Categories
A1 A2 Games Materials Primary Reading Review Secondary writing

Animal Treasure Hunt

Our third treasure hunt is an animal-themed one. It pretty much follows the same sort of idea as the other 2 I’ve posted, but all the clues describe animals.

You can use it to review animal vocabulary, as part of an animal unit, CLIL science lesson, etc.

What to do

Download the PDF at the end of this post.

Print and cut out the clues and stick them up around your space. It can be a classroom, playground, wherever.

Each animal has it’s corresponding clue in the text underneath, so you can easily stick them back-to-back and laminate them if you want to reuse them.

There are 2 different circular treasure hunts. The left column is one hunt, the right column is the other. So you can have two teams if you wish, or even several staggared teams. You can start with ANY animal. When you arrive back at the same animal you started with, you have finished.

How to play

Give each player/team an answer sheet. They write their name and start time at the top.

Students follow the clues, writing the names of the animals in order on their sheets.

When they finish, write the finish time and calculate their total time. Fastest wins.

There are penalty points for misspelled answers, wrong answers and if the animals aren’t in order, you know they have cheated, or made a mistake.

You can decide how much time you want to add for each penalty, but I tend to give 5 seconds for a misspelling, 20 seconds for an incerrect answer and a minute if the answers aren’t in order. I explain this at the start to discourage cheating.

Download

Download the PDF of the Treasure Hunt here : http://www.classroomgames.net/materials/treasure-hunt-3-animals.pdf

 

Categories
A2 Back to School Games Primary Review Secondary Vocabulary writing

QR Treasure hunt for teens

Another treasure hunt, but this time for older primary and teen learners that have a A2 level minimum and can read English reasonably well.

What you need

Print off the PDF at the end of this post and then cut up the QR codes. You can stick them around your class, school, playground… wherever you choose.

Each player or group will need a mobile phone that can scan QR codes. The codes are in text form, so an internet connection isn’t needed. I would do a test first though, to make sure your device works. If not, there are plenty of free QR reader apps that you can download.

How to play

Give each player, whether that be an individual student or group, one of the answer sheets and get them to put their name, or teamname on the sheet.

Write the start time on the sheet. This enables you to have staggered start times, if you wish.

Students can complete the questions in ANY order. They just scan a code and answer the question. Writing the answer on their sheet in the corresponding numbered space.

When they finish and return their sheet to you, write the finish time.

The winner completes all questions the quickest.

You can add time penalties of your choosing for spelling, wrong answers, etc. For example, I add 5 seconds for each misspelled word and if an answer is incorrect, I will add 20 seconds. This encourages players to put what they think are correct answers, rather than just filling in anything.

Download

Download a PDF of the QR Treasure hunt here : http://www.classroomgames.net/materials/treasure-hunt-2-qr.pdf

Categories
A1 A2 Games Materials Review Uncategorised Vocabulary

Treasure hunt for reviewing vocabulary

I often do treasure hunts around my classes and sometimes in the open air, either on a playground or open safe space with my younger learners.

I thought I’d share this one I made a couple of years ago that I use now and again as it’s easy to print, cut up and use.

How to use it

Simply stick all the clues around your chosen area not in any order.

You can have 2 diffent groups, or use it twice, as there are two versions.

Both versions have the same number of clues.

You could tell students to write down the answers, if you want to have multiple groups playing.

Download

The PDF can be downloaded here : http://www.classroomgames.net/materials/treasure-hunt-1.pdf

Please support my page by checking out my TikTok videos and giving them a like, or follow… or comment telling me how you have used my resources. I love to see them being used!

Categories
A1 A2 Adult B1 Games Materials Past Simple Present Perfect Primary Reading Secondary Speaking Uncategorised Vocabulary writing

Verbo! An irregular verbs card game based on Uno.

I developed this game to practise irregular verbs and help students learn which verbs go with which.

What to do

Download the printable PDF at the end of the page. Print it off and laminate it. There is a card reverse included in the PDF to print the cards double-sided.

