Well, I tried to come up with a different approach to that. I thought it would be interesting if you took that usual guessing game format, but changed it up a bit. What if, for instance, the students couldn’t talk? That sounds kind of weird since most of their parents want them to study English so they can speak it. Well, perhaps it is my way of sticking it to ‘em.
How It Works
Anyway, that’s how I developed Guess the Animal, and here’s how it works.
- Students are allowed to pick up one piece of paper from the floor one at a time. They come up to the front of the room, and they have to make the other students guess what their animal is.
- The catch is they can’t talk, but if they really want to they can. You see, every team starts off a new round with 5 points. If they say one word, they lose one point. If they say three words, they lose three points. So sometimes it’s worth it to say a word so that your team can better guess. After all, three points is better than zero points.
- And of course, if you can make your team guess without talking at all, you get five points. I have fun and take a point off if the student says ‘no’ in regard to a question asked of them.
- A lot of the students are afraid to act out the animal. I allow them to make the animal’s noises, but they just can’t say anything, that is if they want to keep all of their points.
Easy to Make
Lots of students really get into it, and it’s quite an easy game to make. If you don’t want to pay for a copy from my website, I would highly encourage you to go and find some common animal pictures, like elephant, cow, or monkey, and put them into some type of Word or Excel document. I have mine nicely formatted, and I think that’s worth the time you’ll save in doing that and tracking down all the pictures. Still, doing it yourself surely has its benefits.
Either way, I really think you should try this game with your next class, regardless of their level. I’ve done it with very low level students and vey high level students, and they all love it.