GAMES IN PRIMARY ENGLISH

BY PLCIDO BAZO AND MARCOS PEATE placido@bazoypenate.com marcos@bazoypenate.com

The human being is a social animal and the chief mechanism for maintaining this society is language. Some sophisticated methods for teaching English to Primary have failed to accomplish the goal of communicativity in the learner by overlooking the social nature of language. We tend to recognize the importance of the linguistic system and overlook the social aspect of language learning. In Primary it is essential that we develop empathy. It means that you understand your own feelings and other peoples feelings. It is probably the major factor in the harmonious coexistence of individuals in society. Empathy is not synonymous with sympathy. Empathy implies more possibilities of detachment: it is the projection of ones own personality into the personality of another in order to understand him or her better. Motivation is also another key factor in Primary English teaching. It is thought as the inner drive, impulse emotion or desire that moves one to a particular action. It is a stimulus which can, like self-esteem, be global, situational or taskoriented. Learning a foreign language clearly requires some of all three levels of motivation. Why play games? Teaching is a serious business and games are something you do for fun. This is exactly why you should play games with your students. They will make your classes fun and you will contribute to the development of empathy. They also help with motivation. If the students are having fun they will find learning English interesting. If children find what they are studying interesting they will absorb much more and retain much more than they will if they are only studying because they have to. Children are full of energy and like to be active. So why not use all that energy to a constructive purpose - the purpose of learning English. That is why we say, without hesitation, that games are a very important instrument for the teaching of English in Primary. GAMES FOR THE FIRST AND SECOND CYCLES Flashcards are an important element in the teaching process. We use them to clarify meaning and to introduce or reinforce vocabulary. Vocabulary is very important for the first (ages 6-8) and second cycles (8-10) that is why we propose here several games with flashcards for these cycles. FLASHCARDS GAMES FOR THE FIRST CYCLE Bit by bit. Cover a flashcard and hold it up. Gradually uncover the picture until the pupils can guess the correct word. Find the flashcards. Take three sets of flashcards and place them at the front of the class where everyone can see. Give the class a topic, e.g. food. Encourage the children to identify the corresponding flashcards. Flash the flashcard Hold up a flashcard but only show it very quickly to the class. Ask Whats this? Do the same with the rest of the set. Freeze. Say a word and then show a set of flashcards one at a time. The children say Freeze! when they see the flashcard that matches the word you said. Explain that Freeze means Stand still as well as its literal meaning. Guess the clothes flashcard. Ask the children to point to an item of clothing. Choose one of the clothes flashcards and hold it up so that the class cant see it. They have to try and guess what is on the flashcard and either pick up that item (e.g. a jacket) or touch it (e.g. trousers). Turn the flashcard over and ask a pupil to name it, e.g. Its a (T-shirt). The winners are any pupils pointing to a (T-shirt). Kims game. Put four flashcards from one lexical set on the board. Give the pupils one minute to look at them. Then take the flashcards down. Ask the class to name them. Miming. Take a set of flashcards and ask a child to come out to the board. Ask him / her to choose one and to mime what is on the card. The rest of the class have one guess per pupil to guess which card it is. The person who guesses comes out to the board and does the next mime.

