Here’s a fun review game that I got from Sheila Lee, Laurin Baker and Lori McCool’s session at ACTFL. I played it yesterday and the students had a blast! It is at a novice low level, but I like that they were expanding their vocabulary. It also takes very little prep work on my end. Nice!
1) Put students in small groups. I chose to put them in groups of three so they have more talking time.
2) Give them the game language. I showed them how to say “I know more. I know…” and “Do it!”
3) Give a category. I put them on a Keynote (PowerPoint) and printed them for the groups. Let’s use “colors” as an example.
4) The students will take turns “bidding” on how many words they can say that fit in the category. So the first student may say “I know 5.” The next student may say “I know more. I know 7.” The next student may not know more, so they will challenge the previous one (Do it!) to actually say 7 colors.
5) If the student can fulfill their bid (say 7 colors), then they will receive 7 points (one point per word). If they can’t, the other players get 7 points.
6) Then they go to the next category and repeat the bidding until someone is challenged again.
7) At the end, they add up their points for a total to determine the winner. I usually give a bonus homework stamp. I gave them a blank copy of the form below to track points.
What review games do you use?
This isn’t a new or original idea, but I created Jeopardy PPTs today for our review. What I did differently is to have them play in small groups using laptops and individual whiteboards. This way all kids were always actively involved! The kids kept track of their own scores and everything. I had never thought to have them play in groups as opposed to as a class on the big screen. It worked well and the students were much more engaged.
Classic!
Love that idea! We’ve had student laptops for years and that idea never crossed my mind!
I love creating my own Jeopardy review games at jeopardylabs.com
You can save them on your favorites and access them anywhere with the Internet…and they also keep the score for you!
A colleague shared this game with me, you use white boards, put students in groups of 4 pretty even ability levels. There are 3 rounds, the first one is a lightening round, I usually do verb conjugations, vocabulary, questions are 1 point each. The second round is a Show me round, longer things like translations the students work individually but before they call me over to check they have to make sure EVERYONE in the group has the same exact thing. Every team can earn points but it has to be 100% correct and everyone in the group’s boards must match for 5 points. Round 3 is Crazy Draw, also a lightening round where students illustrate what you describe for 1 point each. For the most part it keeps almost all of the students engaged.
I love round three! I will try that soon. Maybe the “artistically challenged” can use the Doodle Buddy app?
I teach middle school and kids love the game “Matamoscas”. I tape picture flash cards to the board, form two teams, give the first person in line for each team a flyswatter, and it becomes a relay race to swat the correct picture of the word I call out. Everyone is actively engaged and they love being out of their seats!
You can put pictures on a PowerPoint as well. And scramble them all over the slide. Their group can help by saying up, down, left, right, centre in the TL
Very efficient!
My students love “Matamoscas” also but my classes are huge(30+) and sometimes the kids in the back of the line get distracted so I play “mini-matamoscas” and they play in pairs. Each gets a different color marker than their partner and who ever circles the word first gets a point. Sometimes I put the Spanish words on the sheet and call out the words in English if I need it super last minute. Most of the time I have the pictures on the sheet and call out the words in Spanish. They LOVE it. The only rule is they can’t draw on each other. But I teach them how to say things like not fair, foul, it’s a tie, I won etc. Again, not a new idea but they really get excited when I pull out the mini-matamoscas sheet.
My students absolutely love “Vota con tus pies.” I put up a category in each corner of the room (most recently I did el, la, los and las, but you could do things like colors, family, etc.). I called out a word and the students had to decide into which category that word fits by walking (hence voting with your feet) to that corner of the room.
I frequently use vocabulary Go Fish. The cards are in English but the students can only use the TL to ask so if the card says “the book” the must ask “¿Tienes el libro?” This also lets them practice direct object pronouns (Sí lo tengo or No, no lo tengo) and of course, they also learn to say “Ve de pesca!”
I have been known to play Spoons (Cucharas), though it does take a bit of prep time. You need 32 index cards and 3 spoons per group and a paper to keep score on.
1. First, divide your class so that you have groups of 4.
2. You will need to make one set of index cards per group. To keep track of each set, try color coding them. The goal of the game is to get 2 matches, such as la mochila – the backpack, and ella – lleva. You can focus on vocabulary or verbs. Remember to include a few “randoms” in the mix so that each set doesn’t have all matches (i.e. if you’re on “GO” verbs, throw a random card with “haco” (hacer) in it.)
3. Divide class into groups of 4 and distribute 3 spoons per group and a set of index cards. Spoons will be placed in the center of the group.
5. One student/group is the dealer and will deal out 4 cards per student in their group. The students will need to keep their cards hidden, as they do not want their group members to see what they have. The dealer will begin picking up the first card in the deck to see if s/he can make a match with that card. If s/he can, s/he will add that card to the other 4 and discard 1 to the next player. If that student cannot use that card from the deck, he/she will discard it to the next player. The cards will go around the group until 1 student has 2 matches. At this point the student with the matches will sneak and grab a spoon. As soon as the other players see this happening, it is their cue to also go for a spoon. That last person to go for a spoon loses.
6. The last person out will get a C next to their name but continue playing. The first person to spell out CUCHARAS is loses and the game ends.
I use cookie sheets and magnet letters as practice for vocabulary tests. I have the students identify the Spanish vocabulary based on pictures that I use to introduce the terms. Then I take the PowerPoint from their notes and create a slide show of just the pictures and the vocabulary. The students are in teams of 3-4 with one cookie sheet and a bag of letters. I will put a picture on the board and the first team to spell the word correctly with the correct article get two points. All the other teams get one point if they get the answer correct (this helps with those teams that struggle and sometimes lose interest.) The team with the most points at the end of the game receive three bonus points on their test. The kids get very into this game.
My only question for this game is: how do explain the complicated directions to the students in the TL? The game sounds great, I hope to use it!!
I’m not going to lie, I do it in English. The next time we played, I didn’t have to do it in English. I was able to model it with another student and they remembered the game.