How do you say … in English? is one of the most important phrases you can teach your kids. It’s so useful. But I’ve been having a hard time figuring out a good, fast and fun game to go with it.

The idea I originally had was to put the kids in groups, and get them to ask other groups in turn “How do you say + a word + in English”, e.g. How do you say poisson in English? The answer being “fish” ( if you happen to be teaching in France.) If the other team answer correctly then both teams get a point. But this very quickly becomes very boring! Plus if the other team doesn’t know a really simple word it gets the other team really annoyed. I also tried it the other way round where the asking team gets a point if the other team doesn’t know the answer. But then they start coming up with super hard words, which is fun at first but the novelty quickly wears off.

So the only way I’ve figured out that actually has some skill needed is to involve the teacher. i.e.

1. Put the kids in groups.
2. One group asks the teacher “How do you say … in English?”
3. If you know, you answer & that group gets a point.
4. Also write the word on the board so you have a record of what’s been asked.
5. Continue from step 2 with the next team.

Although being a little too teacher centered for my liking, this does actually work. If you only speak a little of the kids’ language it really makes them think about what words you might know, which is a very important communication skill. If you speak really well the kids are always impressed when you answer a tough one, and that’s a big motivator for them. The key is to keep the questions coming thick & fast, and because they can’t repeat the same question twice the kids enjoy the challenge of coming up with new words ( you can also set a time limit of say 10 seconds for them to come up with a new word).

Of course the actual vocab will only be spoken in English by the teacher, but the main aim is to get the kids to ask the phrase “How do you say … in English?” as many times as possible and in that aim it succeeds handsomely. I’m sure there must be a better way of doing this, but for the moment it’s a great end of year review and is especially good for older grades!