Move around. Display a set of flashcards around the room. Name one or more pupils and then name an object. The children have to go and touch the corresponding flashcard and then sit down again. Name the flashcards. Put a set of six flashcards face up on the board. Ask the class to name them. Turn one flashcard face down. Again ask the class to say the six words. Continue until the pupils are naming the six items without seeing any pictures at all. Numbered flashcards. Put a set of flashcards face up on the board. Ask the class to name them. Write the numbers 16 above them. Ask Whats number one?, etc. Pass the flashcards. Sit the class in a circle. Give several pupils one flashcard each. Play some music. The children pass the flashcards round the circle. Stop the music. The pupils holding the flashcards have to name them. Show me . Give out a set of flashcards to six pupils. Say Show me the (bike). Do the same with all the other objects in the set. Sort them out. Mix two or three sets of flashcards on the board, e.g. food, clothes and parts of the face. Ask two children to come to the board and sort them into category groups. Then ask them to take turns to name them. The rest of the class can help. The odd one out. Take three flashcards from one set and one from a different set. Put them on the board and ask Which is the odd one out? The children answer. What is it? Choose a set of flashcards. Take one card and hold it above your head so that everyone can see it. Name the six items in the set. The children stay quiet until you name the item that you are holding, and then they repeat the word. Whats missing? (1) Put five flashcards from a lexical set on the board. Say the six corresponding vocabulary items. Ask the class which flashcard is missing. Whats missing? (2) Place all six flashcards from a lexical set on the board. Ask the pupils to close their eyes. Take one flashcard away. Ask the class which one you removed. Whats repeated? Put a set of flashcards on the board. Ask Who / Whats this? as you put each one up. Then point to them in random order and name them, repeating one. The children have to say which you repeated. Say e.g. watch, paints, skateboard, computer game, FLASHCARD GAMES FOR THE SECOND CYCLE (AGE 8-10) Flashcards and colours. Choose a set of flashcards. Put them face up in the coloured pockets of the Flashcard poster. Ask the class to name them. Say e.g. Green? or ask Whats in the green pocket? Do it! Choose a lexical set, e.g. furniture. Divide the class into eight groups and name each one, e.g. Fridges, etc. Give them the corresponding flashcard. In random order, name a group and give an instruction Fridges! Play the piano / ride a bike / dance! etc. The pupils in the group have to mime the action. Drawing game. Choose one or more lexical sets. Shuffle the flashcards together. Invite a pupil to come to the front and choose one without the rest of the class seeing it. He / She starts to draw the object, animal or action on the board. The other pupils put their hands up and guess what the drawing is. Once a pupil has guessed correctly, show the class the flashcard. The winning pupil chooses another flashcard. First letters. Choose a set of flashcards, e.g. wild animals. Display the Flashcard poster where everyone can see it and place a flashcard face up in each pocket. Write the first letter of each of the words in a column down the left-hand side of the board, e.g. l m z t e s g c. Then write the rest of the words together but in random order on the board, e.g. iger, ion, nake, iraffe, onkey, ebra, rocodile, lephant. Bring different children out to the board to complete a word each and show the corresponding flashcard to the class. Kims game. Put four flashcards from one lexical set on the board and four from another set, choosing either all action verbs or all nouns, but not mixing them. Give the pupils one minute to look at them. Then take the flashcards down. Ask the class to name them. Look at my mouth! Choose a set of flashcards. Put up the Flashcard poster where everyone can see it. Put a flashcard face up in each pocket. Choose one of the words and say the word silently using exaggerated lip movements. Repeat it several times. The pupils have to say the word. Match the words. Choose two lexical sets of flashcards and wordcards. Divide the board in half. Stick one set of flashcards in a vertical row in the left hand side of the board. Stick the corresponding wordcards around them. Stick the other set of flashcards in a vertical row down the right hand side of the board with the corresponding wordcards around them. Divide the class into two teams of eight and assign one half of the board to each. The two teams stand in a line. Give the first member of each team a piece of chalk or a board pen. Say Ready, steady, go! They walk