How to play

Students are dealt 7 cards each to start, the rest are left in the centre of the table.

Just as with uno, a student must follow the top card with either a card from the same verb, or a card of the same colour. You could make it more challenging by getting students to define the verb, or use it in a sentence…

If a student can’t put a card down, they must pick one up.

If a student puts down a card from the wrong verb group, they must take it back and pick up two extra cards.

The +2, +4, change direction, change colour and miss-a-turn cards are all the same as the original version.

When the student has 1 card left, they have to shout ‘verbo!’ if they don’t before the next person takes a turn, they must pick up 4 cards.

Pick-up cards can accumulate, just as with Uno.

Download

Download the printable PDF here : http://www.classroomgames.net/materials/verbo-card-game.pdf

Categories
A1 Adult colors colours Games Infant numbers Primary Secondary Speaking Uncategorised Vocabulary

Jenga game adapted for the ESL classroom

Here’s a classic game that you can adapt and use to teach colours and numbers in the ESL/ESOL classroom. It’s fun too!

What is it?… Jenga!

I bought a colour jenga set that came with a colour dice, though you can just paint the blocks of a normal jenga. I then wrote numbers on both ends, so that they would be visible when stacked.

As normal dice will be used, it’s important that you only use combinations of numbers that use 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. It’s also a good idea to have more of the single numbers, as these come up more often… as will become apparent.

There are 60 blocks in total in my set. Here’s a full list of the numbers that it works best to use:

1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9, 9, 10, 11, 11, 12, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66.

If you have fewer blocks, then take out the doubles and triples.

How do you play it?

  • You will need 2 normal (1 to 6) dice.
  • Students throw both dice.
  • They can then remove a block from the tower, in the usual way that you play jenga, and place it on the top of the tower.
  • The difference is, they can only remove blocks that contain a combination of the numbers, or by adding or subtracting the numbers. For example, if they rolled a 4 and a 3, they could remove 4, 3, 43, 34, 4+3=7 or 4-3=1
  • As in the normal rules of Jenga, you cannot take a block from the top 3 rows at any point in the game and you can only use one hand (you can relax this rule if it’s smaller children playing).

If you get the students to say all the numbers they can use before they take a block, it works as a great way to practice double unit numbers in English. With smaller kids, it’s also a good way to practice simple maths.

That’s it! There are no downloads, but if you need a Jenga, you can get them off Amazon, Aliexpress, or pretty much any toy website. Here’s a 60-block one I found.

https://www.amazon.com/Mattys-Mix-Up-Colorful-Stacking-Storage/dp/B01MU0CYB7/

Here is a link to my TikTok video explaining how to play:

https://www.tiktok.com/@islaidiomas/video/7289537151707008289

Categories
A1 A2 Adult Back to School Games Materials Present Simple Primary Review Secondary Speaking

Back to school game for personal information

I have developed this game for my classes to have a fun way to review simple introduction questions.

I use a ball to review the questions with the class first. I pass the ball to a student and ask a question, they then have to answer it and then pass the ball to someone else before asking them the same question. This goes all round the class, until the ball come back to me. The last student asks me.

The questions are:

  • What’s your name?
  • How old are you?
  • Where do you live?
  • What’s your favourite food?
  • What’s your favourite sport?
  • What’s your favourite hobby?

You can also do another round where you throw the ball to one person and ask about a classmate…

  • What’s his name?… etc.

The game is played like happy families. Students ask each other closed questions to find a ‘family’ i.e. the name, age, location, favourite food, sport and hobby of one person. The first one to complete a person wins.

You can play in groups up to 8 people.

I deal 5 or 6 cards to start with and when a student gets a ‘no’ answer, they take a card from the pile of leftover cards and then the turn passes to the next student. This carries on until the cards run out in the pile.

If a student gets a ‘yes’ answer, they can ask again.

They can only ask for a card from a family they already have in their hand.

