Maria has just sent in this fantastic twist on the traditional Pass the Parcel game. ย I think you might like it ย – I know I used to do when I was at school! ๐
The Preparation:
1. Prepare a parcel by wrapping a small toy in wrapping paper (or newspaper!)
2. Then put a laminated minicard or question card (see below) on the parcel and add another layer of wrapping.
3. Keep adding question/minicardsย and wrapping till the present gets really big, at least 8 layers. (Which is just enough for one theme!)
The Game
1. Put the kids in a circle.
2. The children sing a Christmassy song (“How many days till Christmas?” anyone?) whilst passing the parcel around the circle.
3. When you stop the music the child holding the parcel gets to carefully rip off one (just one!) layer of wrapping paper.
4. ย If they can answer what is on the minicard or question card they get a point for their team.
5. Repeat from step 2 until one child unwraps the final wrapping and wins the toy!
6. ย Team with the most points at the end!
Pretty cool, eh, a traditional game and lots of English practice.
As I say ย I used to love this at Christmas time when I was at school.
And for your higher level groups Maria has written out a really nice set of questions you could add into the layers of the parcel:
e.g.
Name 5 animals
What color is a hippo?
Name 3 things you can eat/drink!
Name 4 fruits/vegetables!
Name 5 toys/school things/colors!
Name 3 rooms in the house!
How are you?
How old are you?
What time is it?
What day is today?
When is your birthday?
What`s your favourite movie/book/computergame/TV show/comic?
What`s your mobile phone number?
Count to 100 in tens!
Count from 10 to 1
Sing an English song!
Say an English poem!
Say a crazy sentence!
Bend your knees 5 times!
Say a tongue twister (boy-girl-boy-girlโฆ)
Thank you Maria!
And do let us know if you like it in the comments!
Merry Christmas!
P.S. ย With being in the studio this week I am very behind on emails! ย Urgent ones I’ll try and get to ASAP, but the others will be after the holidays, hope that’s OK!
Hi Richard!
Thank you and Maria for the very well thought ESL version of the traditional party game.
I’d like to suggest adding a candy or a sticker together with a wrapped minicard, so that everyone, who will unwrap the parsel, will be satisfied with the game (on Christmas day at least :))
Looks cool. Would love to do it, but I don’t have the resources at this point to put it together this year. Great idea for next year! Yay!
Hi all
Great idea. I remember playing this game too and totally forgot it!!. Tks a lot!
Alex