This is surely one of my favourite games to play with the students :) What are you going to need:
- a prepared chart with definitions/riddles/vocabulary to translate
- blackboard/whiteboard
A prepared chart can look like this:
Make sure that your students do not get a peek at this version as it contains answers ;) If you want your students to translate the words, you do not need any additional information to this chart, however, if you decide to use definitions or riddles it is a good idea to put them under the chart so you don't get lost. For this one, I have used such notes: A1- it is big, can be brown, black or white, you can ride on it
A2- it is small and can swim very well
A3- it is huge, heavy, has big ears
A4- it is black and white, it gives milk
B2- it is man’s best friend
B4- it has wings and can fly
C1- it is very strong and lives in Australia
C2- it has a long neck and eats leaves
C3- it has eight legs and many people are afraid of it
C4- it is small, green and it jumps ( it changes into a prince if you kiss it)
D2- it is green, has a shell and moves very slowly
D3- it is black and white with stripes
D4- it can climb trees, you can see a lot of them in Tarzan But I would recommend drawing a bigger chart so that you can fit those definitions into the boxes.
You will also want to put two signs into your chart: - joker's smile - if your students choose a box with this sign, they will get an additional 5 points
- tornado (I usually draw it as an exclamation mark) - this will erase all the points the students have gathered up to this point When you distribute those signs, make sure you do not put too many of them, especially if you are creating a smaller chart. I tend to put more jokers so that the students do not get discouraged if they come across the tornado.
Into the classroom now! (or computer screens if you teach online🙂)
First, you want to divide your students into groups (three will work best in my opinion). In the meantime of them choosing their group names (or before the class), draw an empty chart on the board. It can have as many columns and rows depending on how much time you want to spend on this activity. The chart should look more or less like this:
Then you can explain the rules to your students:
One person from the group chooses one place in the chart (i.e. 1A, 3D) then the teacher reads out the definition or riddle assigned to this certain place. The group has to guess what word/object is being described. Students need to be careful as they have only one try, then, if they gave the wrong answer, the other group gets the chance to guess and get the point.
The winner is, of course, the group that gathers the most points :) I hope your students will love this game as much as my students do!
I encourage you to check out my blog from time to time as I intend to post some ready-made versions of this game.
And as always, let me know what you think about this activity!