quickly to the board and match a flashcard to a wordcard by drawing a line between them. Then they give the chalk or pen to the next pupil in the team. The first team to finish and match all the words correctly is the winner. Miming. Take a set of flashcards that show actions, e.g. Family and friends. Ask a child to come out to the board. Ask him / her to choose a flashcard and to mime what is on the card. The rest of the class have one guess per pupil to guess which card it is. The person who guesses comes out to the board and does the next mime. Move around. Display a set of flashcards around the room. Name one or more pupils and then name an object. The children have to go and touch the corresponding flashcard and then sit down again. Name the flashcards. Display the flashcard poster where everyone can see it. Put a set of eight flashcards face up in the pockets. Ask the class to name them. Turn one flashcard face down. Again ask the class to say the eight words. Continue until the pupils are naming the eight items without seeing any pictures at all. Optional: To make the activity more difficult, use four words each from two sets of flashcards. Pass the flashcards. Give eight pupils a flashcard each from a set. Play some lively music. Sitting at their desks, the children pass the flashcards along the rows and back until they reach the back of the class. When a flashcard reaches the last pupil, he / she gets up and bring it to the first child in the line. Stop the music at regular intervals. The pupils holding the flashcards have to name them. Pronunciation focus. Take a set of flashcards, e.g. wild animals. Display the Flashcard poster where everyone can see it and place a flashcard face up in each pocket. Say the initial sound of one of the words, e.g. the s of snake. Ask a child out to the board to point to the corresponding flashcard. Write the first letter on the board. Ask the class to say the word. Ask a child to write the word on the board. Show me . Give out a set of flashcards to eight pupils. Say Show me the (elephant). Do the same with all the other objects in the set. Sort them out. Mix three or four sets of flashcards and stick them on the board, e.g. furniture, food and wild animals. Ask three or four children to come to the board and sort them into category groups. Then ask them to take turns to name them. The rest of the class can help. Ticks and crosses. Choose three sets of flashcards. Take three flashcards from each set and stick them face down on the board. Number them 19. Draw a large 3 x 3 grid on the board. Divide the class into two teams and name them Ticks and Crosses. The Ticks begin. One of the pupils chooses a number from 19. Turn over the corresponding flashcard. He / She has to name the item correctly, e.g. library / Hes crying. If the answer is correct, the pupil chooses a square in the grid and draws a tick. If the answer is not correct, the other team can answer. Then it is the Crosses turn. The aim is to be the first team to draw three ticks or crosses in the grid in a vertical, horizontal or diagonal row. What is it? Choose a set of flashcards. Take one card and hold it above your head so that everyone can see it. Name the eight items in the set. The children stay quiet until you name the item that you are holding, and then they repeat the word. Whats missing? (1) Put the flashcards from a lexical set on the board. Say seven of the corresponding vocabulary items. Ask the class which word is missing. Whats missing? (2) Display the Flashcard poster where everyone can see it. Place all eight flashcards from a lexical set face up in the pockets. Ask the pupils to close their eyes or to put their heads down on the desk. Take one flashcard away. Ask the class which one you removed. Whats repeated? Put a set of flashcards face up in the Flashcard poster. Ask Whats this? / Whats he / she doing? as you put each one up. Then point to them in random order and name them, repeating one. The children have to say which you repeated. Say e.g. Shes drinking, Hes eating, Hes reading, Hes crying, Shes talking, Hes sleeping, Hes reading, Shes walking, Shes writing. The children then say Hes reading. Write the word. Choose one or more lexical sets. Shuffle the flashcards. Divide the class into two teams and draw a line down the middle of the board. Assign one half of the board to each team. Give a piece of chalk or a board pen to the first pupil in each team. Show these pupils a flashcard. They have to write the word correctly in their half of the board. Pupils get one point for finishing the word first and one point for spelling the word correctly. Repeat with different pupils and different flashcards. The team with the most points at the end of the game is the winner. Yes or no. Choose a lexical set, e.g. furniture. Hold a flashcard above your head so that you cannot see it. Name the different items in the set, e.g. sink, fridge, cupboard, etc. The pupils say No until you say the correct one. Then they say Yes. Repeat with all the flashcards. GAMES FOR THE THIRD CYCLE The third cycle (ages 10-12) concentrates on the 3 levels: the word, the sentence and the discourse level. That is why for this cycle we propose different games to attend these elements.

