BINGO
1.Students are given a blank grid (4x4, 5x5, etc.)
2. Categories students have studied label each column. (numbers, verbs, clothing, adjectives, etc.)
3. Students brainstorm expressions that know in the target language that fit each category and write them into the blocks. A “free” space can be allowed.
4. Once all grids are completely filled in, students take turns (going down the rows or across) naming one item from a particular category.
5. Students mark out that block (or cover it with a marker). Teacher writes down expressions as they are called.
6. Once a student marks blocks in an entire horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row, they call out “BINGO”- or a word in the target language.
7. Answers are verified by the teacher’s list. / THE LAST WORD
1. Two students sit back to back.
2. They are given a category.
3. Each student takes turns naming a word/expression that fits the category.
4. A student is “out” when he/she repeats a word already given, gives a word that does not fit the category or can’t think of a new word.
5. The student who is “out” returns to his/her seat and a new “challenger” takes his/her seat.
6. Then a new category is given.
7. The goal of the game is to see which student can remain on the seat for the most rounds.
TYPEWRITER
1. Students are assigned letters of the target language alphabet, including accent marks.
2. A word/expression in the target language is called out.
3. Students stand up in the order in which the word is spelled and say their letter. (Like the keys of a typewriter).
4. The object of the game is to spell the word/expression correctly in the shortest amount of time. / TIC-TAC-TOE
1. This can be a whole class game (boys vs. girls, left side vs. right) or done in pairs.
2. Students complete the grid with questions, infinitives, definitions, or clues in the target language which correspond to the unit being studied.
3. One team or partner is “X” and the other is “O”.
4. In order to place your letter in a space, you must answer the question, name the word being defined or give the correct verb form.
5. The object of the game is to achieve 3 of your letters in a row.
SCATTERGORIES
1. This can be done in small groups or pairs.
2. Groups or “teams” are given newsprint and one colored marker.
3. Students are given a category for which they must brainstorm as many words as they can think of that fit the category within the given time.
4. Once the brainstorming time has expired, the color of groups’ markers is switched. (This avoids cheating.)
5. Groups take turns naming words from their list. If the word they call out matches one on another team’s list, that word must be crossed out.
6. Groups only earn “points” for unique (correct) answers.
7. A variation of this game is when the teacher has a target list he/she is looking for (ex. Name the Spanish-speaking countries of the world.) Teams earn a point for every correct answer. / FLYSWATTER
1. An overhead transparency is created with target expressions randomly written (not in rows and columns).
2. Students are divided into two teams. One member of each team is given a flyswatter. They must keep their hands at their sides.
3. The teacher calls out a word in English or in the target language (or gives a definition, asks a question, etc.). The first student who covers the correct word on the overhead screen with his/her flyswatter wins the point.
4. A variation of this is to write the words on the black board.
PICTIONARY
1. Students take turns in pairs or small groups trying to get their partners/team members to guess their word/expression through drawing, without using words, letters or numbers. / MEMORY/CONCENTRATION
1. Students create pairs of cards that go together (English and target language, expressions and pictures, infinitive/pronoun and conjugated verb form.
2. Cards are laid face down on the table.
3. Students take turns turning over two cards at a time. If the two cards match, they are removed from the table and the player earns points.
4. The game continues until all cards are gone.
CLUE
1. Students divide a large sheet of paper into four or six sections and label each as a room or area of a house. (or buildings around a city)
2. Students create characters who live in the house or who are traveling around the city.
3. Then cards are created to represent items in the house (or activities one would do around a city).
4. On a blank sheet of paper, each player chooses a room (or building) and an item (or activity) for his/her character.
5. Through process of elimination, students guess where each other’s characters are and what they have. Questions may only be answered by YES or NO. / THE PRICE IS RIGHT
1. A set of cards are created with items and prices on them.
2. Players have list of items.
3. One player chooses a card.
4. Other players try to guess the price of the item.
5. The person with the card gives clues like: HIGHER, LOWER, ALMOST, CLOSE, EXACTLY.
6. Play continues until all items’ prices are revealed.
FAMILY LOGIC
1. Teams are given a family diagram. Ex. Two grandparents, two siblings with spouses, their children.
2. Teams write their names onto the diagram and assume the family role of the person.
3. Other teams try to guess this “family’s” relationships by asking questions and through a process of elimination. Only YES or NO questions can be asked.
4. A variation of this game can be played with people and a map of a city, students guess where each person is. Another variation is people and what they ordered/ate at a restaurant. / WHAT’S IN THE BAG?
1. An item or several items are put into a bag. It can be based on a scenario (going to the beach, going on a trip, just got back from grocery store).
2. Students take turns asking questions about what is in the bag asking only YES or NO questions. Questions can be asked about shape, color, use, etc.
3. A variation of this activity is to place several items on a table covered with a piece of cloth. The cloth is removed for a set period of time. Then the items are covered again.
4. Students attempt to remember what was on the table.
WHO AM I? 20 QUESTIONS
1. Students assume the persona of a famous person from history or entertainment.
2. Other students ask YES or NO questions of the person to discover his/her identity. / CHARADE SCENES
1. Great for the past tense.
2. A student acts out several (3-5) actions in a row with no sound. Ex.- walking, sitting, reading, sleeping.
3. After the scene is viewed two times, students recount what they saw using the past tense.
4. Scenes can be played out with multiple actors for high difficulty level.
CONTINUE THE STORY
1. One student gives a sentence and takes his/her place in front of class.
2. The next student repeats the previous student’s sentence and then adds one of his/her own.
3. The story continues as far as it is allowed.
4. A variation of this activity is to create a story sentence by sentence on strips of paper which creates a paper chain. / STORY/CONVERSATION STRIPS
1. Students recall events from a story, article, reading, video or any other experience by writing details on strips of paper.
