Lexical and grammatical games

1. “I spy with my eye
”. A pupil begins with the words “I spy with my eye something beginning with the letter “C”. Other pupils ask questions: “Is this a cat?” The pupil answers: ”Yes, it is. It’s a cat.” “No, it isn’t”. Картинка глаза
2. “Write as many words as you
B l a c k b o a r d a e l s l a k e k i t e
3 “Write all the words you can find in a long word.”

Information
– in, form, inform, front, nation, etc.
4. “It could be…”
A student stands in front of the class. The other one hides something behind his/ her back. The student asks: “What’s this?” The first student answers: “It could be a pen.” Картинка ручки
5 “Picture dictation”
This kind of game develops listening skills and students’ imagination. We may revise vocabulary, prepositions, etс. Картинка сидящих за столом мужчины и женщины.
a/
“Draw a table with 2 chairs opposite. On the first chair is a fat man sitting. On the other one there is a thin woman. On the table there are two plates and three flowers in the vase. Under the table there’s a cat. Behind a woman there is a TV set. The man’s hat is on the sofa which is near the wall to the right. The woman has long hair. Next to the woman and the man there’s a wall with a picture on it. It’s a picture of some mountains. In front of the table there’s a rug. On the rug there’s a dog. The cat is eating some fish under the table.” B). There are three hills across the middle of the page. You can see a sea through the hills. There is a boat on the horizon. There are two clouds above the hills with the sun shining through them. I see a house on the top of the left hill. There’s an antenna on the top of the right hill. The road runs from the village to the bottom right hand corner. It runs across below the hills. A winding railroad goes from the village to the bottom right hand corner. There’s a lake bellow the village. You can see a cow on one side of the lake. There’s a dog on the other side of the lake. You can notice a ship in the sea between the middle and the right hill. Картинка дороги в горах.
6. “Quiz”
The students must answer some questions about the names of the months and the days of the week. E.g; What’s the day after Monday? What’s the day before Tuesday? What’s the month after January, etc.
7. “Detective story”.
The students should listen to the story and then answer the questions and give the solutions to the problems.
A/
“Bernard lives on the 22 nd floor of a huge block of flats. Every morning he leaves his flat, gets into the lift and travels to the ground floor and goes to work. In the evening he comes home, gets into the lift Then he gets out of the lift on the 14 th floor and walks up the stairs to his flat on the 22 nd floor. He does it every evening. Why? Картинка многоэтажного дома

B/ “Mystery phone call”.
‘Every night at about 12 o’clock I get out of my bed, go into the next room, pick up the telephone, dial a number and wait. Someone answers the phone and says: “All right.” I put down my receiver, go back to the bedroom, get into the bed and go to sleep. I do this every night. Why?” Картинка полицейского или детектива с трубкой
8. “Alibi”
The students must imagine the following situations: ” Somebody has stolen a car/ precious stones, etc/. The police have caught some suspects. They want to interrogate the accused. An accused man has got an alibi. It’s his friend. The accused man and his friend leave the class and discuss the alibi. The detectives interrogate an accused man and his friend. “A secretary” writes down the answers. The detectives ask the suspects different questions in Past Simple. They should prove the “crime” in order to say: “You’re guilty”. Картинка полицейского участка
9. “Interview”.
The students must interview a guest from the UK or from the USA. They must use polite phrases: “Would you mind telling me …, Could you tell me …, I hope you don’t mind, but could you possibly tell me …, Be so kind as to tell me…” . Картинка журналиста с микрофоном или один микрофон.
“Interview 2”.
A volunteer student is in the front of the class. The pupils ask him any question they like. The other student writes down the sentences in indirect speech: - What’s your hobby? - My hobby is drawing. - He said that his hobby was drawing. Микрофон или журналист
10. “Advice for a novice”
. The students must give advice to a new student. E.g. - You must go to school every day. - You should not eat at the lesson. Then the novice asks the questions: “Can I..? Mustn’t I…? Should I…?” Картинка ученика или ученицы
11. “A letter”
Your students can write advice letter to the head of the school, to the President of the state, etc. “If I were you, I would …, I would not …” Картинка письма, почтальона или почтового ящика.
12. “Cooperative story” “Free written composition”.
The students must write a composition on a sheet of paper according to the topic. The first student writes the 1 st sentence. Then he passes the sheet to his neighbours and then the teacher reads the story aloud. Лист бумаги или книга
13. “Discrepancies”
The students must correct the errors in the fairy-tale, the teacher tells them: “Once upon a time there was a little girl named Little Red Riding hood. She has got a black cap… The children: ‘No, it’s false. Her cap was red.” Картинка красной шапочки
14. ”Wandering tourists
”. The students are given a sheet of paper with a plan of a town. One of the students will be a stranger, the other one will be a citizen of this town. The stranger asks how he may get to some place. Карта города

