connected to holiday season on the board. The final letter of student A’s word is the first letter of student B’s word.

                                     Christmas

                                                       Santa

                                                                 Angel

                                                                           Lantern   

  • Time to make a card for the Holidays! You can find templates here or improvise!!
  • Play Holiday season Bingo (make word or picture Bingo cards). You can find templates here.
f5ac5-bingo

Picture from DLTK website (linked above)

I hope you enjoyed this post. Don’t forget to follow my blog and other social media.

Thanks for stopping by.

Joanna

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Xmas stocking filler game

Hi everyone!!

I was watching a movie the other night and I got an idea for a Christmas activity. You  need Christmas stockings and stocking fillers which are all brought into the class from your students. I think this will be great fun, so let’s have a look at the procedure, the learning objectives and my suggestions on how this activity should go.

What do you need?

Students 🙂

Stockings

Stocking fillers

Example of the procedure

Students bring the stocking from home and they fill their stockings with items that are important to them. They give the stocking to the teacher in private so that the other classmates do not see the stocking. The teacher hangs the stockings in the classroom and asks the students to pick a stocking.

Student A has put different stocking fillers in his stocking, for example,  a plane ticket. Student B, who has picked student’s A stocking, takes out all the stocking fillers.

Student B then starts guessing the significance of the item. For instance,”I see a plane ticket.I think this student has travelled abroad.” After student B describes all the objects in the stocking, the whole class guesses who the stocking belongs to. No one is allowed to say if it their stocking or not. After all the stockings/ stocking fillers have been described and all the ‘guesses’ have been made, the students say which stocking was theirs and the real meaning of the items in their stocking.

Christmas pic 2.jpg

Teacher instructions

Tell sts to bring stocking from home.

Each stocking must have 4 things in it.

Emphasise that they should not show/ tell any other classmates what their stocking or stocking fillers look like.

Inform learners that this is not a gift exchange. All items will be returned to original owner.

The stocking fillers must have a special significance for the student. The items should not be too obvious, so that other learners can have fun guessing what these items mean and why they are important.

Timing

Each student needs to describe the object they take out of the stocking and discuss its significance for at least 2 minutes.

Depending on the size of the class, you allot the time.

Skills practiced

Listening/ Speaking.

Students use vocabulary  and grammar related to guessing and hypothesising.

Feedback?

This can be a great learning opportunity. as the teacher is mostly monitoring, they can take notes of any errors made during the guessing or stocking filler description and then the whole class can correct these mistakes.

I think this will be a  fun activity and everyone can take part. No money needs to be spent because students bring in items that belong to them.

Let me know if you try this game. Don’t forget to follow my blog (check the sidebar) or give my Facebook page a ‘like’ so that you don’t miss out any super duper posts.

Till next time……

Jo

 

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December Holiday Season Calendar

Just like last year, I will be sharing with you another holiday season countdown till school break up for Christmas holidays. So, here are some suggestions for activities you can do with your learners. Where possible I have added an educational twist.

Tuesday 1st December

Christmas/holidays around the world project: Get your students to find information about how Christmas is celebrated around the world. It may be a good idea to do some research on how people in Australia celebrate cause it is summer over there :). Give your students about ten days to finish their projects. Inform them that they will be presenting to the rest of the class. Depending on class size, you can do this as individual/pair or group work. You can also send your learners to this website and ask them to find information. Presentation date: Friday the 11th

Wednesday  December 2nd

Sock Snowman: Get your students to make a snowman out of a sock. You can watch the video with your learners and make a sock.

Educational twist: Get them to write down the instructions on how to make this. Half the class watches the video and then they have to tell their classmates (the other half) what to do. If you are interested in grammar, get them to practice countable and uncountable nouns.

Thursday December 3rd

Secret Santa time. Explain what secret Santa is. Put all your students’ names in a bag and then each student pulls a name. Make sure there is a money limit or that everyone is making a gift instead of buying something (that’s up to you to decide).Also specify that the presents need to be gender neutral!  Tell them they must bring in their presents on X of December (give yourself time to make or purchase something if a student has forgotten to bring a purchase).

