Home - Where to start - Sales tips for teachers - Quiz - Useful links - Post suggestions

tiy logo How to make learning fun
with Games...

A good game is interactive
A good game is exciting
A good game is moving


'Draw a Story'
(Subjects: Literature, Foreign languages)
     
  Take one piece of paper. You and the student will write a story together, without looking at what the other has written. The student writes down the name of a man. He then folds the paper to cover his answer and passes it to you. You write down a verb and a female name. You fold the paper over your answer and pass it back to the student. The student then writes down a place and folds over the paper. You then write a sentence beginning with 'he said'. You fold the paper then he writes a sentence beginning with 'she said'. You finish by writing a sentence beginning with 'and so'.
Following this example, you might end up with something like this:

Peter Pan met Britney Spears on Mars. He said, "do you like cookies?". She said, "I like to play Space Invaders", and so they went to see a wrestling match.

You can involve many people in this game and can make it as long or as short as you wish. The game helps build vocabulary and understanding of sentence order. 		 
 
 


'Interview'
(Subject: History)
     
  A roleplaying game. You pretend to be a famous historical figure. The student must 'interview' you, ask you yes-or-no answer questions to which you must reply truthfully, still pretending to be the historical figure. The student must guess who you are pretending to be.  
 
 


'Alien Landing!'
(Subject: Biology)
     
  You, the teacher, are an alien who has just landed on Earth with your crew. You point to something on Earth (the topic of your lesson) and ask the student to tell you about it, how it works, what's special about it. You can have fun saying what you imagine an alien might ask an earthling. It also emphasises to the student just how fundamental a subject like biology is.  
 
 


'CNN Reporter'
(Subject: Geography)
     
  The student pretends to be a journalist. They have to write a journalistic report on something they're seeing, something that's happening, what might happen as a result - i.e. the topic of your lesson.
If you have a camcorder you can make it like a real TV report - great fun! 		 
 
 


'Hired or Fired?'
(Subject: Maths)
     
  Taking the mathematical concept that you want to teach during this lesson - pick a profession that might be brought to use this concept.
Examples:
  • A farmer using geometry to calculate the size of a field
  • An astronaut measuring distance in space
  • A teacher calculating grade averages
  • A businessperson calculating cost and expenditure
  • Or make up your own!
Your student has to demonstrate that she can use the maths concept to solve the problem. If she does, she'll be 'hired'! If she doesn't, she'll be 'fired'! 		 
 
 


'The Colour Game'
(Subject: Literature)
     
  This game is good for vocabulary and introducing poetry and literary devices (onomatopeia, metaphors,similes..)
  • Get the student to choose a colour.
  • Ask them to write down all the words they associate with that colour, (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs AND prepositions)
  • Ask them to write a short descriptive story using all of these words.
The results are often amazing and really show the power of words and how important it is in poetry to use just the right word. 		 
 
 


'Mad Scientist'
(Subject: Physics)
     
  Your student pretends to be a mad scientist, with a plan to take over the world.
But first, they need to build something that makes use of the topic of the lesson.
The student must tell you how they plan to build it and what part it will play in their masterplan. 		 
 
 


'Catch me if you can!'
(Subject: Foreign Languages)
     
  A kind of 'Simon Says' meets 'Tag', in a foreign language.
You and your student stand ten feet apart. You will take turns giving each other an order (in the foreign language) to do something. Everytime the student executes the order correctly they move one step towards you, everytime they give you a correctly worded order, they move one step towards you.
Everytime the students gets the order or the execution wrong, you move one step back.
If they catch up with you - they win! 		 
 
 

Home - Where to start - Sales tips for teachers - Quiz - Useful links - Post suggestions