Hi everyone! I thought I would take the time to share with you my student’s favorite games. Of course, I got these things off the internet, and everything is probably pretty well worn I’m sure you’ll recognize them, but we added a few of our own ideas (by ‘we’ I mean the students contribute too!) I teach in three schools (two elementary), but these games are geared for my middle school students (and perhaps modifiable for my young ones). I don’t have a textbook, but my KT does and sometimes I use it to provide a theme or vocab. Please add to this thread by posting your favorite and repeatable games! I had a KT last year that wouldn’t allow me to repeat anything. I kept trying to explain to her that only the structure is repeated, not the content, but she wasn’t interested. No repeats!  :) (She’s home pregnant this year!) :)  btw, my instructions are to play fun games! no grammar. (but the grammar has a way of sliding its way in!)

1)   I think the most favorite game of all is one my students call Boss, though you may recognize it by a different name. We start by pulling different pictures off the internet with as many poses and people as we can find. I put a cap on about five people in each picture. I’m posting some pictures here to get you started. My challenge is to provide enough pictures that my students don’t become bored with the game. We don’t often repeat the pictures. The students often ask me if they can choose the pictures themselves. I’ve allowed them to hunt the internet if they can do so quickly, or I’ve allowed them to pick from 2-3 of what I have, but mostly I just make them do the picture no matter how hard, because I can’t give away all my secret pictures to satisfy their curiosity!  Keeping the pictures secret is a key ingredient; that’s why repeated pictures don’t work well.
   
The objective is to recreate the picture. One student is “boss” and they direct other students to create the various poses. Bosses are required to speak English and allowed to use body language/gesture, but they may not touch. They cannot move the student into the pose.  I try to get bosses to volunteer which works only in 3rd year, otherwise I have to pick numbers. However, the boss may pick anyone they want to. The person they chose must participate.   Very few exceptions are allowed.

Only the boss is allowed to see the picture that s/he is working with to create the pose, though the turn is ended with a revealing. I started by printing pictures for them to hold, but every time they turned around, the picture would invariably be exposed to the class—who were very curiously watching the boss’ every movement and heads were spinning to keep up with his/her every turn! Then I kept the picture on the computer, threw it up on the tv and covered the tv with the whiteboard. I have to remember to keep the tv covered until the boss is finished posing!! (and re-cover after!)

Ah! But before I give the boss a picture, I give my students a handout. I look at all the pictures, determine what instructions may “pose” some difficulty for my students, and include it on the handout. Typical instructions include things like “put your arms/legs up/down”, “fingers up/down/spread out, make a fist.” “put your hand on his shoulder.” Its funny how they know all these things already, but when the pressure is on, and they are under the spotlight, they have a hard time remembering! I go over the handout before we start, asking the students to stand up and gesture the instructions. Between each boss, I ask the students if there was anything that really posed an especially problem for them, something they would like additional help with. The boss often asks the students to pose the facial expressions!

I sometimes ask myself what is the practical application of this information? If my students went to an English speaking country would they have the opportunity to use an instruction like “sit down here and put your arms up in the air”? but then I think, aw, its all good. They are practicing English and all adds up somewhere!

2)   My student calls this Speed Game! I call it Lightning Strike, though I found it on the internet as typhoon.
I divide my students into teams of three or four, more than five and they don’t work together—one or two students end up looking off into space and not interacting. I put their current vocabulary on a PPT and ask them to make a sentence with the words in a given time frame. (I set a timer). Every time you or the KT throws out new vocabulary, voila! New game! Dictionaries are not allowed because they come with sentences.

Then I ask the teams to write their sentences on the board. They are required to use at least one of the vocabulary words provided and they are required to write sentences that consist of five or more words. To encourage longer sentences, I give them 10 points per word and they get bonus points for using additional vocabulary words, however, they are only allowed to write one sentence!  After the sentences are on the board, I “grade” them. Bearing in mind their grammar levels, I go over each sentence, point out run on sentences (which I don’t accept no matter their level, but I explain why it’s a run on), and obvious things like lack of commas, articles (i.e. the, a, an). I tell them how they can fix the sentence to make it more correct. I have to let some things go because of their knowledge, or lack thereof, of grammar. Then, for every mistake, I take off points, usually an equal number of points, sometimes adjusted, so that a 12 word sentence might end up to be 90 points instead of 120. I’m pretty fair, so they tend to enjoy it (which surprised me).

When we hit a lightning strike slide, we rock/paper/scissors to determine a winning team and then that team is allow to swipe another team’s points.

