subject: Written Games For Foreign Language Classes [print this page]
Teachers of foreign languages try to find new ways of involving the children and make them learn new words. Sometimes it is a good idea to promise the children they will play a nice game in which they can show how much they know. And there are a lot of games that can be played, some of them already known, that can be adapted, other specially thought of for this purpose.
One of the games that I played with my students and that they liked a lot and always wanted to play is "All in one" (although I use all in two). Depending on how many words you want the students to find, write on the board one or two words. I use two words and time the students' activity. They can also do it in pair or groups. Then, from the two words on the board they need to come up with other words. They are not allowed to use a letter twice in a word, unless it is written twice on the blackboard. Only common names are accepted. I use the game especially around holidays, because I can put on the blackboard phrases such as: Merry Christmas, Happy Halloween, Easter holiday, etc. You can also set a minimum limit of letter words, so that no two-letter words to be written and to challenge them more.
Another nice game is "Filling in". Choose a word. A longer one. Write the letters of the words in a column, on the right side of the board. At a distance, write the word again, beginning from the bottom. You now have two columns and the first and last letter of words that kids need to come up with. This means that if you write the word "mother" on the board the first word they need to fill in begins with letter "m" and ends with letter "r". They can fill in with as many letters as they can.
Another game that the kids love is one that I used to play when I was little and I adapted for teaching. I do not know the name of the game, but I will call it "Grandpa runs happily." The game can be made so as to fit your purposes, meaning that you can add or cut columns in the game, so to focus on just one grammar issue. Every child writes on a piece of paper the headings: Who - Action - What - Where - When - How. As implied earlier, not necessarily all. Now, the children complete the first heading, cover the word and pass it to the other child in the group. The kid completes the second heading, covers and gives further. Until the end, when the child uncovers the whole sentence and all laugh about the combination.