15. “Who is this”
The game is good for testing grammar and fluency. We may check Tenses and vocabulary. We show the students a variety of pictures of people from magazines. Let students choose which one to talk about. Then they must give this person a name, age, profession, nationality, hobby, etc. You can revise any Tense. The students may give answers orally as well as in written form
16. “Stem sentences”.
The students are given the “stem” of a sentence and they must complete it. .E.g. “I like people who …”
17. “Draw a monster”.
The students are given slips of paper with the names of body parts. The students must be divided into groups. Then the groups draw their monsters. Their monsters may have 3 noses, 2 mouths, 1 neck, 5 legs etc. After the monsters have been created, the teacher can extend the activity by asking the groups: - to give the name to the monster, - to say where the monster lives, - what the monster eats, - how much the monster weighs, - how tall it is, etc. Then the teacher can use the “gallery” method. This method can be expanded to a variety of activities. The possibilities are endless. (Composition writing, debate strategies) etc, Картинка монстра
18.”Drawing the picture”.
The students are given the slips of paper with words, nouns, for example. The words to the topic “At the Zoo”: a crocodile, a tiger, a monkey, a fox, trees, people, cages, a wolf, a hare, children. The students must draw the picture to the topic. Students may be given the following themes; “In Brazil”, ”In the forest”, etc. Then the students may write a story about the theme or they may tell the other group their story. Картинка зоопарка
19. “Adverb game”.
The students may be divided into some groups and they may be given 2 kinds of slips of papers. On one set of cards the adverbs are written, e.g.; impolitely, gladly, simply, pleasantly, crazily, quickly, awfully, clumsily, etc. On the others they can see phrases. They may be: to write a letter, to make a telephone call, to dance with a lady, to do the lessons, to take a shower, etc. The students must make sentences. Then they may write a story with this sentence. Написать несколько слов разным цветом «Adverb»
20. “If I were…”
The students are given sheets of paper with phrases in Conditional 2. For example: -If I were rich, I would…; -If I were the head of our school, I would… ; -If I were a magician, I would…; -If I were the queen, I would…; -If I were a cosmonaut, I would…; -If I saw an UFO next to me, I would…; -If I had much money, I would…; -If I lived in USA, I would…;
-If I were the president of Russia, I would…; -If I were an adult, I would…; -If I saw a spaceman, I would…; - If it were summer, I would…; The students must continue the sentences. Then they may be asked to write or tell a story with this sentence. Картинка НЛО и инопланетянина.
21. “Guess the profession.”
The students are given the slips of paper on which the words are written, e.g.: tickets sell tram ? bus The students must guess the profession. Then the student may say what a man of this profession may do, where he may work, where he must study, how much he may earn? Finally the student may say if he likes to have the profession. Картинка людей разных профессий
22. Working with colored sticks
. You can revise grammar or develop speech habits with the help of this game. The teacher gives commands to the students: «Take the sticks and make a house. Take 3 red, 5 green and 7 black sticks, and make a fence. Then make a window using 4 brown sticks». After that your students must tell some sentences about their house in Present Perfect, for example “I have taken 3 red sticks, 5 green and 7 black sticks. Then I have made the fence”. Etc
23. Word game “Mad Libs”
The game can be played by several students. You can give your students stories containing blank spaces where words are left out. One student will play the role of a Reader. The Reader does not tell the rest of your class what the story is about. Instead he or she asks the class to give him (her) words. These words (different parts of speech) are used to fill in the blank spaces of the story. At the end the Reader reads the completed Mad LIBS and the students understand that they have written a fantastic, funny, shocking, silly, crazy story. For example, the kids give the Reader the following words for your table. Noun Verb Liquid Noun Verb ending in “ing” Plural noun Noun Verb (Past Simple) Part of the body (plural) Adjective Verb (Present Simple) Noun Adjective bed run water carpet running snow flakes spoon began legs warm go chair loud
Then the Reader using the words the students have selected fill in the blank spaces in the story. So these are the stories your students can invent together. 1. Jack and Jill went up the
bed
to run a pail of
water
. Jack fell down and broke his
carpet
and Jill came
running
after. 2. Three blind snow flakes see how they run. They all went after the
spoon
’s wife, who
began
off their legs with a
warm
knife. Did you ever
go
with such a
chair
in your life as 3
loud
mice? This is another story you can write with your students. The story is called “A visit to the doctor” Patient: Good morning, doctor
(last name of one the students in your class).
Dentist: What is your problem, young
(noun
). Patient: I have a pain in my upper
(part of the body),
which gives me a severe
(part of the body)
ache. Dentist: Open your (
part of the body)
wide. Now I am going to drill your (
part of

the body)
with my
(noun).
Oh, I see
(noun)
in your mouth. Patient: Are you going to extract my
(part of the body)?
Dentist: No, I am going to
(verb)
your tooth and put a
(adjective)
filling. Patient: Thank you
(wild animal)!

