5 quick games for vocabulary revision for current unit

Purpose: vocabulary revision for CURRENT UNIT

To see vocabulary revision for MORE THAN one unit, please click HERE

Any level but for some games students need to have practised techniques for categorising words (this is a verb, an adjective, this is a past simple...)

Timing: about 10 minutes

No material needed

A) Word telepathy

Have a volunteer sit at the front of the class with his/her back at the board. Write a word from the unit on the blackboard. The class must help the volunteer to identify the word. E.g. The word shoe. Student might say something similar to: you wear this on you feet, A boot/trainer is one type, you can buy this in Camper shop.

B) Sentence telepathy

The same as before but with a sentence. Review these basic categories before you do it: determinate/indeterminate article (a/an/some/the) as they need to use grammatical terms to help the volunteer. E.g. Maria is wearing a t-shirt (A girl in the class with short hair + verb to be + verb to have clothes on you body in the gerund+ indeterminate article+ Jordi Carlos is wearing this today).C)

C) Lip reading

Tell the student the category of the word (words related to hair, sport...). Ask the students to read your lips and say aloud the words you are saying.

D) Today’s question

The question is on board when students arrive. Best questions use current lesson grammar and vocabulary. If the question is about a grammar point you may allow the students to tell you the answer in their native language. Give the student who answer the question properly some reward (a positive point). E.g. Why are these sentence wrong?: * I wearing a jacket, * It rains now, *My fathers aren`t like Coke.

E) Stepping stones

Tell the students the vocabulary class of the exercise. E.g. FEAR. The first two rows of students are team A, next two B, next two C (or A and B if you have less students)

Draw this on the board:

TEAM A) o o o o

TEAM B) o o o o

Students need to cross a dangerous river stepping on the stones:the os.

Imagine the word to guess is SPIDER

The teacher writes S on the blackboard. Team A says one word from the lesson ( e.g. spider), if the word is spider the teacher checks meaning and puts an X on the stone .If it is not team A does not win the first stone. The teacher writes the next letter of the word SC. Team B says e.g. scare. If this correct the teacher checks meaning before giving the X. If the word is not scare the teacher writes next letter SCA etc. The word in this example is scar. The first team step on all the stones, wins.

F) Crazy eraser

To end the class on a high note and avoid misbehaviour, rub the board with the duster/eraser chopping of parts of the words. Students need to reconstruct what was written.

Source: MacMillan teacher training (Barcelona 2006?) Dave Spencer workshop: how to teach English in ESO without loosing your sanity.