What are interesting educational word or english games that are not board or card games?
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at
4:14 am
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Games help students learn but board games and card games are not allowed in our work place. What games don’t require a board aside from contests, tic, tac toe, etc.?
One of my favorite, most successful educational games is "(English) Baseball". It can be adapted to most any subject. It is played along the rules of regular baseball, two teams, etc. It is a good review, practice or culminating activity.
The teacher can be the pitcher for both teams by asking questions. It is best [for individual differences and to make the game more interesting] to have a set of prepared questions developed from your lessons from easy (1 base) to difficult (home run) questions. Filling in blank or multiple choice is usually easier than giving a three-part answer. You can even have your students create the Q/A.
It takes some time to play, but you can play 1 inning a day, for example. Remember to set a time limit (15 sec) to answer: use a student timer and score keeper. Students enjoy being able to actually move around the room from "base" to "base" .
I learned a fun game called "The Minister’s Cat". In this game you say "The minister’s cat is a _____ cat." and every time you fill in the blank with a word that starts with the next letter of the alphabet. For example:
The minister’s cat is an amazing cat.
The minister’s cat is a beautiful cat.
The minister’s cat is a crazy cat.
and so on. The players could take turns and a person gets out when he/she can’t think of a word to use.
There is also a game called "word cat" or something like that, where you form a chain of words. Each new word in the chain starts with the ending letter of the previous word. So it’s a spelling game. Each person has to name all the previous words as well as add one, and if he/she can’t do it he/she is out.
Example:
Run
Run Near
Run Near Right
Run Near Right Time
Run Near Right Time Elephant
and so forth.
You can probably make games based on other games you know. It depends on what you want the students to learn. For example, in the ESL classes that I teach, I often make games based on popular game shows or board games, but adapt them so that they will reflect whatever teaching point I want to teach them that time. Perhaps you can do something similar after you realize what you want to teach them.
HTH!