Here’s another funky counter game (which works great after the Let’s Build a House Lesson!) from Mido Farid…
1. Divide class into teams and draw an example five-sided house on the board.
2. Teams compete to see who can build the most houses. Houses are “built” by rolling a die. If the student rolls a number between one and five, you can draw that many lines to make a house on the board.
So, a student rolling a 2 would have one wall and the floor of the house drawn on the board. If the next student on the team rolled a 4, three strokes would be used to draw the last wall and the roof of the house, and the remaining stroke would be used to start a new house.
If a student rolls a six and has an incomplete house the house is destroyed. Completed houses are not affected.
At the end of the activity the team with the most completed houses wins
What do you thing about it?
P.S. Don’t forget about the new “Who is in the haunted house?” song!
“houses” is a theme I’m doing next week. I’ll try to incorporate the game then. Thanks.
It sounds fun!! I will try out next week with my five years old, we can put some colours with it.
Thanks!!
hope u enjoy my games mido
Hey, this is a great idea, I use it with question practice. Students who answer correctly can roll the dice for their team. I also have the rule they can either draw, or erase that wall, depending on what the team tells them. They have to call out ‘DRAW’ or ‘ERASE’… if they use Japanese… my eraser might pop out and erase one of their walls ‘by accident’… it is really funny because at first they will all be nice and just draw. All it takes is one kid to erase a wall and it becomes a real battle!
This is a great time filler but what English does it support?
It seems like fun but what is the point of the game in relation to learning English? Is there something that the kids can take from the game and use in the future? Is it the kind of game that all the kids in the class can be participating at the same time? Is it the kind of game that parents cannot do at home and save themselves 2500 Yen a week? This game would be taking up too much lesson time and not really be getting kids into English. The English teaching community is crying out for fun games that incorporate and extend English learning. Where kids ask and answer questions with full sentences and understand why they are asking the questions.
Richard do we have a “snakes and ladders” type of Halloween game?
My 3rd grade students love to play this game.
maybe one for Happy Halloween and another set for Trick or Treat.
I can use the Happy Halloween to my 3rd grade students and the Trick or Treat for 4th or 5th graders.
I use this game interactively, that is why they love it because of the challenge that I set for playing snakes and ladders.
Hi Martin & Walt,
This is a “counting” or “scoring” game, you do whatever English you are currently doing which can be as simple as asking & answering a question in English, or an exercise from the textbook or presentation, and then the “winner” gets to play a round of the game. It’s just a more fun alternative to simply writing a score on the board and the English can be whatever are studying.
For more super in depth, specific language games have a look at the main Lesson Plans Book.
Hi Sakura,
No we don’t have a Halloween snakes & ladders. Let me see what I can do!
Here’s a variation, which I call House Monster. It can be played in teams or individually. The only special thing you need is a 10-sided die, as you can build faster than a 6-sided one (my personal preference).
Do your vocab or sentence pattern. Teams or individual students Rock-Scissors-Paper each other and I have the winner come up and draw the house himself.
So, if they roll a 7, they draw a house using 7 strokes. Any shape is ok! The teacher is the House Monster (tell them you are the monster and you are going to eat their house!) You roll the die and remove that many strokes from their house. If the House Monster’s roll is higher than the current number of strokes in a team’s house, that’s ok, just erase (eat!) the whole house.
When it’s that team’s turn again, they can add strokes to whatever was remaining of their house after the House Monster’s attack. If they are lucky, they can make an elaborate house or add a yard, trees, etc. If they are unlucky with their die rolls and the Monster is lucky, they will just have little bits of houses.
After a few rounds they will understand the idea, and then the House Monster will become the student/team who loses at RSP! After that, it’s completely their game and all you have to do is monitor their English from a distance!
I’ve played this game with second-graders as well as high-school students and they all really, really got into it!
hi teachers
i hope any one read my games leave a comment
coz i still have lots of ideas im going to send them to genkienglish
hope to hear from u soon
mido