WORD GAMES Pictionary. Prepare eight small pieces of paper and write one of the eight new words from the unit on each one. Fold each piece of paper in half. Divide the lower part of the board into eight boxes. Get a volunteer to choose a piece of paper; they read it, and without saying what it is, they draw the object or activity that the word describes in one of the boxes. If you like, you can set a time limit, for example one minute, in which they have to draw the picture. The rest of the class try to guess what it is, and another volunteer writes the correct word in the box. Whats missing? Prepare in advance eight cards of A4 size with one of the new words from the unit or a picture representing it on each one. Stick the cards on the board. Tell the pupils to close their eyes saying Close your eyes! One, two, three, four, five and, while you are counting, take one of the cards off the board. Then say Open your eyes again! Whats missing? Mime. Have ready eight word cards with the new words from the unit on them. Pick a volunteer and tell them to choose one at random. Tell them to look at it and to mime what is on it. Ask the rest of the class Whats that? They try to guess what it is. ABC game. Write the alphabet on the board ask the class to help you. When you have finished, ask all the pupils to write down English words that begin with the different letters of the alphabet. Suggest that they use their books to look up words. Examples: an artist, a bookshop, a car, a doctor, an elephant, a firefighter, gardens, a hospital, an ice-cream, a jacket, a kite, a lamp, a museum, a nurse, an orange, a picnic area, a queen, a restaurant, a stadium, traffic lights, an umbrella, vultures, a watch, X (they have not seen any words starting with this letter), a yoghurt, a zoo. Think fast. This game involves saying as many words as possible from one lexical set within a time limit (e.g. 1 minute). For this, you need a pupil to be the timekeeper. Choose a volunteer to say words from a particular lexical set in front of the class. If they repeat a word, they are out. Repeat with other pupils. The class counts the number of words aloud that each pupil says. The winner is the pupil who says the most words in the time allowed. Run and write. Draw two circles using up the whole board (A and B). Make two groups of seven pupils and line them up at the back of the classroom. Ask them to number themselves 17. Say a word from the unit vocabulary set and name a pupil to write it on the board. For example, Go snorkelling, pupil number four. Pupil number four from each group runs to the board to write the word down. The first one to write it correctly can leave the word written in their circle, but the one who loses has to rub out their word. Play several times. The group with the most words in their circle at the end are the winners. Word-completion. Write just a couple of letters from a word from the unit showing the missing letters with dashes. Ask the class to try and guess which word it is and to write it correctly. The odd one out. Put five word cards on the board, four from the same lexical set and one from a different set. Ask a volunteer to find the one that doesnt belong to the same lexical set as the rest. Lucky you! For this game you need a plastic bag for each group. Put the pupils into groups of three. Ask them to put any eight word cards, that you need to have prepared earlier, into their bag. Then they each choose a lexical set. The first pupil puts their hand in and takes out a card. If it belongs to their lexical set and they pronounce it properly, they keep the card and have another turn. If the card belongs to another lexical set or they dont pronounce the word properly, they put it back in the bag and the next pupil has a turn. The one with most cards at the end is the winner. Do you remember? The pupils play in pairs. Each pupil takes ten cards belonging to different lexical sets. The first pupil puts their ten cards on their desk and lets their partner look at them for two minutes. When the time is up, the first pupil picks up the cards. Their partner has to remember the ten words. Each time they remember one correctly, the first pupil puts the card on the desk. If the other pupil says a word that wasnt there, they get a negative point. The winner is the one who gets most cards right and with the fewest negative points. Hangman. Choose one of the words from the unit and draw a dash for each of the letters. Ask the pupils to say letters that they think are in the word. If they are right, write the letters in the correct place and if not, begin drawing the gallows and the stick man, adding a new part to the drawing each time they guess a letter which is not in the word. The pupils have to complete the word before you finish the picture. Spelling puzzle. Write jumbled words on the board. The pupils have to work out the words. The first pupil to guess a word puts up their hand, comes to the board and writes it correctly. Association game. Ask the pupils to make a big circle in the classroom and then say a word, e.g. Australia. Choose a pupil to say a related word, e.g. go snorkelling. The person next to them has to think of another related word, and so on. When they can no longer think of related words, start another chain. Past actions bingo. Ask the pupils to tell you verbs in the past tense (was, went, liked, etc). Write them on the board and tell them to make a bingo card with six words from the list. Then play bingo using the list of words on the board.

The TPR word game. For this game you will need to make a card for each pupil, but not all the cards need to have a different word on them. Give out, for example, cards using the eight words from the unit. Then, call out one of the words and an order, e.g. Square come to the blackboard. Bookshop stand up, etc. All the pupils holding these words (bookshop, square,) have to do what you tell them.

