Vocabulery games for lifelong learning

Vocabulary games building language skills recommended by Polish, Portuguese and Turkish students during the 2022 eTwinning project: \"My house and my favourite room\" realised by

Agrupamento de Escolas Camilo Castelo Branco, Vila Nova de Famalicão Şehzadeler İlkokulu, Yunusemre, Turkey Zespół Szkół w Barcinie, Barcin, Poland Team games are a very good way to introduce good atmosphere, learn obeying some rules and build relations having fun at the same time. Presented games were used during the project \"My house and my favourite room\" realised by students and teachers from Portugal, Turkey and Poland in 2022. They put smile on students' faces. Do not hesitate to use them and have great wise fun as well.



List of games: 1 – Guessing /memory game: ............................................................................................................... 5 2 -This rooms of the house vocabulary game ......................................................................................... 5 3 - Give Me Game.................................................................................................................................... 5 4 – Fast as rabbits.................................................................................................................................... 5 5 – Four Corners ...................................................................................................................................... 5 6- Flashcard Fun ...................................................................................................................................... 6 7 – Guessing Question Game .................................................................................................................. 6 8 - Lightning Flashcards ........................................................................................................................... 6 9 - Musical Flashcards ............................................................................................................................. 6 10 - Ostrich Game.................................................................................................................................... 6 11 - Pictionary.......................................................................................................................................... 6 12 - Race Track ........................................................................................................................................ 7 13 - Window Game.................................................................................................................................. 7 14 - Last Man Standing ............................................................................................................................ 7 15 – Pictionary......................................................................................................................................... 8 16 – Charades .......................................................................................................................................... 8 17 - Taboo Words .................................................................................................................................... 9 18 - 20 Objects......................................................................................................................................... 9 19 – Categories...................................................................................................................................... 10 20 – KABOOM........................................................................................................................................ 10 21- Trimino: ........................................................................................................................................... 10 22 - Listen and Find ............................................................................................................................... 11 23 - Clap it.............................................................................................................................................. 11 24 – Parrot............................................................................................................................................. 11 25 – Listen and draw ............................................................................................................................. 11

1 – Guessing /memory game: To play, simply show some pictures (flashcards) or a video to your students. Students will see various objects and furniture you can find in a house. Students should listen and repeat the words. Then, ask your students to close their eyes and one of the objects will disappear and students should guess what’s missing. 2 -This rooms of the house vocabulary game is a fun activity for teaching the names of the rooms of the house in English. Students will see a picture of a room of the house and must guess the word before the image is fully revealed. The teacher uncovers each picture slowly. This is a great activity when teaching lessons about rooms of the house and expressions such as ‘Where’s mum?’ – ‘She’s in the (living room).’, etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIg__488rCs 3 - Give Me Game: You can use with flashcards or objects. Elicit the different flashcards you have. Then place all the flashcards around the classroom. Once the students have collected the flashcards (they'll probably do their best to hide them in their pockets, etc.) teacher says \"Give me a (bathroom)\". The S with the (bathroom) flashcard should approach the teacher and hand it to him/her: \"Here you are\". Avoid having the flashcards thrown back to you as they can go anywhere and takes a long time to finish this game. 4 – Fast as rabbits: Teacher puts some flashcards on the board. Then a pair of students go to the board facing the flashcards. Teacher says words (from the flashcards) and the 2 children must touch the correct flashcard as fast as they can. The winner is who touches more flashcards first. 5 – Four Corners: Teacher hangs a flashcard (4 in total) in all 4 corners of the room. One S is chosen to stand in the middle with his/her eyes closed and counts to ten while the other students scramble to one of the four corners. At the count of ten, the S in the middle shouts \"STOP\" and picks one corner by naming it's corresponding

flashcard. The students in that corner are \"out\" and must sit down. Continue game until only one student remains; he/she is then \"it\" (the counter in middle). 6- Flashcard Fun: Hold up a flashcard and elicit the answer from a S. Students can win the flashcard if they answer correctly. The S with the most flashcards at the end is the winner. 7 – Guessing Question Game: This is good practice for asking simple questions. Teacher hides any flash card behind his/her back and students try to guess what the object is by asking questions: \"Is it a bedroom?\", \"Is it an attic?\", \"Is it a living room?\", etc. until they guess the flashcard. 8 - Lightning Flashcards: Teacher stands at front of class with flashcards. Students form two teams standing in a line. Two students go first and face away from the teacher. Teacher says 1.2.3. What is it? and students quickly turn around and the first S to call out the correct answer wins a point for their team (good for review of vocab). 9 - Musical Flashcards: Students walk around some flashcards in a circle as some music is playing. When the music stops teacher shouts out a flashcard and the students must race to step on that card. The first S to step on it keeps the card (1 point) and the game continues. 10 - Ostrich Game: This game is really good fun. You need some clothes pegs. Pair up students and peg a card onto each S's back. Both students face each other with hands behind backs waiting for teacher to shout \"Go!\". At this point they must try to discover his/her partner's hidden flashcard without letting their partner see theirs. When the S finally sees his/her partner's card s/he has to shout it out to become the winner. The students look like ostriches when playing this game. 11 - Pictionary: Good for reviewing vocab. Pick a S and show him/her a flashcard picture or whisper a word into his/her ear. The S draws the picture on the board and

