susieladuke

Try this. Beleive it or not it works(sometimes). Instead of raising your voice to be heard, start talking softer. they shut up to hear you.

defender

A game I use in big classes, loads of fun but they do get a bit rowdy (which I like). You need to make wipeclean answer cards - stick a piece of card inside a plastic wallet folder and tape the end up. Teams of students get a wipecard, it saves having them run to the whiteboard and if they are shouting answers out they'll copy.

Blankety blank - Works like the old telly game. Read out a sentence with a blank (based on the target language) and the teams each have to decide the best word to fill the blank. I often use it with powerpoint and you can flash up a picture with a sentence too. For example, a picture of Thaksin bounces in on powerpoint with the caption "Thaksin has got a lot of money, he is very _______________." All the teams have to write down an adjective that they think fits (i.e. rich, successful, important etc.), when you say so they must show their answers, if it matches your answer they get a point. It's up to you how difficult or easy you make it - I like to make the answers a little ambiguous with older students so that there is an element of chance to make it more interesting because they can give a correct answer and still not get a point, they have to think like me to get the points! E.g. Yesterday I had a really difficult test, I was really worried. It went OK and I got a decent grade, now I feel _______________." (relieved, happy, proud, delighted, relaxed etc.)

I have played slap with classes of 60 before (and it's really good with 30 or 40). Write a load of vocabulary wordson the whiteboard on any theme you fancy. Divide the class into three teams (seated in their chairs). Each round of the game, nominate a student in each team to play (about equidistant from the whiteboard is fair), call out a question (for which the answer is on the board) and have them run to the whiteboard and slap the correct answer. My greatest achievement was playing this with 55 M6 boys and having a laugh, with younger kids you can stick flashcards on the board instead.

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Excuse me for not taking this seriously .....

phuketbound

I play a simple version of "Jeopardy" with my classes. The objective is for them to learn how to make questions using the who, when, where, why, and what. This game also helps with their basic sentence structure.

On the board think of five or six categories. Write them horizontally across the board. Just make them up; some examples I used were:
Time to/"P" words/Funny Animals/Odds&Ends/Greenthings/etc..

Make five or six columns underneath each category and put points in each, starting with 100, working down to 500.

In your hand you will have an answer for each of the categories and point allowances.
Just make the answer up. For the 100 point answers I start with really easy answers.

After doing rock, scissor, paper (which they love here in Korea), or flipping a coin, the first team or player, picks a category and point allowance. Then I will start with an answer for each one and they have to say the question.

For example; in the category for "P" words. If someone picks 100 points. I will say, I am pink, fat and live on a farm. Then the student has to say, "What is a pig?" Make it more challenging as you get into the 300-500 points.

Make sure to keep score. It is really hard for some of the students and easier for others. I play in teams, and the stronger students usually help bring the points up. The winning team should definitely get some sort of prize. They can get stickers, or food, or extra "free" time.

I found that the kids really enjoyed it, and it also helps them develop questions and grammar structure.

Sometimes, I give them more than one chance to form the question. You can vary the number of points or categories to suit the level or amount of students in your class. Have fun!

MPG

Consonant or Vowel "The class know a secret about you"

Have a couple of s's leave the room and explain the rules to the class. Call the students back and inform them that you have told the rest of the class something rather confidential about them ( their Mum told you works well with teens)and their job is to find out what it is by asking yes or no questions. e.g Is it something I did when I was six? Does it involve the police? etc.

Rules to tell the class
Unknown to the unfortunate students, all the others answer "yes it is" or "no it isn't" according to a simple code. If a ? ends with a consonant, the class answers 'no', if the ? ends with a vowel they answer 'yes'. The class answering "yes it is" in unison proves quite disconcerting for your poor victims.
After a suitable amount of torture let them in on the secret that you haven't told them anything that the students are answering 'yes or no' due to a code. Have your students ask other ?'s to see if they can break the code. eg Model the first few ?'s. Point to the whiteboard and ask Is it blue? Yes, Is it green? No

ajarnernest

I've used Pictionary a lot as well but I actually made up my own cards ( 3x5 note cards work well ). I have three categories of cards easy, medium and Oh my God I can't believe it! cards. The drawers can't speak or gesture, only draw and no use of numbers or letter, symbols are ok such as, = + % %.

The simple cards have one word on them like: duck, pig, run, sit, paintbrush

The medium cards are tougher: "He is sad." "She walks to school." "The boy sits in the temple." or there are more complicated words to draw such as, "near" "blue" "September" "Thirty-seven"

The Oh my God I can't believe it cards are the toughest because they don't have to make sense, " A tiger playing football with a monkey." "The blue frog jumps over the green buffalo." " "Christmas is in July" or there are words that are even more complicated to draw such as, "honesty" "air" "democracy"

Invest a little time in making the cards, it's worth it. While they are playing the students are THINKING IN ENGLISH, that is a BIG deal.

I have 2 teams, I give them strange and goofy names and make the teams come up with a sound and a motion so when they score a point I say, "yea _______ team!" and they say their thing and make their motion. The tiger team and the chicken team is good or the monkey team and the soi dog team. I've even used the mango team and the pineapple team. If a mango or aq pineapple made a sound or a movement what sound or movement would it make? Yea Mango Team! The teams arms are flailing and they're yelling "wugga wugga wugga!"

I stand at the front of the class with my back to the class and have 1 member from each team come up to draw. They are standing facing the class. I then show them both the same card and they start drawing. The team calls out the answer when they think they've got it right.