Friday December 4th

Charlie Brown and the Christmas tree: Watch the video with your class.

Educational twist: tell them to summarise what happens in this story (writing). You can also make your own listening true or false questions. This is a great video about the true meaning of Christmas/the holidays.

Monday December 7th

3D paper tree: Again time for some video-viewing. Make some 3D paper trees with your students to decorate your class.

Educational twist: Get them to write down the instructions on how to make this. Half the class watches the video and then they have to tell their classmates what to do OR you (the teacher) make some trees, ask them to try to explain how they think the tree was made and then watch the video and check if they got it right!

Tuesday December 8th

Christmas gingerbread men streamers. Get a string of paper and get each student to draw a gingerbread man. Then cut out the men and make a hole on the top of the paper and hang it in the class.

 

Picture from http://www.enchantedlearning.com. Found here

Educational twist: teach your students the parts of the body while making the streamers.

Wednesday December 9th

Get your learners to look for and find words related to Christmas. Depending on their age, you can choose hard or easy word search games. You can even give them a time limit to make it even more challenging. Find word search games here.

 Thursday December 10th

Time for some Christmas songs/ carols. Find a Christmas song you like, search for the lyrics and start singing with your students. My suggestion: Santa Claus is coming to town

                           You better watch out

                                  You better not cry

                                          Better not pout

                                                   I’m telling you why

                                                        Santa Claus is coming to town

Friday December 11th

Students present their Christmas project.

6101d-cartoon-christmas-tree-20742748

Taken from dreamstime. Link found here

Monday December 14th

Online Christmas trivia: Get your learners to answer questions about the holidays.This can be done online in pairs or groups. You can find the quiz here.

Tuesday December 15th

Make gingerbread men: Get your students to watch the video with the recipe on how to make gingerbread men.

Educational twist: 1. ask them to write the recipe! This is a good way to practice numbers. 2. You could also have the ingredients and ask them to show you how you are supposed to make the gingerbread men (after they have watched the video). 3. Homework task? Based on notes they made, ask them to make gingerbread men and bring them to class.

Wednesday December 16th

Make decorative banners using various Christmas Fonts with your students. You can find free Christmas fonts here.

Thursday December 17th

Pin Rudolph’s red nose. How do you play? Find a picture of Rudolph online, blindfold your students, turn them round in circles for a bit, and then ask them to pin Rudolph’s nose. This activity is loads of fun and young learners really like it. 

f5513-untitled2brudoplph

Friday December 18th

How about watching a movie related to the holidays? Here are some movie ideas:

The Polar Express

Home Alone

Frosty the Snowman

Miracle on 34th Street

The Muppet Christmas Carol

It is a wonderful life

Educational twist: Get your students to write a film review or summarise the main points of the story.

Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday extras (December 21st-23rd)

  • Go to audible.com and use the free trial option to listen to Charles Dickens audiobook (it is 2hrs 54 mins long). This is appropriate for higher-level learners.
  • Play Christmas word snake. How is this played? Each student takes turns to write a word connected to holiday season on the board. The final letter of student A’s word is the first letter of student B’s word.

                                     Christmas

                                                       Santa

                                                                 Angel

                                                                           Lantern   

  • Time to make a card for the Holidays! You can find templates here or improvise!!
  • Play Holiday season Bingo (make word or picture Bingo cards). You can find templates here.
f5ac5-bingo

Picture from DLTK website (linked above)

So, that’s all for now. Happy planning your Christmas/ Holiday season exercises. You may also want to check out Tekhnologic’s website for a Christmas advent calendar. Feel free to add any ideas in the comments section below. Don’t forget to follow/ subscribe to my blog.

Till next time…..

