Tag Archives: games

4 No-Prep/Low-Prep Games to Practise Big Numbers

17 September 2017Gamesfun, games, numbersCristina Cabal

I can’t believe I am starting a new course. Did summer fly? It surely did and here we are again, about to begin a new course and greet a new batch of students. Batteries? Fully charged?

It’s been donkey’s years since I last wrote a post and although this is the first after a longish break and one that should be devoted to first-day icebreakers, I have seen and read so many good ones lately that I felt I wanted to write about something completely different.

One of the problems my students almost always have is saying numbers, especially big numbers so, wouldn’t it be great to start the course working with numbers while having some fun? It never hurts to start the course in a light mood. God knows they will have plenty to study in the coming months.

Some boring, yet necessary things you might want to tell your students before you start playing.

BEFORE THE GAMES, REVISE

Before you start, it would be a good idea to revise how to say large numbers in English. You can use this video for “inspiration”. Although the teacher in the video certainly goes out of her way to teach big numbers, I find that it”s not in my nature to go to such lengths so something that I always do and that my students enjoy is the following: I start by writing a small number on the board and ask my students to say it. Then, I add a new number to its left, like this:

5,
35,
635,
4,635
74,635
..etc ( make it real big)

Every single time they have to say “and” (BrE), I make a gentle cutting gesture with my hand. Then I put them in pairs and they try with a new number.

THE GAMES

WHAT’S THE POPULATION OF…?

Ask students: Can you guess the population of the smallest capital city in the world? As students make their guesses, correct any mistakes they might still be making.

Ngerulmud, the capital city of Palau an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, only has 391 people.

In this challenging game, students will have to guess the population of a given capital city or country.

Ask students to work in twos or threes.
Give each team a slip of paper. Tell them they will need to write their answer there, big enough to see from a distance.
Write on the board or display a picture of a well-known country or capital city and ask students to guess its population.
Allow one minute and then ask them to show their answer to the class and read the figure.
The team that is closest to the real figure gets one point.

THE PRICE IS RIGHT.

Have you ever watched The Prize is right” and wished you could play? Here’s your chance. If there is anybody out there who has never heard about this world-famous contest, here’s a clip from the contest to give you an idea of what it is about.

Rules of the game: Participants try to guess the retail price of a chosen object. Whoever is closest to the actual retail price without going over wins the object. If all the participants overbid, the lowest bid is announced and they’ll need to guess again.

Before the game: You’ll need to find pictures of different objects and bring them to class. A good source for pictures, description of the product and prices is Amazon, ( in case you are wondering, no, this is not a sponsored post :).If you like using new technology in the classroom, you can always make your own flip cards. (see mine here)

Note: Revise how to say prices in English and the name for the currency you are going to use in the game.

How to play in class:

Divide the class into teams of three.
Give each team as many slips of paper as objects you are going to display.
Display an object, give a short description of it and ask students to guess its correct prize without going over it. Allow 45 seconds.
Ask students to show the slip containing their guess and ask them to read the number aloud for the rest of the class.
Award one point to the team that is closest to the actual retail price.
Repeat procedure.

If you feel students are having difficulty guessing prices, an easier variation would be giving teams the first figure.

GUESS THE NUMBER

This is a very simple but effective game that requires no preparation.

Students in pairs.
Student A thinks of a random number. Student B needs to guess it in as few attempts as possible.
Each time student A makes a guess, Student B should offer one of the following answers.

-My number is (much/ a bit) bigger
-My number is (much/ a bit) smaller
-Exactly! You did it!

A MAD RAFFLE

Before the class, select a few inexpensive things you want to give away such as some chewing gum, a pencil, a sweet, a sheet of white paper, a free homework pass…etc.

Tell students you’re feeling very generous today and with a lot of suspense and drama show the first item to be given away.
Briefly describe the item as if it were priceless: for example, tell them it is the first chewing gum that helps people pronounce English like a native… or some other silly reason.
Tell students that to get the prize they will need to guess its exact price.
Decide on a price but don’t tell your students. Remember that the chewing gum is unique so you want to give it a prohibitive price. Let’s say the retail price for the chewing gum is ₤ 765,888
Count the number of students and if there are 20 in class, tell them that the exact price is somewhere between ₤…. and ₤…. ( a window of 20 possibilities, ie, as many possible prices as students in the class) Write this range on the board.
Now, students need to shout out their guesses. Give the prize to the student who correctly guesses the price.