It's great to watch them thinking in English and trying to interpret the drawings.

Good luck with this one, let me know how it works out for you.

ajarnernest

peelieorion

2 games for you that work for large classes. mimic 6 animals ie an elephant, rabbit, monkey, chicken, frog and giraffe. When you say an animal they have to copy. easy until you mix up the mimes ie saying giraffe and miming a monkey sorts out those who are listening and understanding and those who are copying. thai are good sports when it comes to games and will sit down if they are wrong. you can adapt this to body part or directions to keep its interest.
Another game is called 'Bang' Students make a circle. you point a pretend gun at one student he has to duck and the other two either side have to shout bang and try to shoot each other. Mistakes and slow people sit down. when you have 2 left they play scissors, paper , stone to see who wins. winner becomes next to lead game. this is easily the most popular game i play and have done it with P3 up to M3. Kids are good sports and each game lasts only 5 minutes even with classes of 50. Also game develops skills of concentration and if they know its coming at the end, they'll apply themselves more. finally a novel way to get children to speak more. buy a cheap water pistol. ask each child 3 questions. they get them right they squirt you, get them wrong you skirt them. Even better when Thais ask each other as peer pressure makes them try. good luck and don't give up

Matthew

I like "Two Minute English". Sort of like that old
US gameshow the 64 thousand dollar pyramid?

You make lists of 10 things in a certain category.

One team member goes in front and has two minutes
to describe the thing so their team can guess it. They
can say 'pass' if they get stuck. Strictly keep the two-
minute time limit. Strictly enforce no gestures, this isn't
charades.

Makes lots of these lists is easy. Only works with Ss with
a certain amount of English ability, but when the pressure
is on it's amazing what some of them are able to come up
with.


World Cities, Starts with W, Words with 'oo'. Rhymes with Gate,
Famous Women, In the ocean, etc etc.

Oh yeah, the other team can have a short time to try to guess the
ones the other team couldn't get...

and on like that....

I hope to get this thread going again. I need more good game ideas
for these lovely spoiled kids I'm teaching now.

ScorpioPower

I've found a good use for hangman.

'Team hangman' works a treat for grammar practice, i.e. simple present.

Draw up 2 identical sentences on the board, with a box in the middle for incorrect letters and the hangman doodle.

Divide the class into 2 teams, and let the game commence. Teams take turns to suggest letters.

They are not allowed to put the same letters on both sides of the board.

The first team to guess the sentence wins. I like to play best of 3 or 5.

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Matthew

That's a nice spin on the most outdated game there is!

Got fresh new take on tic-tac-toe?

A very simple one: Everyone stand up. I choose a letter.
As we go around the class, you've got 3 (or 5) seconds
to say a word starting with that letter. If you can't, sit
down. Last sudent standing wins the game. Get's good as
fewer students need to think up new words quite quickly.
-----
Another one a played with little kids. I have an alphabet flash card deck
(the big kind with pictures). I take a letter out of the deck, and thumb
through it in front of the class. Ss need to pay attention to see which
letter is missing. Then I take out two, then three. Then I take out whole
words. First with letters in order. Then out of order. Ss must jot down the
missing letters on paper and then unscamble them quickly. Lots of kids who
I couldn't get to concentrate for 10 seconds became uite entraced by this
game. The alphabet was something they actually really knew, and playing a game
that utilized that knowledge was killer, killer. Only with young, low level kids,
I would assume. Or maybe not.
-----
I like 'pelmanism' memory games. There seems to be a
gameshow on Thai TV like this, so they catch on quick.

Do it with pre-made squared on stiff paper or...the W/B.

Good to have the phsyical movement, so have Ss come
up and slap a square and say "this one, please". You need
a master copy in hard. Draw in the words, have Ss prounce
them, and then erase them.

If the class is too big or you don't have time mark the columns
and rows with numbers and letter so the Ss can just call out
'show me A4, please'.

Good way to review recent vocab in a very light way. Keeps them
paying attention to something, anything, at the least.

Make sure nobodies' jotting down the answers, too. Always happens.

Embarassingly, even in adult classes.

ScorpioPower

Well the first thing I do is tell Ss to call it noughts and crosses!!!!

I divide the class into 2 teams and draw-up a large grid on the board and put a variety of things in there.

If it's kids, I might put phonics in, i.e. 'ph-', '-an' etc. They have to say a certain number of words to get the square.

If it's adults, I put in words that begin or end with _. Again, they have to say a certain number of words to get the square.

How do they land on squares?

Get some tissue paper, scrunch it up into a ball, pour water on it and get Ss to throw it at the board!

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Matthew

Damn. You are good.

I knew you were gonna bring up

the 'tic-tac-toe' thing.

ScorpioPower

What is it Canadians call it? 'eX-Oh' or something!

Useless trivia: 'tic tac toe' goes all the way back to 1865, and is an imitation of sound, namely a pencil being brought down on slate.

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Matthew

I need more TPR-type games. I like LDMA's 'posers' one above.

The more running around and body movement, the better, as

that's what they do in every class anyway, with or without my

direction.

spliff

Damn! ...I knew my games were good but I hadn't expected for someone to "rip them off" right out of the thread! And what's even worse is that I've contacted the official like, moderator here, and so far he has just blown me off. What's up w/ this website? I'm feeling really, really bummed out over this. The old moderators never used to be so unfeeling. I'm thinking about bailing here and making the big move on over to TD.

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Wherever I go.....the people there always complain....
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