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Fun activities for the 2nd conditional

Let me begin this blog post by saying that conditionals are not the easiest phenomenon to teach, especially since there are lots of combinations which are used in natural speech, but are not really covered in text books. After having shared with you my fun activities for the first conditional, I thought it was about time to move on to what is traditionally known as the 2nd conditional and suggest a few fun activities which practice the 2nd conditional. First, let’s have a look at the form (keep in mind that there are many other forms not mentioned here). 

Form:

If + simple past , would + base verb

E.g. If we went by train, we would get there earlier.

(Also possible:  would+ base verb +if+ simple past)

Meaning:

Something reasonably possible but ‘ more tentative’. Past tense does not refer to past. Here, it is likely that the train would take you to your destination faster. 

                                                      Alexander, G. L. (1998, p.208-9)

                     Activities

Stranded in a cave
Tell your students that they are stuck in a cave. Put them in groups of four. Give them different pictures or word cards with random items on them e.g. a chocolate bar, a chewing gum, a rope, a dog, a magazine, a plastic bag and so on. Each student has their own set of cards and each member of the group has different cards. Ask them to tell you how they would use these items in the cave. Would they also use them to get out of the cave? How? Each group should decide on the two or three most necessary items. They should use the 2nd conditional when saying how they will use this.
For example,
Item on picture card:
Chewing gum
Student response:
If I had a chewing gum, I would chew it in order to feel less stressed.daisy

2nd conditional songs + Karaoke
You can do listening activities with the following two songs and then do Karaoke with your students!
If you could see me now  The Script (official video)
If you had my love Jennifer Lopez (official video)
Karaoke version
Also, why not get your students to change the lyrics and sing their own versions?
Conditionals noughts and crosses
We have all played noughts and crosses, so why not put words that are used in the 2nd conditional in the box? In order for you students to get an X or O in the table, they need to make a sentence using the word in the box and of course this sentence needs to be in the 2nd conditional.Scan0081
Consequence chain story
A consequence chain is like writing a chain story but the learners must use the 2nd conditional and write about consequences (for more about this go here). How do you set this up? Well, get your students to sit in rows. One student from each end of the room must write a sentence in the second conditional. Then, hand it to the student next to him/her. That student uses the previous student’s main clause to form an if clause, and then adds his/her own main clause and so on.

 Student A: If you arrived here early, you would meet Peter. Next student: If you met Peter, you would probably end up going on a date.
cece3-2014-04-0217-21-07

My students’ consequence chain (level: A1)

 

Finish my sentence-Ball game
If you have learners who like moving around, you should play this game. One student stands in the front of the class and says half a conditional. The learner then throws the ball to a student and that student needs to finish off the sentence. You can even turn this into a team game where each student’s correct answer adds points to the team. This is great for the summer, you can play outside!

Let’s do some math
Give your students math tasks and ask them to write down what they see.

For example,
If I had 3 cows and they produced 5 kilos of milk every day, how much milk would each cow produce?

If scenarios

Get your learners to talk or write about what they would do in each of these scenarios. You can jazz things up by getting them to draw pictures while doing so, like a little picture composition.
If I won 1 million euros, I would……..

If I had one day left to live, I would……

If I could fly anywhere in the world, I would…..

If I could choose any famous person to date, I would…….

Dating game

You choose three students and give them three I.D cards ( you can make these cards up or you can use information about famous people). You also choose a bachelor or bachelorette. The bachelorette/bachelor cannot see the three candidates. He/she asks questions like, ” What would you do if you were on a deserted island?” and the candidates need to answer using the 2nd conditional as well(if you press the title of this idea you can watch another teacher describing this game in more detail). 43105-valentine

Card game
You need an hour glass or some sort of timer and some cards with either an if clause or a main clause. Once you hand your students their cards, they need to write the rest of the conditional clause on a sheet of paper. When the timer goes off, the student that has the most correct sentences is the winner.

Where I looked for some ideas

References
Alexander, L.G. (1998). Longman English Grammar Practice for Intermediate Students. New York.: Longman.
 
