Tried and tested (and approved!) games and activities to help English learning.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Don't say a word!

Level: Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: drawing / speaking.

Topic: grammar / vocabulary.

Materials: pieces of card (strips of paper), paper sheets and pencils (or pens).

Time: 5 to 10 minutes.

This one goes well even with students who claim they are not artistically gifted. You can use any kind of vocabulary (e.g. furniture) or tenses (e.g. present continuous) you want. For this particular example, let's use jobsWrite ten jobs on separate pieces of card / strips of paper. Make one set of jobs per group. Sit students in groups of four, five or six. Give each groupa set of cards face down (or inside an envelope).

When you say Start!, the first student in each group takes a job card and has forty seconds to draw the word on a sheet of paper. He / she mustn't speak or use any words or letters in the drawing. While the first student is drawing, the other members of the group have to try and guess the word (saying exactly what's on the card). 

After forty seconds shout Stop! Ask each group if they guessed the word correctly and give them one point if they did. Then, the second student in each group takes a card, you say Start!, and so forth. The team with the most points at the end is the winner.

Variation:
A quick version of this game is to sit students in pairs. Student A has his / her back to the board, student B can see the board. Write a word or phrase on the board and student B draws it for student A, who has twenty seconds to guess. Then swap roles.

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