And you? Do you use any other games to practise saying big numbers?

2 Fresh & Fun Activities to Practise Both, Neither and Either

6 March 2017GeneralB1, B2, fun, games, grammar, methodology, speakingCristina Cabal

If you think that teaching both, neither and either is a bit boring, I have good news for you. In fact, I dare say great news! It can also be fun!

It’s no secret on here that I love having fun in my classes but what people may not know is that although flexible when necessary, my classes are carefully planned and games are not played just to keep my students entertained; on the contrary, they are carefully designed and used to improve certain abilities and with a clear goal in mind. If at the same time we can have a nice time, that’s the icing on the cake.

1.SOULMATES

This is a team game and it aims at practising the structures

Both/Neither of them
Both… and / neither…nor

Materials:

2 white cards with YES written on one side and NO on the other
Teacher’s here

PROCEDURE

Divide the class into two or three teams.
Ask the teams to select two people to play for them and take the “hot seats”. These two students will sit facing their team.
Decide which team starts the game by tossing a coin. Let’s say Team A starts the game.
Explain you’re going to give each of the two members of the team a white card with YES written on one side and NO on the other. Tell them you’re going to ask them 10 yes/no questions.
Their team will score a point every time these two students show the same answer to the questions asked, and the team provides a correct sentence containing the target structure.
Repeat procedure for Teams B and C and give a big applause to the winners.

Example 1.

Teacher asks: Have you ever scored 10 out of 10 in an exam?
Student A: YES Student B: YES
Team: Both of them have scored 10 out of 10 in an exam / Both Mary and Peter have scored 10 out of 10 in an exam (1 point)

Example 2.

Teacher asks: Have you ever scored 10 out of 10 in an exam?
Student A: NO Student B: NO
Team: Neither of them have/has scored 10 out of 10 in an exam / Neither Mary nor Peter has scored 10 out of 10 in an exam (1point)

Example 3

Teacher: Have you ever scored 10 out of 10 in an exam?
Student A: YES Student B: NO (0 points)

2. CHANGING SCHOOLS

This communicative activity has two parts.

In part 1, students will have a conversation where the aim is to agree with their partner using the structures:

So do I- to agree with a positive statement
Neither do I or I don’t either- to agree with a negative statement

In part 2, students will report back to the class using:

Both/Neither of us…
We both…
Both … and … / Neither … nor…

PROCEDURE.

PDF teacher’s here

Ask students to work in pairs and give them Handouts A and B.
Ask them to complete the answers.
Explain the context. You have just changed schools and you don’t know anybody in the class. You want to make new friends quickly and the best way, if not the most honest one, would be to agree with whatever the student sharing your desks says. So, five minutes before the next class starts you decide to strike a conversation with the student sitting next to you.

Start by introducing yourself and then ask your classmate some questions.
Your classmate will introduce himself and also ask some questions. Make sure you agree with everything he/she says using the structures.

So do I- to agree with a positive statement

Neither do I or I don’t either- to agree with a negative statement

Ask students to report back to the class using:

Both/Neither of us..
We both…
Both … and … / Neither … nor…

Ex. Both of us have one brother/We both have one brother/ Both Peter and I have one brother.

Neither of us can speak Norwegian/ Neither Peter nor me can speak Norwegian

Example Handout Student A

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Some Activities to Teach Gerunds and Infinitives

21 February 2017A word on Grammar, Speaking, Writing skillB1, fun, games, grammar, onlinetools, quiz, speaking, wheel, writingCristina Cabal

I always claim that English grammar is easy, especially when compared to the Spanish or French grammar, but it gets a bit messy when it comes to verbs followed by infinitive or gerund.

The easy thing to say is that

some verbs are followed by infinitive (promise to go)
some verbs are followed by gerund (can’t stand ironing).

But then we find that,

some other verbs are followed by infinitive or gerund with no change of meaning (start to study/start studying)
while some others are followed by infinitive and gerund with a change of meaning (stop to smoke/stop smoking)

And to add insult to injury,

some verbs are followed by infinitive with to (offer to help)
some others by infinitive without to ( make me study)
some verbs are followed by gerund, but if there is an object pronoun in between the verb and the gerund, then the gerund becomes infinitive (recommended reading / recommended her to read) …

Amazing, isn’t it?

Well, I suppose there’s nothing we can do about it, so let’s get down to some serious studying.