the first S to guess the picture gets to draw the next picture. This can also be played in teams with a point system. 12 - Race Track: Lay out the flashcards like a race track with a start and finish line. Students play in pairs or teams. S1 rolls a dice and moves a counter along the track. The S must say the flashcard landed on and if wrong must move back to the original position. Variation: put in some 'throw again' cards (e.g. brightly colored cards) and a nominate a 'crash' number on the die (e.g. if a student throws a 6 they crash and must stay where they are and miss a turn). 13 - Window Game: You can only do this if your classroom has a window that you can stand outside of and look into the classroom (don't try this on the 10th floor!). Model first: stand the students in front of the window and go out of the room. Wave to them through the window and silently mouth some words (so it seems like they can't hear you through the glass). Look at a flashcard and then mouth the word a few times. Go back in and the S who first tells you the word you were saying can have a turn. 14 - Last Man Standing: This game is fast-paced, but allows students some time to think. It also encourages peer learning, as students will pick up on words they hear others speaking. To play the game, grab a ball and have all the students form a circle. Name a category or theme, such as things found in a kitchen, food, professions, and so on. Begin by tossing the ball at a student. That student will shout a word related to the theme and throw the ball to another student. As each person catches the ball, they need to come up with another word that fits the theme. If they repeat a word that has already been said or can’t think of a new one within a few seconds, they are out and must sit on the sidelines.

Take things up a notch with a different version of “Last Man Standing.” Instead of naming a theme, each student gives the next student another theme. For example, you might start off with “something red.” The first student to catch the ball could say “strawberry” and then choose another topic and throw the ball to the next student. This makes the game much more difficult, since students cannot think of a word until they know what their theme is. 15 – Pictionary: Divide the class into two teams and create a small column for each team on one side of the board. You’ll record their points here. Have one person from Team A come up to the front. Have the student draw a card (try using Pictionary Junior cards if the adult ones are too advanced for your class). Alternatively, you can write words on slips of paper for students to choose. The student must convey the word to his or her team using only drawings. Students cannot use words, symbols or hand gestures. Limit the time to three minutes maximum. Each correct word is a point and the first team to get 10 points is the winning team. 16 – Charades: Charades is quite similar to Pictionary, but it uses actions to communicate the secret word in place of photos. This is a great game for those days when your class is dragging and people are falling asleep. Get them up and get them moving! Write down words on slips of paper for students to choose. Verbs are likely to be the easiest, but you can also use more complicated words, provided you are sure most of the students know them. Divide the class into two teams and have one person from each team choose a piece of paper and act out the word. The teams must guess the correct word before three

minutes run out. For each correct word, that team receives a point. The team that hits ten points first is the winning team. 17 - Taboo Words: Taboo Words helps students practice with synonyms and descriptions. Separate the class in half and have the two teams sit on opposite sides of the room, facing each other. Each team will choose a person to sit in front of their team, facing them in the “hot seat.” You will stand behind the students and hold up a piece of paper with a word on it. The students in the hot seats will not be able to see these papers. Teams have three minutes (or any amount of time you want to set) to get their hot seat member to say the word on the paper. The catch is, they can’t say the word under any circumstances. Tips for playing in a large class. If you have more than 12 students in a class, things can get a little chaotic with this game. In this case, it’s usually simpler to divide everyone into teams of 5-6 people and have only one team go at a time. 18 - 20 Objects: Test your students’ memories and vocabulary at the same time with this fun game. All you need is a clear desk and 20 common items from around the classroom. You can even grab things from your backpack or purse. Arrange the objects on the desk and let students gather around to look at them. Cover everything with a sheet (or something similar) after one minute and send everyone back to their seats. Each students should write out as many items as they can remember on a piece of paper, all in English.

When everyone is done, write a list of the items on the chalkboard and allow students to self-correct. Alternatively, you can call out the objects and give a point for each one that is correctly written. 19 – Categories: Have students draw six columns on their paper and write a category at the top of each column. You can choose categories that fit what you’ve been studying in class or go with some basics. Popular categories include food, names, cities or countries, furniture, verbs and clothing. Choose a random letter and write it on the board. Give students enough time to write down a word for each category that starts with that letter. You can repeat with new letters as many times as you like. 20 – KABOOM: Students prepare stripes of paper. On each of them they write one word. Each ten’th stripe has KABOOM written on it. Students put the stripes into a mug and they choose one stripe. Their task is to say the word in English. If they answer correctly they score a point. If they choose KABOOM they lose all their points. Nobody knows who will win. 21- Trimino: It is a kind of domino. Students match words in two language versions. If they do it correctly they should create a special shape e.g. a star from all pieces. A trimino maker is available on: https://schule.paul-matthies.de/Trimino.php

22 - Listen and Find: Students have a set of pictures and place them face down. There are two or more teams and each has own set. The teacher says a word and students try to find it as fast as they can. A student who finds the right picture first gets a point for his/her team. 23 - Clap it : To play this game you need some fly flaps. The teacher sticks pictures to the board and say one word. Students try to cover the right picture with their flap as fast as possible. The student whose flap was first score a point. 24 – Parrot : The teacher show students some pictures and says the presented word. If the teacher says what there is in the picture correctly all students repeat, but when the teacher says something different than presented in the picture – students keep silent. The student who repeat the word different from the picture exits the game and help to watch who repeats wrong words. The winner is the student left as last. 25 – Listen and draw: The teacher describes something (e.g. a room). Students listen and draw a picture according to the description. Finally, all drawings are displayed to be seen and students compare them with the teacher’s picture. There are always differences between pictures, which gives students to draw conclusion – why each picture does not look the same. Remember! Lifelong learning is a great fun! Don’t be afraid to use all of these games at least once.