Hope you liked this post.
Till next time…..
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The 1st conditional

Fun tasks and the 1st conditional
A bit about conditionals
In student grammar books, conditionals are usually divided into zero, first, second, third and mixed conditionals. This post is part of a series of posts related to conditionals. Today, I am going to write about fun activities you can use with your learners when teaching what is known as the 1st conditional.1st conditional
But first, what do I mean by first conditional? My focus is on the form that appears in most ntermediate/ upper intermediate grammar books. Here is the form:

If clause                                                              ,                                            main clause
If + s. present/present continuous (or present perfect)   ,  imperative/ modals/ s. future.

                                                                     OR

        Main clause                                                   if clause
 Imperative/modals/s. future    +  if + simple present/present continuous (or present perfect).

                            E.g. If you use these ideas, your students will have fun.

 * Unless + simple present (affirmative form) can also be used (in the if clause instead of if + not).

In my opinion, the conditional is a structure that allows the teacher to use different activities which can guarantee a fun grammar lesson for the students. Below are some ideas for tasks you can use with your learners.

                    Fun 1st conditional task ideas

  • Things to see in London + using a London Tube map:

Tell your students that they are in London. Get your learners to make a plan of where they will go, give them the London tube map and a brochure of the ‘must see’ tourist attractions in London. Your students must make different plans and talk about which lines they should use and what time they should leave. They should use the first conditional in order to make the different plans.

           E.g. If we leave X at 8, we will arrive at 10 at Y.
          If we take the red line, we need to get off at Y. If we get off at Y, we will           then……

  • Video Condition:

The teacher shows part of a video and then stops it and asks the students to guess what will happen next. The students must use the 1st conditional. Video ideas: You can use Sliding Doors (Gwyneth Paltrow movie) which is about what happens if she gets on the tube and what happens when she misses the tube. Another movie idea is 500 days of Summer which has a split screen moment where the hero plays in  his head a scenario of what will happen when he goes to his ex-girlfriend’s party (expectation vs reality).

  • Election game:

This is a game (idea found on Teflnet/Smore) where your students have to imagine they  are running for president. Each student gives a speech about what he/she will do if he/she gets elected. You can then ask your learners to actually vote and see who gets elected as president : )

E.g. If I am elected president, I will give every citizen a free lap top.

Screen shot taken from here

 

  • Consequence chain:

A consequence chain is like writing a chain story but the learners must use the 1st conditional and write about consequences (for more about this go here). How do you set this up? Well, get your students to sit in rows. One student from each end of the room must write a first conditional sentence. Then hand it to the student next to him/her. That student uses the previous student’s main clause to form an if clause and then adds his/her own main clause and so on.

                   Student A: If you go out, you will meet someone.
             Next student: If you meet someone, you will go on a date.

 You can also have a consequence chain talk about global warming where students talk about the consequence of climate change. So for example, if the temperature rises, the ice bergs will melt. If the ice melts, …… (This idea came from a colleague. Thanks Sue Annan).

 
  • Drill marathon:

The teacher gives an if clause and the students have to write as many main clauses as they can. The teacher gives a time limit. The student who has found the most correct options is the winner.

  • Songs:

Here is a list of songs that can be used when teaching the 1st conditional. How can you use the songs? Well, many ways. You can give them the lyrics but first delete some of the words, and before they listen to the song ask them to fill in the missing lyrics with what they think should go there (pre-listening task).You can also get them to fill in the gaps whilst listening to the song. Another thing you  can do is give them the lyrics all jumbled up and ask them to put the lyrics in the right order.
Titles of songs:
If you are happy and you know it….
If you leave me now (Chicago)
If you are not mine (David Bedingfield)
If I lose myself tonight (One Republic)
If the feeling is gone (Kyla)

Screen shot taken from here

You can download everything here:
Fun tasks and the 1st conditional.docx
http://viewer.docstoc.com/

var docstoc_docid=’172447652′; var docstoc_title=’Fun tasks and the 1st conditional.docx’; var docstoc_urltitle=’Fun tasks and the 1st conditional.docx’; Of course, there are many other fun activities teachers can use to help their learners with the 1st conditional. I have mentioned just a few. Feel free to leave some more ideas in the comments section below. I will follow up with a post about the 2nd and the 3rd conditional in the following weeks.