SENTENCE GAMES Time for a quiz. Say Lets have a quiz. Divide the class into two groups. Prepare a couple of multiple choice questions (three answers) on the subject you are going to revise, the unit, or everything that you have done so far. Write the words on the board and say that each group has to prepare six questions like this. When they are ready, each group asks their questions to the other group. Check that they are doing it properly, and keep a note of the score on the board. Give them two points for each question they get right first time, and one point for each question they get right on the second go. Mr Right. Write a sentence from the unit on the board with the words closed up e.g. hewantstogosailing. Say This is a job for Mr Right! All right? So, lets write! Tell them to write the sentence correctly adding all the necessary punctuation (capital letters, question mark, apostrophe, etc.). Unjumble. Write a sentence with the words in the wrong order on the board. Then tell the pupils to write the sentence out correctly in their exercise books. My robot. You can play this game in pairs or with all the class. One pupil is the robot and has to do everything that the person controlling them tells them to do, be it their partner or the whole class. For example, You want to go snorkelling, You are strong, etc. Write and draw. Tell the pupils to choose a sentence from the unit and to write it down on a sheet of paper. Then they turn the sheet of paper over and draw a picture to represent what they have written. When they have finished, each pupil shows their picture to the class, and if another pupil can guess the sentence written on the back, they both win a point. The winner is the one with the most points. Find someone who Draw a table on the board with two columns and five or more rows. Write the beginning of the question that you want the pupils to use at the top of the table, e.g. Do you want to ... Then write possible endings for the question in the first column, e.g. go surfing?, go kayaking?, etc. Next, tell the pupils to draw a similar table in their exercise books. When they are ready, they have to interview the other pupils in the class, and when they find someone who answers yes to one of their questions, they write the name of that person in the second column. They have to fill in the second column with a name in each row, but they cannot use the same name more than once. Rolling dictation. Make two lines of five pupils. Give the first pupil in each group a piece of paper with a sentence from the unit on it. The two groups have the same sentence. When you say Ready, steady, go! the first pupil in each group reads and memorizes the sentence. When they have done this, they give you the piece of paper and say the sentence to the second pupil in their team. He or she then tells the third pupil and so on. The last pupil in each group listens and writes the sentence in their exercise book. The group whose sentence is closest to the original are the winners. Whats the question? For this game you need two teams of three players each. Ask them to stand next to the board. The game involves guessing the correct question for the answer that you give them. For example, say A: The ticket office is behind the castle. Give both teams a few seconds to decide what the correct question would be (Where is the ticket office?). Then ask Team A for the question. If its correct, Team A get 2 points and if not, the question is passed over to Team B who get a point if they can say the question correctly. The first team to reach 10 points are the winners. Spot my mistakes. Tell the pupils that they are now the teachers and that they have to correct the two errors in each of the five sentences that you are going to write on the board. Tell them to write them correctly in their exercise books. Crazy answers. Ask each pupil to write a question and corresponding answer on a piece of paper or in their exercise books. When they have finished, ask the pupils to stand up in a circle. Ask a pupil to read their question e.g. What are you going to do? and then ask another pupil to read out the answer from their exercise books, which might be something completely different such as Its opposite the snack bar. In my photo album In this game, the pupils form a word chain which gets longer and longer until its impossible to remember all the words. Start by saying for example In my photo album there is a boy kayaking. The next pupil repeats what you have just said and adds something else, e.g. In my photo album there is a boy kayaking and a castle and so on. Carry on until the chain is broken when no one can think of another word to add.

Spot the silly word. Say several sentences in which there is a word which doesnt make sense with the rest of the sentence e.g. Big Ben is faster than Buckingham Palace. The pupils have to correct you and say Thats wrong! Big Ben is taller than Buckingham Palace. Read, do and guess. The pupils are very familiar with TPR activities in which the teacher gives an instruction and they have to do the relevant action. A variation on this is to write down the instructions on a piece of paper, which a pupil then reads and does the appropriate action. The rest of the class have to guess what the sentence was. Questions and answers. Prepare a sequence of questions and answers in advance (half as many questions as there are pupils in class). Its important that each answer only fits with one question. Write each question and answer separately on small bits of paper so that each child can have a piece of paper. Fold the pieces of paper and put them in the middle of the class, and ask each pupil to take one. If it is an answer, they stand still, but if it is a question, they have to move around the class asking the same question until they find the matching answer. When they find each other, the two pupils sit down in their usual places. The game ends when everyone has found their partner. Simon says Play Simon says... with the actions from any unit. Say, e.g. Simon says climb a mountain. The children have to mime climbing a mountain. If you say an action but you dont start the sentence with Simon says , they have to stay still. Anyone who makes a mistake is out and has to sit down. The last child standing up is the winner. Likes and dislikes game. Ask the pupils to stand up. Start by talking about something that you like e.g. I like (playing tennis). What do you like? The first child answers, then asks the second in line the same question, and sits down. Carry on playing until everyone has spoken and is sitting down again. Writing sentences game. Write eight words on the board. The pupils have to make up sentences using as many words as possible out of the eight you have written. They win a point for each word they include in their sentences. Write, for example, the eight adjectives from Unit 4 on the board (strong, young, old, brave, beautiful, ugly, handsome, intelligent). Next, write on the board as an example to help them: The old man was brave and ugly. Explain to them that this sentence would win three points because it uses three of the eight adjectives. Play the game with these eight words or with different ones.

