Fun and games in MFL

J. LeeGrosvenor Grammar School

• To reinforce vocabulary, grammar or language functions

• To engage pupils of all abilities

• To encourage collaboration / pairwork/ groupwork

• To assess progress/ understanding in a discreet manner

• ... To have fun !!!!

Why use games?

• Games should always have a purpose

• Consider the class itself and the time of day

• Always give clear instructions – ask another pupil to repeat them back to you / write on the board (consider pupils with SEN who may need extra help)

• Leave time to do a calming activity afterwards – their next teacher will thank you for it!

• Beware - what works well with one class, may not work with another.

A few points to consider

GROUP WORK

• Happy Families cards (available online in French, Spanish and German – or make your own!)

• Football teams – have tables already set up

• Starburst (or any other coloured sweets) or coloured balls to pull from a jar.

• Line up in order of birthday for example using only the TL then split into groups.

Some ideas for splitting classes into groups ...

• Have a range of purposes and associated activities.

• Need clear, consistent images and text.

• Fastest finger first.

• Memory games.

• For A5 size flashcards, you can do ordering activities / sums / practise word order, etc.

Mini flashcards

• Can be bought cheaply or made using laminated white card.

• Pictionary

• Word recognition or TL production

• Think, pair, share activities

• Group tasks – correct each others’ mistakes.

Mini whiteboards

• Sometimes known as collective memory. You need a clear photo/ image or a simple text.

• Split class into groups. Within groups, pupils should number themselves.

• Pupils take it in turns to spend a set amount of time studying the image/ document and they must reproduce this text / image in the TL in their groups.

• Works particularly well with the topic of physical appearance, description of a house/ bedroom and at A Level, topics with lots of statistics.

Map from memory

• Works brilliantly with grammar such as the present tense.

• Every year group loves this game.

• Have a range of verbs in TL or MT on small pieces of paper.

• Unlike map from memory, the team must appoint a “runner”. Only the runner is allowed to come up to the teacher’s desk. They take one piece of paper, return to their group and they answer on the piece of paper. The runner returns to the teacher to have their answer marked. It must be correct before they may take another piece of paper. The group with the most correct answers wins.

Victoria’s Game

WHOLE CLASS ACTIVITIES

• You need two whiteboards, one at each end of the room.

• Split the class into two teams and number each person within that team.

• Whiteboard markers are in the middle of the room.

• Teacher calls out word/ phrase and a number. The person who corresponds to that number runs to the middle, grabs the marker and runs to their designated board to write the answer. First to answer correctly wins.

Board relay

• Quite similar to Board Relay as class is split into 2 teams.

• Teacher whispers a phrase into ear of pupils at top of each line and they must send this message along the line for the last person to write on the whiteboard.

• Last person then comes to the top of the line.

Chinese Whispers

• Particularly good for grammar. You need 1 card per pupil.

• Class stands in a circle, each pupil has a card. When music starts, they pass cards round in clockwise direction. They must always look at the cards they are passing round. When music stops, teacher shouts out a verb and first pupil to answer correctly wins a point. They win 2 points if they did not have the card for that verb in their hand but only 1 point if they did.

• * Alternative is to have pieces of paper in an envelope, envelope is passed around the class, when music stops, person takes a piece of paper from the envelope and has to create a sentence using that vocabulary.

Pass the Parcel

• Have a range of pictures relating to a set of vocabulary on the board. Maximum 12 pictures.

• Teacher points to a picture and says word in TL. If the word is correct the class repeat. If the word is not correct they stay silent.

• Teacher wins a point if the class speak when they shouldn’t but class wins a point if the teacher doesn’t manage to trick them.

• Probably one of their favourite games especially in junior school – they love trying to beat the teacher!

Simon Says

• Buy cheap fluffy dusters or fly swats.

• Have a range of images relating to vocabulary studied on the board.

• Class are split into 2 teams (normally girls vs boys in a mixed school)

• One volunteer from each team stands with their back to the board, with a fluffy duster in their hand. Teacher calls out item of vocabulary and first person to turn round and hit the correct picture with their fluffy duster wins a point for their team.

Fluffy Dusters

• Can be used at all levels and for a range of topics. It encourages everyone (even the quietest pupils) to talk and it reinforces vocabulary as pupils are repeating the same information numerous times.

• Number the desks in order using sticky notes. One pupil is the interviewer and stays seated the whole time, the other is being interviewed and moves to the next desk when the bell rings. Teacher can join in if there is an odd number!

• Works well for short answers such as “my name is Peter, I am 11 years old” and longer answers. Set GCSE and A Level students a longer time limit – they must talk to their partner about a set topic for 2 minutes. Pupils can “rate” each other’s performance, just like in speed-dating. A good plenary activity is to discuss as a class who had the best pronunciation, who spoke with confidence, who used all 3 tenses, etc. and it is lovely to see different pupils being mentioned every time.

Speed-dating

• Memory game based on having a set of vocabulary / images displayed on the board to memorise before the teacher removes one.

• Class must guess which image / word has been taken away.

• Progression – to take more than 1 image away at a time. Classes love to see how many they can memorise

Kim’s Game

• Practises adjectival agreement with colours

• Distribute small, apple-shaped pieces of coloured card to each member of the class.

• One volunteer “Snow White” leaves the room. The teacher “poisons” one of the apples. Snow White enters the room and must “eat” as many apple as they can (eating = saying the colour of the apple e.g. C’est la pomme rouge) before discovering the poisoned apple. First form love it!

The poisoned apple

• Practises a large set of previously learned vocabulary. Works well as a lesson starter.

