Learning English with Party Games

Admittedly, teaching middle schoolers is not my preferred line of work (gasp!). I don’t envision myself doing it in the future, but here in Spain it’s a necessity. That being said, I might as well have fun with it, right? As my Dad would say, MTBOI. Make the best of it.

In my attempt to MTBOI, I have developed a collection of FUN ways to teach various skills. As I like to call it;

~Learning English with party games~

Yes, party games. Amazing, I've found one for almost every verb tense that I've taught, its just a matter of searching and brainstorming. Here there are - categorized by target skill! You are welcome.

Present Simple:

Who am I?

Players tape a piece of paper on their forehead with the name of a celebrity so that the rest of the group can see the name. They take turns asking yes/no questions about their unknown person to the rest of the class, such as; “Am I American? Do I make movies?” The first person to correctly guess their person wins. 

Present Continuous:

“I’m going to China and I’m bringing…”

The first person says, “I’m going to China and I’m bringing a (word beginning in A).” The next person continues, saying the first phrase and adding a word beginning with B, etc. It’s a childish, but this game can be fun if the kids get creative.

Past Simple of to be and Past Continuous:

Mafia

This has been one of the most popular games that I introduced in my class. Usually played with a deck of cards, I play with two “mafia”, two “detectives” and two “doctors” who I have chosen. The mafia have to choose who to kill while the rest of the “townspeople” are sleeping, and the detectives have to try to figure out who the mafia is before everyone is killed.  The children accuse one another of being the mafia, and the accused has to defend him or herself by answering the questions, “Where were you last night?” (past simple with to be) and “What were you doing last night?” (past continuous). The main downfall to this game is that players cheat, and they look around while they are supposed to be sleeping.

Present Perfect:

Two truths and a lie

This was another very successful game, in which I actually saw surprisingly good creativity. Taking turns coming to the board, students must write down 3 sentences about themselves in the present perfect. I.e. I have lived in America, I have ridden a motorcycle,… However, two must be true and one must be false. The other students then attempt to guess the false statement, saying; “You have never ridden a motorcycle.” After all the students have attempted to guess the false statement, the student reveals the answer and whoever guessed correctly receives one point. If nobody guesses correctly, the student who wrote the sentences receives a point.

Never have I ever (classroom appropriate)

There are various ways to play this game, the most common being holding up 5 or 10 fingers to begin and going around in a circle. However, I like to have all the students stand up to begin. The person who is “it” comes to the front of the classroom and begins eliminating students with true statements about himself in the negative present perfect. (“I have never swum in the ocean.”) Any student who has done the thing must sit down. The student continues making statements until only one person is left standing, and that person then becomes “it”.

Future with will:

M.A.S.H.

This is more of a middle school lunchroom game than a party game, but it turned out hilarious with my students and got enthusiastic participation. Do I really have to explain how to play?? Any Americans who grew up in the 90s have definitely played their fair share of MASH (Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House).  On the board or a piece of paper you must write MASH at the top of the page, and below you put categories such as spouse, city, job, pet, car, etc. Under each category you put four words, and it is more fun if at least one of them is ridiculous, such as alligator for pet or Brad Pitt for spouse. Decide on a “magic number”, then beginning with the M on MASH you begin counting and eliminating every word that lands on the “magic number” until you are left with one word in each category. Students then share the results saying; “I will marry Brad Pitt, I will live in Cadiz, I will be a teacher, etc.” It’s almost always hilarious and students practice future predictions with will.

Vocabulary, general skills:

Scattegories

Sometimes students can be surprising- in a good way. My students blew me away with the words they were able to come up with in Scattegories. For this game, categories are pre-chosen by the teacher (jobs, household items, verbs, etc). For each round there is a different letter chosen, and students have 2 minutes to think of words to fit the category that begin with the chosen letter. You can play as many rounds as you wish, using the same categories every time.

Draw, write, draw, write

Begin with a large piece of paper divided into sections horizontally. At the top section, students write a sentence (“The cow jumped over the moon”) Everyone  then passes the paper to their neighbor, who reads the sentence and below draws a picture of the sentence. Before they pass the paper again, they must fold it so that ONLY their drawing is visible. The next student then looks at the drawing and writes a sentence based on that drawing. (“The cow jumped over the moon” might become “The horse is skipping”). They then pass the paper, covering up the drawing above, so the next person ONLY sees what the previous person has written. The paper continuous around the circle like this, and it is hilarious to see how the sentence changes.