3)   Go Fish! Classic and Go Fish! Matching Expressions
I can’t repeat this too often, because they do get bored. I actually made this game for my younger students but found an adaptation for older students. Then I created Matching Expressions for the older students.
If you don’t know the rules of the game, any internet search engine is your friend! I found pictures of things (on the internet) that I wanted to use to expand vocabulary. I planned 56 matches per set of cards, printed (in color, thank you to one of my elementary schools!) and laminated. And voila! Cards. I did some standard cards without a lot of creativity, simply with an aim towards building vocabulary. Then, with middle school, I asked them to use the appropriate article, “a’ or “an”. I taught the article that they would use in speaking, not the article that might be appropriate to the game of cards. (there are some variations between normal usage and what the card game might require, you may note them over time). For example, an octopus or an ear would require “an”, while an emotion or a sport (countable vs non-countable nouns) would be without an article. “Do you have an octopus?” or “Do you have Soccer?” “Do you have tired?” “Do you have a helicopter?” I threw in family members, so we had, “Do you have a sister?” “Do you have me?”

In Go Fish! Matching Expressions, I found some crazy funny pictures on the internet. I’ve included a few examples here. There is a kind of theme to the pictures, but the pictures do not match. I used key expressions from the textbook and only the expressions match, so the student has to read the cards. We don’t use articles with this version. Examples include: “Do you have ‘Whose Cap is this?’” “Do you have ‘What’s this?’” “Do you have “All around the world?” I also included multiple pictures—2 sets—of “Do you have ‘Good friends’”? This game is especially good towards the end of the year after they have covered the textbook! I think it’s a bit difficult for my low level first year students. (sorry, was going to include some of my flash cards, but the school took my computer and provided a laptop. Now I have to hunt down my files!)
4)   Taboo! I must say that 3rd year likes this game a lot better than 1st year. (Even last year when my first year students were of a higher level).  I printed up a word list of current vocab, added some extra taboo words, and laminated the lot. One student has to listen for taboo or korean words. one or two students hint while one student guesses.  I did another lot of cards with key expressions, but it turned out be extremely difficult to play. 
5)   Scrabble. I pulled the board and “tiles” off the internet, copied the board on a plastic sheet, put it on the projector and gave the students additional paper copies of the game board so they could write down the game as it progressed (optional). The students use a whiteboard pen to write their words on the plastic game board.   
6)   Spelling Bee. We pretty much play this how I played it back in 6th grade. I divide the class into two teams (I have a small class), take the current vocab list, and go down the row. The students are given the opportunity to spell out loud, but if I have trouble hearing them or understanding them (l vs r, b vs v) I’ll ask them to write the word on the board. I also ask them to write the word on the board if I think it would help for them to see it visually. I give them three chances to spell it right. I allow the team members to encourage, cheerlead, hint, etc, but they can’t spell the word (Not even by putting their back to me, face to the team member, and asking the speller to lip read! Gotta watch ‘em!) :) if they misspell the word, they sit down.   
7)   Five things in a bag! I get a bag, fill it with five items, new vocab. If I can illustrate current vocab I do. I divide the students into teams—3 to 5 on a team. I give them a bag and ask them to create a skit. I don’t require them to use the item as to its “proper” usage, I allow them to be as creative as they want, but after the skit, they are required to give the name and proper usage of the article. My KT got all excited and videotaped my students and put it online on the school website, (but it requires password to view. I don’t know the password or the address!)
8)   Treasure Hunt I did this with my after school class and they loved it. I can’t wait to do it with my class! I’m going to write the instructions -by teams- on the board in code. That way I can form teams and get the different teams off on different routes to the same treasure or to different treasure.
9)   I don’t have a name for this one, but you’ll no doubt recognize it. I just call the spelling game. It’s a hangman/Jeopardy hybrid.
I select key expressions from the textbook, then I modify them, changing one or two words in the sentence. For example, ‘who’s cap is that?’ becomes ‘who’s watermelon is that?” I put dashes on the board to represent the letter like as in Hangman.
Each team has the opportunity to guess three consonants and at the end of their turn they have the opportunity to guess the entire expression. I write all the vowels down on the board off to the side. If they want a vowel, I tell them they must “go shopping”. I say, how much is the vowel? Then I write -5. Usually one student understands and translates.
I write all the consonants down off to the other side and when someone guesses a consonant, I point to the letter and verify that is the letter that they want. I do this with each letter whether I understand or not because if I do it only with the letters I don’t understand they get nervous and change their mind about the letter. (sometimes I have a hard time understanding b vs v or l vs r. etc). also the visual representation of the consonants gives them something to look at when they are stumped for a letter. If they guess a letter and its not on the board, I put a check mark over the letter, so we know not to guess it again.
Students get 10 points for each letter guessed. So for example, if the word is hello, and they guess h, they get 10 points. If they guess l, they get 20 points.   

I can probably dig out some other games later, but that’s all I can think of off the top of my head.  I hope you enjoy!