TEXT GAMES Humming dictation. Choose a text from the unit, or prepare a new one. From this text, select a number of words that the pupils know well and that are easy to guess from the context. Explain to the pupils that you are going to do a dictation, but instead of saying some of the words you are going to hum, and say e.g. The London Eye is (hmmm) than Big Ben. The pupils only have to write down the word that goes where you hum (taller). Dictate the text, going Hmmm in the place of your selected words. Memory game. Tell the pupils to look quickly at the texts in Lesson 7 of each unit. After a while, ask them to shut their books. Read one of the sentences from the texts and ask who or what it is about. For example, Its in north-west Wales (Harlech Castle), Its near the beautiful city of Basov (Bran Castle). Song puzzle. Divide the class into pairs. Make as many photocopies of one of the songs in the book as there are pairs in the class. Then cut up each song into its individual lines and put all the slips of paper in an envelope. Give an envelope to each pair and tell them to try and put the song together in the right order. Play the song as many times as they need it to help them. Spot the wrong words. Write a short text on the board and add a few words that do not go with the rest of the text. For example, Bran Castle is in was Romania. Then tell the pupils to work out which words are unnecessary. Spot the picture. You can play this game with the pictures that accompany the texts in lessons 2, 5 and 7. Read out a sentence and the pupils have to work out in only five seconds which picture you are talking about e.g. for the text in Lesson 2, Unit 1 say She wants to go climbing on Sunday. True or false? Ask the pupils to write a sentence, which can be either true or false, about a text in the unit. Then invite some volunteers to tell the rest of the class their sentence and then ask the pupils Is it true or false? Fill in the gaps. Write one of the listening texts on the board, leaving some gaps. Ask the pupils to decide which words are missing and ask volunteers to write them on the board. Play the recording and check. Writing race. Choose three similar texts from the Class Book. Make three groups of five pupils and ask the members of the group to number themselves 15. Divide the board into three columns. Assign a column and a text to each group. When you say Start, number 1 in each group goes to the board and writes the first sentence or what they can remember of it (they cant take their Class Books to the board). When the first child has written as much of the first sentence as they remember, they go back to their group and number 2 comes out to carry on writing the text. They carry on until they finish writing the texts. Each pupil can only write one sentence and if the rest of the team notice

errors, they have to wait for their turn to go and correct them (again, only correcting one sentence at a time). The first group to write their text correctly are the winners. Running dictation. Choose a text from the unit. Ask the pupils to open their Class Books at the correct page, but to place them around the classroom as far away as possible from their desks. Tell them that they have to write the text in their exercise books. They have to run to the nearest book, read each sentence, remember it and write it correctly until they have written the whole text. Picture dictation. Tell the pupils that you are going to give them a picture dictation but that you are going to give the instructions very quickly. The first person to draw the picture correctly wins. You could read a text something like this: This is a little town. Theres a square in the middle of the town. There are two girls in the square. One of the girls is rollerblading and the other girl is cycling. Next to the square theres a river. A boy is sailing in the river.