Level: Intermediate
Time: 60 minutes

THE GRAMMAR.

Download the document here

THE PRACTICE:

Exercise 1. The Quiz

Exercise 2: The Rewriting Exercise

3. Speaking and/or Writing: Storytelling Competition

Go to wheeldecide.com. Ask students to tell you verbs followed by gerund first, and then verbs followed by the “to” infinitive. Feed the wheel with these verbs.
Explain that in this activity they will need to seat in a circle in groups of 4.

Explain that you will write on the board the beginning of a story and then, in their groups, they will need to continue it.
Write on the board the beginning of a story. You can use this Short Story Generator.
Spin the wheel.
To make sure students will use the verb in the correct way, ask them to tell you whether the verb displayed in the wheel is followed by infinitive or gerund.
The oldest person in the group will start telling the story using the target verb in the wheel.
Give the student one minute to continue the story and then spin the wheel again for the next student.
If a student cannot come up with an idea to continue the story, he’s eliminated.
Continue until there is only one student left. This student will be the winner if he manages to give the story in his group a suitable ending.

Here’s the wheel I have used with my students.

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Irregular Verbs? Yes,Please!

7 February 2017Generalfun, games, irregular verbs, onlinetoolsCristina Cabal

My son Lucas was complaining he was going to have a permanent crick in his neck from spending hourrrrrs (or words to that effect) trying to learn irregular verbs in English when it occurred to me there might be plenty of sites on the Internet to help students, and my own son in this case, with this seemingly daunting task.

And just as I predicted there are some cool sites that offer a nice alternative to the traditional pen-and-paper method of learning irregular verbs.

Hard to believe me? Then, try these games and I bet you’ll be delighted next time you are asked to study them. Dear Lucas, this post is for you!!!

Jeopardy Quiz Game

Fun activity to teach action verbs in the irregular past simple tense. It can be played in teams (up to 4). It is especially useful for teaching ESL intermediate learning and teaching.

Irregular Verb Wheel Game

An enjoyable game where irregular verbs are chosen at random from a spinning wheel. In this game you have 2 minutes to answer questions related to the verb forms of the irregular verbs displayed in the wheel. You get 1 point for every correct answer plus a bonus 10 points for every verb you get 100% correct.

Hangman Game

From eslgamesplus.com, the always entertaining hangman game; in this case, with irregular verbs. A great timed activity to review irregular verbs while reinforcing their spelling.

Irregular Verbs Walk the Plank

A fun activity where the teacher is presented as an animated character on a pirate ship about to be eaten by sharks. You’ll need to answer correctly all the questions to see the teacher being eaten by the sharks (don’t worry, there’s no blood!). A game for kids that I enjoyed a lot and played more than once 🙂

Create your own.

If you’re not happy with any of the games above, you can always create your own. Superteachertools gives you the possibility of creating your own jeorpardy quiz in a very easy way.

Who said learning English is boring?

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Vocabulary Competition: a Nice Simple Activity to Revise

26 January 2017Speaking, Vocabularyfun, games, methodology, onlinetools, speaking, students, vocabulary, word cloudCristina Cabal

A nice simple idea to start a lesson.

I always like to start my lessons doing some quick revision of what I taught the previous day. I do it using different techniques, but they always have something in common: they help get students into the mood and start using English from minute one.

The idea in this activity is to combine two things:

Revision of targeted vocabulary
Consolidation of relative sentences

PROCEDURE

Divide the class into two teams and ask them to choose a person to play for them and take the “hot seats”. These two students will be facing their teams and with their backs to the whiteboard.(see picture above)
Decide which team starts the game by tossing a coin. Let’s say Team A starts the game.
Display the first word cloud on the board.
Team A will choose a word or expression from the word cloud and define it for its player. Once the player has guessed the word, the teacher will cross it off and the team will define another one. For every word they guess, they will get 1 point. If the player for Team A doesn’t know the word, then Team B gets the chance to define the word for its player. If he guesses, the team gets 2 points for this word and this same team continues defining words and scoring points.
Continue until all the words have been defined.
Procedure is repeated again with word cloud 2. The teams choose other players to take the “hot seats”. Team B starts playing now.

As stated above, the idea is to revise relative sentences, but obviously in the heat of the game I’d allow any paraphrasing students can come up with.

Online Word Cloud used: ABCya. A word of warning: this tool is so easy to use that you’ll soon get addicted to it! See tutorial below.