I design a lot of card games in this way, because the students know the rules instinctively and they are fun!

Download the PDF of the game here: http://www.classroomgames.net/materials/back-to-school-card-game.pdf

Print, laminate and cut out, then play! Let me know in the comments on my Tiktok account how you have used the game.

Categories
A1 A2 Games Materials Past Continuous Past Perfect Past Simple Present Continuous Present Simple Primary Secondary Speaking

Connect 4

This is a no preparation activity you can do to revise virtually any subject for controlled sentence formation practice with young learners, though I suppose if you wanted to, elementary adults might also like this game!

Materials

All you need is a whiteboard and markers in at least 2 different colours. If you havenet got access to a whiteboard, you could easily do it with a piece of paper and pens too.

How to play

Draw a grid on the board. Usually at least 6 squares accross and down, but more can be good for longer games. In this example, I played using the subject of animals and actions, so on the x-axis I selected some animals that had different abilities (flying, walking, swimming, etc.) and on the y-axis I put the actions (jump, run, swim, bite, etc). We were practicing can/can’t, so making sentences such as, “the crocodile can bite” or “the frog can’t fly”.

You could easily put body parts on the y-axis and use sentences with have/haven’t got (e.g. “the dog hasn’t got feathers”) or comparatives… put animals on both axes and write adjectives in the squares so they have to make a comparison between the animals using the adjective given (e.g. “the elephant is bigger than the snake”) or have them practise positive/negative/question forms… the possibilities are endless.

Students must make a sentence using the items on the axes that intersect on the square they want to win. If they give a correct sentence, they win the square.

Simple! You can play this game with groups from 2 upwards.

Why I use it

It works really well because it is fun, and the students practise controlled sentences with repetition to build confidence and better pronunciation too.

The best way to understand how this game works is to watch it in action on my Tiktok or instagram accounts, where I have posted a video of the activity in my own classroom.

Here is a link to the Tiktok video.

Categories
A1 A2 Games Infant Materials Present Simple Primary Vocabulary

Funny Face Bingo Game

I developed this game to learn and practise vocabulary related to the face. I usually have a range of activities to do for each subject. Such as a song, game, worksheet, craft, etc. so this game was develloped to fit in with my planning.

Setting up

There are face boards with diverse options, for different genders and skin colours. Print off the pdf file linked at the bottom and print out as many of the face boards as you need and laminate them. You need one per student.

You will also need to print off and cut out face part cards. There are the other 2 pages of the pdf and you will need to print them off back to back. The pages should line up on any printer. Laminate and cut all the squares out. Try not to leave any white around the face part squares. You can trim the white off.

You can use either a number dice (1-6) to practise numbers or a colour dice if you prefer to practise colours. You can pick these up online quite cheaply, or make your own spinner. The colours needed are red, blue, green, yellow, purple and orange.

How to play

  1. Give each student a face board.
  2. Place the face part cards, number side up, on the table in the middle and spread them out evenly over the table.
  3. Students take it in turns to throw the dice and depending which type of dice you are using, choose a card which has either the same number, or colour as the dice show.
  4. The student needs to complete their face. There are face parts for each individual face. You can either allow students to complete a mixed up face with a variety of parts, or if you want to make the game more difficult or last longer, you can ask them to complete a correct face. If they don’t pick up a piece they need, you can allow them to swap it for one they have already. I always give little ones this choice, as makes them feel like they have done something, rather than lose a turn.

As their face fills up, it will get harder to find the parts they need to complete it, so it can last anything from 20-35 minutes depending on the size of group and their luck! Therefore, it’s a good way to practice colours and numbers along with face vocabulary to fit in with your curriculum and planning.

I hope you enjoy it!

Here’s the download link for the PDF :  http://classroomgames.net/materials/funny-face-bingo.pdf

 

Categories
A1 A2 Games Infant Primary Review Speaking Vocabulary

Sum Swamp

Sum Swamp is an exciting and educational game designed by Learning Resources to help children learn basic addition and subtraction. This game can be used in the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classroom to engage students and help them improve their language skills relating to numbers and maths vocabulary.