STORY GAMES Order! Check that the pupils have their Class Books closed. Write five sentences from the story in the unit on the board, but in a different order to the one in which they appear in the book. Tell them to copy the five sentences into their exercise books, but in the order that they appear in the story. Play the right track from the CD so the pupils can check if they have got it right or not. Whos that? Tell the pupils to look at the story. After a while, ask them to shut their books. Read one of the speech bubbles and ask them whos speaking. Lights, camera, action! Explain to the pupils that films are shot scene by scene and that they are now going to pretend to shoot the story frame by frame. Choose volunteers to shoot the first frame and tell them that they can have the dialogue written in big letters on card as long as its out of camera shot. Do the same with each frame and make a video of the pupils acting. If you cant use real cameras, make pretend ones out of cardboard. Stop! Read the story dialogue frame by frame and change a word for something else that the children will immediately realize clearly doesnt fit. They call out Stop! Thats wrong! Thumbs up or thumbs down? Prepare some sentences about the story, some true and others false. The pupils have to say Thumbs up if it is true or Thumbs down if it is false. Read out a sentence and ask Thumbs up or thumbs down? Comic puzzle. Make a photocopy of the story for each small group of pupils. Cut out the frames and put them in envelopes. Give an envelope to each group and ask them to put them in the correct order. When they finish, play the story on the CD for them to check their order. Who am I? Tell the pupils that you are going to pretend to be one of the characters in the story and they have to guess who you are and what frame you are talking about. Give them clues to find you. For example, Im in a castle and Im coming out of the toilets.

POSTER GAMES Go, point and write! Display one of the posters showing two lexical sets (e.g. Unit 3) somewhere where the children can all see it and divide the top half of the board in two with headings. Say one of the words on the poster and ask a volunteer to come out, point to the word, and write it under the correct heading. Time them from when you say the word to when they finish writing it. Repeat several times. The pupil who takes the least time is the winner. Where is he / she? Display the poster where everyone can see it and say that you are going to describe a person and the pupils have find them on the poster. Say Hes next to / between / behind the ... Ask volunteers to tell you who you are talking about. The first person to guess then gives a description of someone else on the poster for the other pupils in the class to guess. You are the teachers. Tell the pupils that now they are the teachers and you are a pupil. Go up to the poster, point to a picture and say a word. If the word is correct, the pupils say Yes, thats right!, but if its wrong, they say Uh, oh! Thats wrong! and they say the correct word. Draw lines and write. Display a poster on the board. Divide the class into two groups. In turn, each group has to write the word for an object or activity that appears in the poster and draw a line pointing towards where it is. If they write the word correctly, they can continue writing words, but if they spell it incorrectly, it is the other groups turn. The group with the most correct words wins.

Riddle time. Prepare simple riddles beforehand. You can use the descriptions given in the book and adapt them to use with one of the posters. Say the riddle (e.g. Hes got short hair and hes going to visit an oasis. Who is he?) and ask volunteers to come out and point to the person or object on the poster. Poster dictionary. Divide the class into two teams. Display any of the posters where everyone can see it. Ask the teams to make a list of words from the poster. Afterwards, they translate the words into L1. The group with the most complete list are the winners. Stick it! Prepare twenty small pieces of paper and write a word from different units on each one. Put up various posters from the units you have studied already around the class. Put the pupils into groups. Give the first group ten pieces of paper and tell them to stick each one on the correct poster in exactly the right place. Time how long it takes them to do this. Repeat with the second group. The group which stick all their words in the correct places in the least time wins. I spy Play I spy ... with the posters. For example, if you use the Unit 3 poster, you could say I spy with my little eye something beginning with t. When a pupil guesses the word that you had chosen (toilets), they then have a turn. Poster memory game. Display any of the posters where everyone can see it. Then turn it over and ask the children to say what was on the poster. Write what they say on the board. Turn the poster over again and check what they had remembered and what they had forgotten. Hidden countries. Cover the names of the countries on the World poster. Divide the class into two groups and ask each group to name a spokesperson. Say Go to the poster and find Scotland. The spokesperson from each team has to find the country. The first one to do so wins 2 points for their team. Name the country. Divide the class into two teams. Say sentences about one of the countries on the World poster for the pupils to guess which country it is. For example, (Andrei) lives in this country. The first team to guess correctly (Its Romania) gets a point. Repeat several times.