24. Logic task.
The students are given 1 minute to memorize all details of the picture. Then the students must answer the following questions. 1. How many tourists are there in the picture? 2. When did they come here: today or several days ago? 3. What kind of transport did they use? 4. Is it far to the nearest village? 5. Is the wind Northern or Southern? 6. What part of the day is this now? 7. Where did Shura go to? 8. Who was on duty yesterday? (name) 9. What is the date today? The right answers.
1/Four boys 2/several days ago

3/by boat 4/not far

5/southern 6/ morning

7/to catch butterflies

8/Kolya was 9/ the 8th of August


25. Imagine you are
… You ask the students to imagine they are cats, for example. You give them some minutes to make a story. “I am a cat. My name is Barsik. I live in the family. I think they love me. They feed me with Wiskas. Sometimes they give me real meat. I like to play with their son Mike. Unfortunately I stay alone the whole day. In the evening I am happy, because my friends are at home. But they seem strange to me. They watch TV and serf the Internet the whole evening. But I love them”.
26. Enciphering
A teacher can use numerals to encipher sentences. For example he can encipher the topic of the lesson.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

N O P Q R S T U V

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

W X Y Z

23 24 25 26

An apple a day keeps a doctor away.

1, 14/ 1,16,16,12,5/ 1/ 4,1,25/ 11,5,5,16,19/ 1/ 4,15,3,20,15,18/

1,23,1,25//

Or the teacher can use MORSE alphabet to encipher something.

a.- b-.. c-.-. d-.. e. f..-.

g--. h…. i.. j.-- - - k-.-

k-.. L .-.. m-- n-. o- -- - p.-- -.

q--.- r.-. s… t- u..- v…- w.-- x-..- y-.-- -

z--..
For example, you can give the following task:
..-./.-/--/../.-../-.—

A teacher can use mathematical symbols to encipher something.



27. Air. Water. Ground.
The teacher says the word “Water” and the kids must name sea animals. If the teacher says” Air”, students name birds. If the teacher says the word “Ground”, the pupils begin to name animals. The game gives the opportunity to revise the topic “Animals”.
II. Games with motions

