BOARD AND CARD GAMES AT THE LESSON

Games are always a great hit at the lesson. It makes the lesson unusual and the children feel relaxed. Games wisely used at the lesson is a very good way to train their skills.

The majority of games are for 3-6 people, so sometimes I have to adapt them so that the whole class could play.

There are TOP 5 games I use at the lesson:

1. The DIXIT cards

The game with Dixit cards is very popular today, so why not use it at the lesson of English. The good thing about them is that you can adjust the illustrations to any topic you need.
The ideas below belong to Aniela Tekiela, an English teacher and a Polish blogger.

• Find the common element for 2 cards and make a sentence with it.
• Forsee the future. One student opens one cards and tries to say what may it refer to in his/her future.
• Making New Year resolutions connected with the card.
• Answer the question, finding the answer in the card.
• Associations. One student has to describe his associations, the other has to guess what card he/she has in mind.
• Students search for common elements in the cards, find and write the word in English. The other team has to do the reverse task, find the cards using their notes.
• Finish the sentence using the cards: I'd like to learn....,  I've got ..., I really like/enjoy.... .
• Match the name of the film with the cards, eg. 'Shark'.

2. 5 SECONDS

Use it for revision. Actually, you need only one thing from this game. It's the funny 5-second timer, which makes a funny noise. You decide with the pupils on the category for the answering person, set the 5 sec. timer and the person has to name as many words from the category as he/she can. The number of words equals to the number of points for the team. The team with the most points wins.

3. SCRABBLE FLIP.

Perfect for training word-building.

You fix the board to the wall or your whiteboard. I do it with the help of BLUE TACK. Instead of flippers you can use a soft small ball or even a piece of slime. A child throws the ball. Everyone watches and checks what was the letter. Out of several letters students have to build English words. The more the better. They write their words in groups, give you a list and you charge the team with the points.

4. TENSE GAMES BY REGIPIO

I won this game from Regipio on their fun page on Facebook. The title is Future Simple or Present Continuous. BUT I use the cards with verbs for all the tenses. The idea is to draw a card from the stack and make a correct sentence.
You can also use the cards for playing 'memory' and 'crosses and naughts'.

5. HIDEY HOUSE

It's for the topic about housing. I hide the elements from the game in certain rooms and pupils have to guess where it is. They ask the question - Is it in the bathroom? Yes. Is it under the mirror/on the bookshelf? And get the points for the correct answer. Before playing a game, draw a sketch of the rooms on the board.

In fact, you can adapt any board game for the needs of teaching English. Sometime it's enough to check the game in the Internet, read the instruction, change it a little and, here we go, you have a fine exercise for your pupils.


Read also about the use of SPINNERS AT THE LESSON.

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