During winter break, I played some games with my niece and nephew. “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Cheese Touch Game” had several parts to it. Here is one set of the original cards.
Here’s a game I’ve adapted for class and I call it “Great Minds (think alike)”. This practices the vocabulary in context and models questions. They loved it so much, they asked to make a set of their own cards for a Real World stamp. They do all the work?? Sure!
Prep work:
* I made a Keynote that had a question and picture on each slide. I used opinion questions like “What is the best/worst/most fun/most boring/fastest/most expensive…?”
* I printed them as 6 slides on a page on card stock. Finally I cut them apart.
Setup:
* I put the students in small groups. Each person has a dry erase board (or paper) to put their answers and keep track of their points.
* I gave them the cards. (For the first time, I only used the “what’s the best…” cards about places they hang out at. Next time I mixed in more.
Play:
* One person turns over a card and reads it to the group.
* He/she writes down his/her answer to the question.
* The other players try to guess what he/she wrote down and write that answer on their board. (This is why it’s called Great Minds Think Alike)
* Then everyone reveals their answers. Each person that matches their answer gets 1 point.
* Now the next person turns over a card, reads it and the game continues until you call time.
After playing, I gave them an exit slip. I asked how many places can you list in Spanish? This was the first day we started the unit. I was pleased that most of them learned 5 new places WITHOUT studying. All this learning and it was fun. Bonus!!
What game gets your students talking in class?
Sounds wonderful, I will give it a try and give you any interesting feedback.
any chance you will be putting this on TPT?
thanks again for sharing all of your great ideas?
I can’t put it there because the pictures are copyrighted. I’ll get it up on the wiki today (It takes me a few extra steps to transfer it to powerpoint). Let me know if you can’t download it.
What’s the wiki address?
http://www.creativelanguageclass.wikispaces.com
It’s up there. Please let me know if you have problems downloading it. Also I only had the one “best” version saved. If you create a new one, will you share it too?
Of course! I enjoy sharing 🙂 I’m not totally sure when I’ll do this, though. For my early in the semester big group game, I’ve decided to do a Decathlon with 10 different events (I’ve even gone so far as to match quicker style games with the sprint events like 100m and listing games to go with long jump or high jump!) and I may try to incorporate this one. If/when I do, I’ll let you know!
Did you end up doing this decathlon? I would love to know how it went- what you did!
Thanks as usual for your great ideas!! Congrats on your 1 year anniversary–whoops a little late ;o)
Thanks! I am thinking of making cards like this for ¿Con qué frecuencia…?. It would be great practice for siempre, a veces, nunca!
Like!
Great idea!
I’m thinking for my 5th grade Spanish class to help them learning places, practice days of the week and IR, I could ask, “Cuándo vas a la biblioteca? And then they answer voy…los martes y jueves. And then I was thinking for my 7th grade class, I have photos all of of them on the Ipad. I could print these out and ask “Que le gusta ella”. Then they could practice, a ella/él le gusta….
This is GREAT!! I’m modifying it to use with question words. For example cual refresco es el mejor, quien tiene las mejores papas fritas, McDonalds o Wendy’s, donde compras tu las hamburguesas. I think my 8th graders will have a lot of fun with this. I’d be willing to share the final product if anyone is interested.
PLEASE share! (On your own site or the wiki) If we each did a topic and shared, we would be set for the year.
Please share!!
Using your concept, but using Expresate level 1 chapter 4.2, I stepped out to combine Events at a school with Places in a school to create a deck of match up slides–(print on card stock, 6 per page). After just 7 minutes of solitaire matching cards, then playing memory with a partner, 95% of my students were able to name 3 events in a school and where they take place!
Love your strategies for active learning! Total prep time: 25 minutes slideshow to cut cards
Here’s a link to my first try…
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6l6GXmmyyYjcjFOallFZEppdHc/edit
I requested to join your wiki as ktgilding so I can upload my version of Great Minds Think Alike to it.
Awesome! It should be approved. Let me know if not.
love this!!! i downloaded it and will be using it !
I love this idea, I made my own cards and I’m trying it tomorrow after we do our slide show on compare, contrast, and superlatives!
I am thinking about making this for expresate level 2 ch.3-1 vocab on stores in a town. Going to use ¿Dónde se puede comprar …? Thanks for the idea! I will share once I get it done
Super idea! La estoy usando para practicar el superlativo. Gracias!
I didn’t have time to make specific questions yesterday, but I wanted to play this game about “family.” I sorted through my “Ask Ask Switch” cards and found some perfect cards! How many cousins do you have? What do you like to do with your granny? They worked just as well. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Question-Cards-for-Interpersonal-Speaking-about-FAMILY-Spanish
I love this idea. I learned a game about this a few weeks ago, I thought it was from your website… and it can be even easier questions, such as “what does one wear on their top?” what does one wear on their feet? what does one wear in the winter? what does one wear in the summer? I put the kiddos in groups in groups of 3. If 2 students of the 3 gets the same answer, they get 1 pt, if all 3 of them get the same answer, they get 3 pts. I call it “Matchy McMatchy” right now, but am trying to come up with something more clever in French.
BTW, I recently found you (via Pinterest) and read your posts religiously. I am a French teacher who is mentoring a 1st year Spanish teacher. I send him your posts all of the time as training for great teaching and then I translate the stuff for myself. You rock! Gracias!
I just want to say that I stole this idea, and have been using it for the past several weeks. My students absolutely love it, and it is an AWESOME way to practice vocabulary, and even grammar forms and sentence structures in a non-stress way if you ask students to write complete sentences. Great idea!
Wow, this is a great way to incorporate locations! You used it on the first day of the unit – were students already familiar with the words you used, or was this just a “go for it!” kind of game?
Got for it! They were not familiar with the places, but there was a picture and they used their “cognate” skills – We had talked about -ria denoting a place at the beginning of the year. (fruteria, carniceria)
Great blog. Really liked your template. I hope in the future I can have a blog like yours.
How much time do you give or this activity in class? 15 minutes?