• Pupils stand up and each person must say one piece of vocabulary related to that topic without hesitating or pausing before passing on to the next person. You are not allowed to repeat what has been said before. If you pause or repeat vocabulary you are out.

• Variation of this game is DOCE/ DOUZE which practises the numbers 1-12. Pupils count, saying 1, 2 or 2 numbers in succession before passing on to the next person. You do not want to be the person who says “12” or you are out.

Mustn’t pause

RAID THE TOY SHOP!

• Can be bought online or in Hawkin’s Bazaar. Costs approx £20.

• It encourages pupils to answer at lightning speed for fear the bomb will “explode” in their hands.

• If it does, pupil must do a forfeit such as say the numbers 1-10 backwards in TL or sing a song in the TL.

Pass the Bomb

• Headbandz can be bought in all good toy shops or you could make your own version.

• We have covered up the English on the cards with TL.

• Encourages use of questions in TL. Could be adapted for a certain topic.

• Alternatively you could use sticky labels – works well as “Who am I?” for GCSE Personal Relationships topic.

Headbandz

• An excellent investment.

• Teacher calls out word or phrase in MT or TL and pupils must spell out correctly on their magnetic board using the letters.

• Award 3 points to 1st group with correct answer, 2 to 2nd and 1 to the 3rd.

• Forfeits for groups who drop letters!

Magnetic Letters

• Templates available on many MFL teaching resources websites to make your own personalised version.

• Dice can be bought cheaply online.

• Put a picture or a word / grammar point in each square not covered by a snake or ladder.

• Pupils can only move to the square if the rest of their team feels their answer was correct (encourages peer assessment)

Snakes and Ladders

• Cheapest Guess Who sets are travel versions – Sainsbury’s 2 for £5!

• Great for the topic of physical appearance.

• Forfeit if MT is heard!

• Can work in small groups and take it in turns to ask questions.

Guess Who

Find a big blanket or sheet and sew coloured patches/ square on at intervals.

Each patch or square represents a topic or a grammar point/ tense.

E.g. KS3 – red = days, blue= months, yellow = numbersKS4 or 5 – each colour represents a different tense.

Spread the sheet over tables and each pupil has a small item that acts as their counter.

Teacher calls out vocabulary and pupils must place their counter on the correct

coloured patch. Maximum 3 counters per patch. With a small class (such as A Level) it could be more like

Twister where pupils jump ontothe correct square.

Rhoda

GENERAL VOCAB/

GRAMMAR ACTIVITIES

• All age groups love this game and it really makes them think about the range and variety of vocabulary they know.

• The simplified version is to choose 5 categories for e.g. animal / colour / school subject / country / food and teacher says the alphabet silently to him/herself. One pupil says “stop the bus” in the TL and whichever letter the teacher stops on is the letter they must work with. The class have a set time limit to come up with one word in the TL that begins with that letter and is associated with that category. You win double points if your group has a unique word but only 1 point if another group has the same suggestion.

• The categories can become harder the older the pupils are and can be topic specific at A-Level.

Stop the Bus

• A variation on normal bingo.

• Each pupil has a strip of paper, split into a set number of boxes. 7 boxes usually works best.

• Pupils write one number or piece of vocabulary into each box.

• The difference is that they do not cross out the vocab as they hear it. Instead they can only rip off that box if it is at either end of their piece of paper. Person with no pieces of paper left wins.

Strip Bingo

IWB AND WEB-BASED TOOLS

• A tool on the ActivStudio software on the interactive whiteboard.

• You can highlight pictures or vocabulary for pupils to identify.

Spotlight tool

• Linguascope is a subscription-based website (most schools have a yearly subscription) which offers a range of ready-made games and activities for French, Spanish, German, Italian and English. It also offers pre-prepared worksheets.

• There is a teacher’s section where teachers can create their own version of games such as interactive snakes and ladders, tile tap, etc.

Linguascope

• Available on www.classtools.net

• Names, numbers, phrases in the TL, questions, etc. can all be inputted into the “random name generator.”

• The fruit machine selects information at random. Great for keeping pupils on their toes!

Fruit machine

• Available at www.sandfields.co.uk/games/ along with other games such as Countdown, Darts, Who Wants To be a Millionaire, The Weakest Link and Blockbusters.

• Templates available to download and adapt as necessary.

• Great for encouraging competition with an element of luck! Create your own clues for a range of topics.

• Website also has a very good clock for teaching and revising the time in the TL called “clickclock2”

Wheel of Fortune

• Template available online but can easily be made on PowerPoint.

• Create questions that require a range of possible answers e.g. Which foods are most popular at breakfast time in the UK?

• Groups have to guess the “top 5 answers” each time in the TL.

Family Fortunes

• A fabulous interactive quizzing system but unfortunately, available in very few schools in N. Ireland.

• Teachers create their own quizzes using special software and pupils send their answers to the computer using an individual handset. The system monitors who answered quickest, who got it right and wrong and keeps a tally of the overall score.

• A great tool if you are lucky enough to be able to use it!

Qwizdom

• Available at www.atantot.com in French, Spanish, German and Italian. It is a subscription website ...

• Ready made games, starters and plenaries in a range of topics. • Games such as fling the teacher, penalty shootout, jigword, hangman, word attack.

Fling the teacher

• www.atantot.com• www.classtools.net• www.sandfields.co.uk/games• www.linguascope.com• www.languagesresources.co.uk• www.sunderlandschools.org/mfl-sunderland/resources.htm• www.asisehace.net (Spanish only)• TES website – www.tes.co.uk

Where to find ready-made games