1. “The ball goes from…to”.
The students stand in a circle. The teacher begins “The ball goes from the teacher to Ann”. The girl takes the ball and thanks the teacher. Then she says: “The ball goes from Ann to Pete.” With the help of this game you can repeat prepositions, different Tenses and themes. Students of the 9 th - 11 th form can say: ”I’ll give the ball to Svetlana, because she is a very good girl (because she has got blue eyes/ nice jeans, etc). Картинка мяча или детей, играющих в мяч.
2. “Change places”.
The students stand in a circle. The teacher or a student says: ”Change places, who has got long hair (nice shirt, who had done the homework, who has cleaned teeth today, etc)”. You may repeat a lot of themes with the help of this game. Картинка детей, стоящих в кругу
3. “Running dictation”.
The whole class takes part in the game. It may be divided into some groups. “Secretaries” are appointed. They run and read sentences from the sheet of paper hanging in the corridor next to the classroom. Then they dictate them to the pupils of his/her group. The winner will be the team, which writes the dictation without errors. Картинка бегущих детей в школе или в классе
4. ”Stances”.
The students fulfill the commands of the teacher. - Put your hands on your head. - I am putting my hands on my head. - Ann is putting her hands on her head. Дети делают гимнастику
5. “Getting in order”
. The students repeat the ordinal numerals. The students are put in a line. They rearrange themselves according to the dates of the birthdays. They must say: “I am the first because I was born on the…of…19…” Then the students may rearrange according to the length of their names. “I ’m the second
after Natalya, because there are 6 letters in my name. My name is…” Or the pupils can rearrange according to the size of their shoes. The teacher may vary the game. For example the class can go along the corridor and count the doors. They can say: “This is the first door. This is English classroom. English teacher named …. teaches English here”. Картинка - Дети стоят в строю.
6.
“
Who knows more words to the theme ‘Animals”, “Food”?,
etc. A pupil names the words stepping forward. The group counts the words he or she knows.
7. “Find someone who
…” The students must find someone in the group who /e.g./ likes carrots. One student goes over the classroom and asks his classmates: “Do you like carrots?” Another one must find the person who likes traveling. “Do you like to travel? Have you been to Germany?”/etc./ Картинка разговаривающих детей
8.
Each student gets a verb on a card,. Then he acts out the verb and the partner must guess what he is doing. Then they continue taking turns. The game is good for verb Tenses, motivating students’ verb vocabulary. Картинка артистов
9. “Go shopping”.
The teacher puts sheets of paper on the blackboard. It’s written on them: - at the dairy, - at the bakery, - at the grocery, - at the butcher’s - at the greengrocer’s. Many words to the theme written on small slips of paper are put on the teacher’s desk. The students go to the desk, take them and distribute the words according to the departments. Then the students may say what people can buy there. Картинка магазина
10. “Furnishing the room”
Students who pretend to be loaders unload furniture. They carry doll’s furniture or furniture drawn on the slips of paper from the corridor and put it in the doll’s house saying “We are carrying a sofa. We are putting it near the right wall”. Then the owner of the house pays the workers and expresses the satisfaction with their work. Sometimes she isn’t satisfied with the work and asks the workers to rearrange the furniture. With the help of this game a teacher can revise any Tense and the topic “House”. The game gives fun to the students. Картинка комнаты.
11. Commands with pantomime.
A teacher commands: «Imagine it’s morning. You get up. Go to the bath and wash yourself. Clean your teeth. Go to the room and dress yourself. Then go to the kitchen and greet your parents. Pour a cup of coffee and make sandwich to your parents. Then wave goodbye to your mother and father and go to school». One student fulfills commands, the other comments in English using Present Progressive. Your students can use different Tenses. Картинка семьи.
12. Showing fairy - tales with pantomime.
You ask children to play the roles of the fairy - tale “Cinderella”. After that you command “Cinderella, come in and sit
down by the fire. You are tired”. A student comes in and says: “I am coming in and sitting down near the fireplace”. “Stepmother and her daughters, will you come to Cinderella and give her a broom”. The students fulfill the commands and say the sentence. The rest students write down the commands in certain Tenses. After acting the story you can organize the story retelling or any other oral practice.
13. We are musicians.
Students repeat the words after the teacher and do certain motions: “We are musicians. (They touch their chest with a finger.) We are very cool. (They show a thumb.) We can play… (violin, drum, trumpet, stomach, nerves). When they pronounce the name of the instrument, they show how they play them and pronounce some sounds, e.g. “violinataki, drumataki, stomataki, nervotaki, etc” When playing nerves of the parents, they say: “Nervotaki - nervotaki- nervotaki- yes”! The words are meaningless, but it’s fun for children. Картинка музыкальных инструментов
14. Sharks
The students imitate that they are swimming in the ocean. They repeat the words “We are swimming. Sharks are swimming too. Father shark”. Kids show how the shark swims and eats fish repeating the sounds: “Doodle-Doodle-Doodle-do. (2 times) ” They show with their hands how the father - shark and all the members of their shark family eat fish. Then the students continue: “We saw sharks. Afraid! Swim away!” The kids show how they are swimming away and how they are running away on the shore. They say “Safe and sound” and pretend they dry the forehead. The teacher has a good opportunity to revise the Tenses and his kids have fun. Картинка акул
15. Crazy Zoo
The teacher asks kids to play the role of animals. They hide behind the desks. They pretend they are in cages. The teacher plays the role of the Zoo head. The teacher says: “It’s morning in the Zoo. How are you, my dear animals?” Then the teacher names the animals: tiger, lion, hare, etc. The children jump out and cry: “Hello! I am fine!” And after that they again hide in the “cages”. If the teacher says: “Where is my Zoo?”, all kids jump out together and cry: “Here we are!” Sometimes the teacher says: “It’s evening in the Zoo.” The kids pretend they sleep. 16.
Grammar police.
English teachers must teach the students to find errors in the sentences. You may do it in the game “Grammar police”. You appoint a pupil to play the role of grammar policeman. You can use a police cap and a police rod. If there is an error in the sentence, the pupil touches the written sentence and says: “I arrest the sentence, because it’s wrong.” This means that the pupil must find the error and correct it. If all errors are corrected, the policeman says:”You are free”.
17. “Word rattles game?”
To organize the words checking more interesting, a teacher can do it like this. Ask two students to come to the blackboard and give them the rattles. Ask the children to say the words you ask aloud only when they resound their rattles. If a student is a little late resounding, it means he doesn’t know the word. The class
counts how many words were pronounced by each student. The student, who is the first to name the words, wins the competition.
18. Sticky balls shooting.
It’s a good game for revising the numerals. The teacher writes several numbers on the whiteboard and asks the students to “shoot” them with the sticky balls. They have 3 tries. Then the students sum up the numbers they hit and the teacher finds out the result of all students. After that the teacher may declare the winner.
19. The teacher can also use the puppet show at the lessons.
There are a lot of games which can help the teacher to make the lesson interesting for the students, such as “Bingo”, “Jingo”, “Building a tower”, “Set of colored sticks”, “The Zoo”, “Boggle”, flash cards to all topics, different puzzles, domino, magnetic fruits and vegetables, different balls, phone apparatus, wonder field drum, etc
So, different games can help the teacher to motivate the students to be

active during the lesson.