Till next time…….

Helpful links and some thanks:
http://edition.tefl.net/ideas/games/first-conditional-practice/
https://www.smore.com/3n5p-first-conditional-fun
I would also like to thank Sue Annan and Sandy Millin who gave me some ideas for this post : ).

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Games

Let’s play….. for five minutes or more
Games….teaching in disguise! So, whenever I have a few minutes to spare or I feel my learners are feeling a bit restless and they really just wanna get out of the door, I say, ” Ok, let’s play a game”. Their little (or big) eyes light up and  I think, “Yes, we are back on track!” Today I will write about a couple of games that require almost no prep nor props whatsoever!!!You don’t need any technology either. The only thing you may need is a white board and marker pens. Here are some (childhood) all time classics that will make the lesson more fun!
Warning: there may be a few twists to the games : )
Hangman
Well, you all know this one, but may I suggest playing it in various ways like the teacher against the class, group A against group B or pair hangman ? Also, instead of hanging the man (?), you could also make it a bit more challenging for your learners by telling them they can only suggest wrong letters equivalent to the number of letters in the word you have chosen. So, for example, if you have chosen the word flower they can only suggest 6 wrong letters and then they get hung!
Skills: spelling, vocabulary



I Spy (with my little eye)
I used to play this as a child and now I play it with my students. If you have never heard of this game, this is how it is played. You look at something in the class but you do not tell your students what you are looking at. You then give them little hints about what this object looks like. So, you begin by saying, ” I spy with my little eye something brown” they can make one guess and if they do not find it, you give them more information until they guess what you are describing.
Skills: vocabulary (especially adjectives)/speaking.

Word snake
Someone writes a word on the board and the next person needs to write a word that starts with the final letter of the previous word. So, for example, I write the word flower, the next person has to write a word that begins with an R e.g. Rug, then the next student has to write something that starts with a G and so on. If a student misspells something or takes to long to find a word, he/she is out of the game.
Skills: spelling, vocabulary.

                                Flower
                                             rug
                                                    go

Kill the text
I write a text on the board and then split the class into groups, then a person from each group chooses one word from the text and makes a sentence. By making a sentence with that word, the student kills the word. Once all words have been used to make sentences, the text is killed!
Skills: grammar/vocabulary/syntax



Grammar Noughts and Crosses
I bet you have played noughts and crosses at some point in your life. A good way to use this in class is by adding grammar points in the noughts and crosses grid. So in order for your learner to be able to write a nought or a cross, he/she has to use this grammar point correctly. I usually put tenses in the grid and the learners have to make sentences using the tense correctly.
Skills: any grammar point 


I went to the supermarket (chain game)
If you have a good memory, this is your game. If you don’t, then… SKIP this one! So, I start by saying,” I went to the supermarket and bought eggs.” Then, the person next to me says,” I went to the supermarket and bought eggs and milk.” The student after that says, “I went to the supermarket and bought eggs, milk and carrots” and so on. You have to say the food in the right order and not forget any of them. I suggest you scaffold your learners by helping them with descriptions of the items if they are struggling to remember the words (never reveal the word though!).
Skills: this is a great way to revise vocabulary related to food.

Final thoughts
As we all know, there should be a bit of time for a game from time to time. Games are enjoyed by everyone, so play with ALL learners no matter why they are learning English. Oh, yes, mind my pics, will you? Do you know how hard it is to draw with a mouse?!?! : P

This post has been shortlisted for this month’s (July) Teaching English-British Council blog award. If you like it, go to the Teaching English-British Council Facebook page and press ‘like’ where it says this post has been shortlisted. Thank you  for reading : D

Till next time…..