2. Collaboratively in groups, students arrange sentence strips into an order that will retell the information.
3. Blank strips can be used to fill gaps in the story.
4. A variation of this activity is to create a conversation with all of the strips.
SITUATION BAGS
1. Students are given a paper lunch bag with a situation or setting written on the outside of it.
2. Students use small slips of paper on which they write activities, and other vocabulary that correspond to the situation.
3. The bag is passed to another group. The second group’s task is to create a story or conversation about the situation using the cues on the slips of paper. / HUMAN GRAPHS
1.Students stand on a continuum under labels based on preferences, birth months, color of clothing, etc.
2. Students then transform the data into a bar, pie or line graph.
STEP LEFT/STEP RIGHT
1. Students are given two choices for responses- True/False, Agree/Disagree, Masculine/Feminine, Present/Past.
2. The teacher gives cues and students step left or right based on their responses.
3. A variation of this activity can be Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down or an index card with each of the responses on the two sides of the card. / VOTING
1. Large manila envelopes a placed around the room with a prompt on each that has two alternatives (dangerous/safe, fair/unfair, easy/difficult, etc.).
2. Students write their “votes” on slips of paper.
3. Students place their “votes” into the coordinating envelope.
4. Teams tabulate results and report them in percentages.
PICTURE DICTATION
1. One student has a picture. He/she describes the picture to team members in the target language.
2. Team members attempt to draw the scene that is being described.
3. Drawings are compared to the picture prompt. / BEEP
1. Students read a sentence and leave the key word out and replacing it with the word “Beep.”
2. Other students try to guess the “Beep” word.
RUN ON SENTENCE
1. A letter of the alphabet is chosen.
2. Students attempt to create a run on sentence be adding words that begin with the same letter to the sentence. Small filler words like “the” and “in” and “and” are exceptions. / OPINION TWINS
1. Students respond to preference questions by choosing their opinions by writing them on a strip of paper labeled with the number of the question/prompt.
2. Students put a personal code at the bottom of their response strips.
3. Students’ opinion strips are hung around the room.
4. Students browse the strips hanging around the room to find someone who most closely matches theirs and copy down the code of that person.
5. Once all students are seated, personal codes are revealed.
Go-To Activities & Games
Leslie Grahn
Howard County Public Schools
2011 / CATEGORY CARDS
1. Students create cards that represent target content.
2. Groups/teams work together to arrange cards into categories and name the categories.
SPEED DIAL
1. Students are given a template which resembles a telephone where both the numbers and alphabet letters are showing.
2. One student thinks of a vocabulary word and “spells” it in numbers only.
3. Team members try to guess the word being “spelled.” / TRIANGLE SPINNERS
1. Card stock equilateral triangles are cut out with a hole in the middle through which a pencil or pen can be slid.
2. On each tip of the triangle, a choice is written. (ex. Fact-opinion-question, present-past-future, true-false-choice, person-place-thing, who-what-where)
3. Students take turns spinning the pencil and their response must be to the choice on the point that lands up. It can be in response to a verb/pronoun cue, a dialogue/story that was read, a particular unit studied, or a particular scenario/authentic situation.
ESP/PREDICTIONS
1.  Students fold a piece of paper in half lengthwise. Ask that they record responses to personalized questions on the left side of the page. Then, have them record the responses they predict their partner will give using their “ESP.” After, have students compare their responses and predictions. / VERB RELAY
1. Position each team in a straight row.
2. Have the first person take out a sheet of paper and fold it four times. There will be eight columns. At the top of the first column, have the student write the word "verb" in the target language. Across the top of the other seven columns, have him/her list subject pronouns.
3. To start the relay, announce an infinitive. The first person writes the infinitive in the first column and conjugates the verb in the second column according to the subject pronoun at the top. (S)he passes the paper to the next student who conjugates the verb according to the subject pronoun at the top of the third column and so on. As the chart goes down the row, a student may make corrections to any errors.
4. The first team to complete the row wins a point, but only if all forms completed are correct.
ALPHABET EYE CHART
While teaching the alphabet, have students create an eye chart (like one used by Optometrists) drawing the letters from large to small in increasing rows for homework- in a triangle format. The following class day, have students work in pairs taking turns covering one eye and reading their partner's eye chart in the target language.
ANDREW GNAGEY, Wilde Lake Middle School / GO FISH! – Weather and seasons
This activity works with any theme that contains related categories.
Give each students 26 index cards and have them each make of deck of cards of their vocabulary in Spanish and illustrate the words (12 months, 10 weather expressions, 4 seasons).
Then with all decks completed, arrange the students in groups of threes and fours, and have them play "Go Fish." All decks were put together and shuffled. Each student is then dealt five cards. Then they have to ask each other if they had "enero" or "hace fresco" etc. If not, they had to choose a card from the deck of undealt cards.. Play continued until all cards were in someone's "book." The winner in each group was the one who had the most "books" – one card from each category that match together.
PAM PRUITT, Patuxent Valley Middle School
INSIDE-OUTSIDE ROWS
Seat students in four parallel rows with students in the inside rows facing out and the students in the outside rows facing in. Students peform a speaking task and then on cue, the inside row students shift one desk to the right. Students continue changing speaking partners as many times as desired. This is a variation on Inside-Outside Circles but in this version, students are seated not standing.