Language/Vocabulary based games

• Animal Game: Choose animal cards without showing the learners. Then tell them that they are going to receive 3 clues, so they need to listen carefully and guess what you are describing. Alternative: Hand out a picture card to each person and each learner takes it in turns to describe his card to the class. e.g. I can gallop. I have a saddle. 3. You can ride on my back. (horse).

• Shopping: This can be used with a wide range of picture cards (food pictures work well). Gather all the learners and show them all the flashcards you have. Put them in your “shop” where the learners cannot see the pictures easily. Give the learners a “shopping list of 3-4 items”. They must go shopping and bring back the cards on the shopping list. This is a useful to strengthen memory strategies.

• Vanishing cards: Place a number of picture cards in front of the learners. Give them a few moments to memorise the pictures and then tell them to close their eyes. Take away one of the cards and then tell the learners to open their eyes again. The first learner to guess the missing card can win that card (for 1 point) and take away a card in the next round.

• Charades: Have a learner come to the front of the class and show a picture card to him. The learner then acts out that word and the first person to guess can be the next player. This works very well with action verbs. Variation: divide the class up into teams - the first learner to guess, wins a point for his/her team.

• Concentration: You need 2 sets of flashcards for this game. Place both sets face down on the floor. Learners take turns in turning over 2 cards (saying the cards aloud). If the cards match then the learner keeps the cards. If the cards are different, the cards are turned back over again in their original places. The learner with the most pairs at the end of the game is the winner. Alternative: Find cards that belong together i.e. knife and fork.

• Follow the sequence: Each student has a set of cards. The teacher places his/her cards in a particular order in two or three rows, and the learners copy the pattern. Alternatively the teacher calls out the sequence of cards i.e. dog-cat-horse-giraffe. The learners have to put their cards in that order.

• Cross the River: Place cards facing up on the floor in a winding manner. Each card represents a stepping stone in the river, as learners must say rhyming w

Lindsay Brown
Phonix in a Box
Website: www.phonixinabox.co.za
Cell: 072 323 5644