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I
have been using these games on my
classes and the result is always very good.
And
I realised that English games using in my lecture make
our relationship,
between teachers and learners become closer and
better, and I am very pleased for
that.
Phuong
Thuy
Hanoi, Vietnam
My
daughter Aurore has learning difficulties and since coming to your
classes she has gained in confidence and has improved in all subjects
at school.
Mrs
J. Brown,
Canterbury, Kent, UK
Six
months ago, my four year old and my seven year old spent 20 minutes
with Shelley using these techniques to learn colours; I was amazed to
find that they still remember them all today!
Julie
O’Devlin,
Salisbury, UK
Last
time when I was playing one of your games I heard one my pupils say to
another: This is the
best teacher in our school. Before I used your
games, my
pupils didn't like my courses. Now,
when I get into the classroom
they greet me with a nice smile, and when we have break , they come to
see me and talk to me with what I taught them.
Naima
Chraa, Morocco
Thanks
and congratulations because I have found the material most helpful and
also inspiring.
Alejandra Morales, Mexico
I
finally succeeded in checking the material. They are amazing
and
interesting as well. They can really make a revolution in my
lessons as I see the surprise on the teachers faces. I enjoy
impressing them. Also the big confidence I have when I am
using
your games that even some other teachers adapt them in their classes.
Rami,
China
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The Blanket Game
Dear
Teacher,
Thank
you for subscribing to our free monthly
game.
On
this page is the game The Blanket Game
AND
some free flashcards to download PLUS a bingo set.
CONTENTS
The Blanket
Game - & Variants
1. How to Play
2. Language ideas to
use with this game
3. Question practise
variant
4. Sentence practise
5. A Lively variant
6. Materials for you
to use with this game
7. Tell us what you
think
=================The Blanket Game============================
Category: Speaking
Group size: 2 players to a class of up to 60
Level: Beginners to intermediate
Materials: A sheet or blanket and flashcards
Age: 4 to 12
Pace: Calm down, & lively version
This game is to be played once your students are familiar with the
vocabulary and sentences that you wish to practise. This is a
speaking practise game, or a revision game.
1.
HOW TO PLAY
First create a barrier for someone to hide behind. You can do
this by setting up a clothes line and pegging a blanket on it, or by
having two students hold the blanket up, or by draping the blanket over
a couple of chairs so some one could sit behind it and not be seen.
Now you have your barrier, here is an example of how to play this using
clothing vocabulary: A class member hides behind the blanket
and puts on a selection of clothes, or props, such as a hat, belt, tie
or scarf. The class asks in unison,
"What are you wearing?"
The person behind the blanket replies,
"I'm wearing a hat", or
"I'm wearing a red hat".
Each class member decides whether he or she thinks this is true or
false.
Whoever thinks it is true stands up. Whoever thinks it is
false sits down. Now the person behind the blanket
reveals whether or not he is wearing a red hat. (He may
use real clothes or use pictures, of clothes or any
vocabulary). If he is wearing a red hat then all those who
sat down are out and only those standing up are in. If he
is not wearing a red hat, but a black coat, then those
standing up are out and have to sit down while those
sitting down, who are still in, stand up again for the next
round.
Another way to play is for each class member to hold up a paper
with either a "True" or "False" on it. Every one starts
the game standing up. The person behind the blanket chooses
whether or not to wear the red hat and the class hold up
either a True or a False card. Then everyone who got it
wrong sits down and stays seated while you play the next
rounds until you only have a few students standing. With
younger children play with a tick or a cross rather than
the words true or false.
Continue, and then swap over the person
behind the blanket. Only allow that person a few seconds
to dress up, to ensure that the class do not get bored
waiting. You can have the class count up to thirty, or
say the alphabet while the person puts their prop on. If there are only
2 of you - you and your student - then
you can take it in turns to go behind the blanket. You
can keep score each time one of you guesses correctly.
Dressing up is only one idea for this game to practise
clothing vocab and short questions and sentences such as
"What are you wearing?" However you may use flashcards
instead of props. See just below for ideas on how to adapt
this to different language and vocabulary.
2.
Language ideas to use with this game
So now I'd like to explore how else we can exploit this basic idea, and
what other language we can use in this game.
Simple
vocabulary repetition variant – small class
For elementary levels, or to revise vocabulary you could place two
pictures (or word cards) on the floor behind the blanket –
for example a picture of a plane and a truck. A class member
stands on one of the cards and says, "Plane". (Or a sentence
such as "I'm going to Paris by plane"). The student may stand
either on the plane or the truck and the class must guess whether what
he says is true or false as described above.
Simple
vocabulary repetition variant – large class
If you have a fairly big class then you will not have time for everyone
to go behind the blanket, so in that case, to get the most out of the
time spent, instead of the person behind the blanket saying "plane",
you could have your class say "plane" or "truck" depending on which one
they think their class mate
is standing on. Once the person behind the blanket is on
their chosen picture you say "Ready, Go!" and the class call out the
picture they think is correct. They may also call out the
sentence you are requiring them to practise.
That way everyone has a chance to say the words, rather than just the
person behind the blanket. They can award themselves points
if they get it right. I imagine many of the children will
cheat and pretend they said the right
word – but does it really matter? I mean, who
cares, after all we only want them to practise English and feel good
about it.
3.
Question Practise Variant
This isn't a true or false variant, but while we've got the blanket out
we might as well use it to the full.
