Smiley face
Games
• This game can be played as a whole-class activity or in
Lip reading teams and pairs.
• Say the target word silently to the students, exaggerating • Think of a word and draw a short line for each letter on
the movements of your mouth. You may also like to give the board, one next to the other.
small miming or gestural clues. • Ask students to guess the letters that are in the secret
• Ask students to guess the word. word, one by one. If a student guesses a letter which is in
Guess the word the secret word, write the letter in the correct position.
• Write words from a vocabulary set students have just • If a student guesses a letter which isn’t in the word, write
studied on the board, showing only the first two letters the letter on the board with a cross through it, and draw
and the number of missing letters, e.g. fr _ _ (frog). a large circle to represent a face. With each letter that is
• Divide the class into two teams. A student from Team A incorrect, add another feature to the face (two eyes, a
tries to guess the correct answer. If s/he gets the correct nose, a smile, two ears, a neck, and hair).
answer, complete the word on the board and give the • The game continues until either the word or the face is
team a point. If the student guesses incorrectly, give the complete. If the word is completed, the class has won; if
point to Team B. the face is completed, the teacher has won.
• The winner of the game is the team with the most points. • The game can also be played with phrases and short
Miming snap sentences.
• Choose a word from the vocabulary set that students are What’s the picture?
learning, or any other word that students know and you • Invite a student to come to the front of the class. Whisper
want to focus on. All the words must be things that can the name of an object s/he has to draw.
be clearly mimed. • The student draws the picture on the board for the rest of
• Say a word and mime the action. If the word matches the the class to guess.
mime, students should Snap! If the word doesn’t match • The first student who guesses correctly comes to the front
the mime, students can be silent, or do an agreed action. of the class to draw the next picture. Repeat until all of the
• Choose a student to mime another action. The student target vocabulary has been used.
says a correct or incorrect word while s/he mimes the A long sentence
action. • Say a sentence that ends with a word or phrase from the
Book race vocabulary set that you want to practice, e.g. I’m going to
• Use this activity in the last lesson of the unit to review the the sports center.
language in the unit. • Choose a student to continue the sentence, adding a new
• Tell students that they are going to do a book race. When word to the end, e.g. I’m going to the sports center and the
you say words or phrases, the students have to find and movie theater. This student then chooses another student,
point to a picture of that word or phrase in the unit, but who says the sentence, adding another word to the end
they have to be fast! of it.
• Call out a word or phrase students have just learned, e.g. Bingo
food words or rules with you must and you mustn’t. • Ask students to draw a grid, three by three (or three by
• Students look quickly through the unit and find the two) squares. In each of the squares they write a different
pictures. word from the vocabulary set they are studying.
• Do an example with students, allowing them plenty of • Call out words from the vocabulary set in any order. Keep
time to find the correct picture. a record of the words as you say them so that you don’t
• Call out the first words or phrases slowly and gradually say the same word twice. Students cross off the words
reduce the interval until it is a race to keep up. in their grids as they hear them. The first student to
Target words TPR complete a line of three shouts Bingo! and is the winner.
• This activity is particularly good with writing activities that Wrong word
focus on words like connectors and sequencers. • Write six to eight sentences on the board about a story,
• Assign target words, e.g. and and but to students in the poem or factual text that students have recently read. One
class by counting along the rows of students. word in each sentence must be incorrect.
• Read out sentences containing the target words. Students • Ask students to find the incorrect word in each sentence
must stand up or do another agreed action when they and then rewrite the sentences so they are correct.
hear their word.
• Read out the sentences again, this time leaving a blank for
the target word. Students who have been assigned that
word stand up and say it.
8 Introduction
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True or false? Twenty, twenty
• Say a true or false statement about a topic or using a • Choose a word from the vocabulary set or any other word
grammar point you want to practice, e.g. I have two sisters. that students know that you want to elicit or revise.
• If students think you are telling the truth, they call out • Before playing the game, tell students the lexical group of
True! If they don’t, they call out False! Alternatively, the word they have to guess, e.g. it’s a job, it’s a place.
students can do one or two agreed actions. • Students take it in turns to ask yes/no questions. If they
• Choose a student and then tell him or her if his/her answer haven’t been able to guess the word, give them clues until
is correct. Ask that student to say a true or false sentence they guess it correctly.
for the class. Continue in this way around the class. Disappearing dialogue
Whispers • Choose one frame of the story dialogue and write it on
• Organize students in groups of at least six. Show a the board. Read it with students, and then erase four
flashcard to the first student in each group. This student words. The first worsts you erase should be words you
whispers the word to the student next to him/her. particularly want students to remember.
• Students continue whispering the word to the student • Ask students to read it again, saying the missing words.
next to them until the word reaches the final student. • Erase four more words and repeat.
• The final student says the word aloud, and the first • Keep erasing the words until students are saying the text
student holds up the flashcard to see whether the word from memory. Leave only the character’s names at the
and the flashcard are the same. start of each line to help them.
Order the letters Vanishing verse
• Choose a word. Write the jumbled-up letters of that word • Play this game in the same way as Disappearing dialogue,
on the board, followed by the correct number of lines for but use a verse from a poem or song.
the number of letters. • Erase words until only the first word of each line remains.
• Call students to come to the board to write one letter at a Questions for answers
time to complete the word.
• Play this to check for comprehension of a text, or to
Time’s up! practice grammar. Write a list of answers on the board, e.g.
• Divide the class into two teams. Write the jumbled letters It sank when it hit an iceberg.
for a word from a vocabulary set on the board.
It was sailing to New York.
• Give students from the first team ten seconds to solve the
anagram and say the word. If they don’t guess the word Over a thousand people drowned.
correctly, call Time’s up! And reveal the answer. I went to the festival yesterday.
• Repeat the activity with a different word for the other team. Yes, I have eaten Chinese food.
• Teams score one point for each word they guess correctly. • Students must guess the question that fits each answer.
Definitions
• Describe a word from a vocabulary set that students have
recently learned for the class to guess, e.g. You can fly in it,
but it isn’t a plane. (Hot-air balloon).
• Ask a student to stand up and describe another word
from the vocabulary set.
• Continue with other words and different students.
Option: To make the game more challenging, give students
slips of paper with words they are banned from saying
written on them, e.g. for hot-air balloon: balloon, air sky.
Write one thing
• Write several themes relating to a reading or listening text
that students have just covered on the board, e.g. space,
computers, extreme sports.
• Ask students to write down one word for each category.
• Give each student a point if no other student in the class
has the same word.
Talk!
• Ask a student to stand up. Choose a topic from the unit
and write it on the board. Tell the student that s/he must
talk about the topic for thirty seconds without pausing.
• If s/he fails, choose another student to talk on the same
topic. If s/he succeeds, choose a different student and a
different topic.
Introduction 9
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