Game objective

The game is played with two to four players and requires players to navigate their way through a swamp filled by throwing 3 dice; 2 with numbers and one with ‘+’ and ‘-‘ signs on them. The first player to reach the other side of the swam wins.

How to play

To play Sum Swamp, each player starts on one side of the swamp and takes turns rolling a dice. The player then either adds or subtracts the dice together and moves their game piece the number of spaces in the resolution. If the player lands on a number square, they rethrow the +/- dice and either move forward, or backward that number of spaces. There are also ‘odds’ and ‘evens’ squares, which require them to throw a number dice again and they can move if they get a corresponding number.

The game is suitable for children aged 5 and up, making it an excellent choice for younger students learning English as a second language as it provides them with a fun and interactive way to learn.

Sum Swamp is a fantastic game that can be used as a fun and interactive way to reinforce vocabulary related to maths and numbers with younger students and if you would like to buy a copy, please use my affiliate link below if you can, as it helps fund this website.

Buy Sum Swamp on Amazon : https://amzn.to/3Dxgh9k

Categories
A1 A2 Adult B1 B2 C1 C2 Games Past Continuous Past Perfect Past Simple Primary Review Secondary Speaking

Rory’s Story Cubes

As an English language teacher, it can sometimes be difficult to come up with engaging activities that will encourage your students to practice speaking. This is where story cubes come in! They are a fantastic tool for practicing speaking skills in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. In this blog post, we’ll explore what story cubes are, how to use them in your classroom, and why they are such a great resource for students.

What are Story Cubes?

Story cubes are small, cube-shaped dice with different images printed on each side. They come in a set of nine cubes, with a total of 54 unique images. The images on the cubes range from simple objects like a tree or a sun, to more abstract symbols like a lightbulb or a heart.

How to use Story Cubes in the EFL Classroom

Story cubes are incredibly versatile and can be used in a variety of ways in the EFL classroom. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Speaking Practice:

One of the best ways to use story cubes is for speaking practice. Have your students roll the cubes and use the images they see to create a story. They can work in pairs or small groups to create a story together, taking turns to add new elements to the story. This is a great way to encourage your students to use English in a creative and relaxed environment.

Vocabulary Practice:

Another way to use story cubes is for vocabulary practice. Give your students a specific vocabulary set, such as action verbs or adjectives, and have them use the cubes to create sentences that incorporate these words. This is a fun way to reinforce vocabulary and help students to use new words in context.

Grammar Practice:

You can also use story cubes to practice grammar structures. For example, you could ask your students to create sentences using the present simple or present continuous tense, depending on the images they see on the cubes. This is a great way to practice grammar in a fun and engaging way.

Why are Story Cubes a Great Resource for EFL Students?

There are many reasons why story cubes are a great resource for students. Here are a few:

They Encourage Creativity:

Story cubes encourage students to be creative and to use their imagination. This is a great way to encourage students to think outside the box and to use English in a fun and engaging way.

They Foster Collaboration:

When students work together to create a story using the cubes, they have to collaborate and communicate with each other. This is a great way to build teamwork skills and to help students to work together effectively.

They Are Easy to Use:

Story cubes are incredibly easy to use. They require no preparation or advanced technology, making them a great resource for both teachers and students.

They Are Portable:

Because story cubes are small and lightweight, they are incredibly portable. You can take them with you wherever you go, making them a great resource for EFL teachers on the go.

Story cubes are a fantastic tool for practicing speaking skills in the classroom. They are versatile, easy to use, and encourage creativity and collaboration. Whether you use them for speaking practice, vocabulary practice, or grammar practice, story cubes are a great resource for students and teachers alike. So why not give them a try in your next class and see how they can enhance your students’ speaking skills!

Rory’s Story Cubes on Amazon (affiliate link) : https://amzn.to/3HmsfUb