Put one class member behind the blanket along with a few picture or
word cards. Lay out 3 to 4 picture cards for the
young children, and up to twelve for older children. The
words should all be in the same theme and if you need to you can also
have a set of these cards in view of the class. With the
older
children you would probably not do this to make it more challenging for
them.
Allow the class member behind the curtain five seconds to select a
picture to stand on. He or she now cannot move from that
spot. See below for how to continue depending on
whether you have a large or small class.
Question practise – large class
Display pictures, or write up, the words you are using. One
class member comes up to the front and points at one of the words
– for example the car. The class ask the question
form you wish to practise in unison, such as "Have you got a
car?" The person behind the blanket replies "Yes I have, or
no I haven't", or "True" or "False", or they answer the question as
appropriate according to the language you are teaching.
The class see how many questions they need to ask each time.
Alternatively you could divide them into two teams and each team tries
to guess in fewer goes than the other one.
Question practise – small class
Each class member in turn asks a question and hopes to be the one to
guess correctly. For example, the first student
asks, "Have you got a car?" Answer, "No, I
haven't". The second student asks, "Have you got a plane?"
etc. until the answer is "yes I have." You can give points if
you wish. If you only have one or two students then join in
the game with them.
Here are some examples of questions you could practise with transport
vocabulary:
"Is it the car?"
"Are you going by car?"
"Have you got a car?"
"Do you have a car?"
"Can you drive a car?"
"Are you buying a car?"
"Are you going to buy a car?"
"Will you buy a car?"
"Did you buy a car?"
"Have you bought a car?"
"Did you go by car?"
And here are some more questions you could practise if you used
countries:
"Are you from China?"
"Are you Chinese?"
"Do you like China?"
"Do you like Chinese food?"
"Have you been to China?"
"Are you going to China?"
etc.
And here are some questions you could practise with animal vocabulary:
"Do you like fish?"
"Do you eat fish?"
"Are you a fish?"
"Is it a fish?"
"Are there any fish at the zoo?"
"Have you seen a fish?"
"Have you eaten fish?"
"Did you see a fish?" (when you went to Africa?)
"Would you eat a fish?"
"Could it be a fish?"
"Have you been eaten by a fish?"
etc.
As you can see you can adapt this game to ask any question.
Think of the question form you would like to practise and then pick
some vocabulary that goes well with that question form.
4.
Sentence practise
Instead of questions, play as above but using sentences.
Here are some examples using the countries theme:
You're in China.
You're Chinese.
You are going to China.
You have been to China.
You went to China.
You speak Chinese.
I'll see you in China.
You're in China, aren't you?
You've been to China, haven't you?
You said you were going to China.
If you like this game, remember that there are 101 great games in my
book
101 Teaching English Games for Children. There are games for
speaking like this one, and also many games for listening, spelling and
writing.
Just go to Teaching
English Games
to find out more
5. A
lively variant
Here is a rather more lively variant on this game for smaller classes:
One child goes behind the blanket and the class all say this rhyme
together – quickly and rhythmically if possible.
What is it? What is it? What could it be?
What is it? What is it? One two three.
It helps if the children clap on the 'what', 'what', 'what' and 'be'
And on the 'what', 'what'; 'one', and 'three'.
By the time the class reach 'three' the person behind the blanket MUST
be standing on their chosen card. After the class have
pronounced the word three they are free to call out any possible
word. Each class member can only call out one word but they
can all call their words out together. There will be
some noise! As soon as the child behind the blanket hears the
correct word they jump out and all those who called out that word award
themselves points (mass cheating no doubt, but I shouldn't pay
attention to it). The next child up to go behind the curtain
heads over there while the class immediately start
up the rhyme again. The pace should be fast and exciting with
no time in between rounds.
You can replace the simple rhyme above with one that you make up, which
may include the sentence or question structure you wish to practise, or
it may be a rhyme with some vocabulary you would like to reinforce.
Here is an example:
Travel on a bus,
Travel on a train.
Ride on a bicycle,
Fly in a plane.
When played well this game is really pretty noisy and fun, and the
children have a chance to repeat the same words over and over so they
will remember them.
You might want to teach the rhyme in a previous lesson, and you can use
it again in all sorts of other games. The first time you play
start slowly, and pick up the pace as and when your class understand
what is happening. When you play it again in future lessons
– using the same words if you are revising, or
using a new set of words, you'll find that you can pick the pace up
another notch.
Free transport flashcards and a bingo set are
provided at the link lower down on this page.
7. Tell us what you think
We'd love to hear how you get on with this game.
Please send your comments, questions, and ideas for upcoming issues to
us though the contact form on this site.
Let us know what you want. Your feedback matters.
Free
flashcards
To download please click on the link below and
save to your computer. It is a PDF document so you will need Acrobat to
read it. If you do not have this you can download it free.
Just type in "Download Adobe Reader" into google and you'll find it.
You can also use these flashcards in the many different games described
in 161 English Language
Games for
Children. Visit Teaching
English Games to find out more about my ebook of games.
Tips on using the flashcards
Simply
print out the flash cards you would like to
use, and where necessary, cut them up with a guillotine type cutter. If
you want them to last a lifetime you can print them out on card and
then laminate them. You can then have them ready for use in other games
and for different groups of students. As you build your repertoire of
games and ready-made materials your class preparation time will be
dramatically reduced.
Have a great time with this game, and do let me know how you get on,
and what
else you would like to receive in these free monthly materials.
All
the best,
Shelley
Vernon
Teaching English Games
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