Our First Friday Idea Posting...

Happy Friday! These four games can serve as useful warm-ups during the first 5-10 minutes of class, or can be used during the last few minutes if you finish your planned activities early:

The Flyswatter Game – Write vocabulary words on the board in random order. Have a pair of students go up to the board, each with a flyswatter (or anything else you have on-hand that the students can use to hit the correct word). Call out a clue or definition, in the target language. The first student to find and hit the correct word wins a point for her team.

Vocabulary / Alphabet Bingo – Students fill out a bingo board using words form a new vocabulary list. The tutor then calls out definitions or clues in the target language and students mark any words that they have written on their boards. They call BINGO when they have five words marked in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

For languages in which students are learning a new alphabet, this game can be modified:
1. students write the alphabet in random order in the spaces on the bingo board
2. the tutor calls out the name of the letter or character and uses it in a word or sentence (in the target language)
3. students mark the characters as called
4. the first student to get five in a row wins, and must read back the winning characters in the order they have written them on their board

Taboo – Pairs of students are given one of two lists of vocabulary words (one partner gets list A, the other list B). Keeping their lists hidden from their partners, the students take turns describing, in the target language, terms from their list until their partner guesses the correct term.

Categories – Pairs of students are given one minute to write down a list of words – in the language of study- associated with a topic (Example: foods). At the end of the minute, each team reads their answers. Teams win points for each original answer (answers not shared with other teams). A new topic is then given (Examples: greetings, family members, or cities where … is spoken), and the next round begins.

I hope these help if you ever need an idea for a five-minute activity or review game in the coming weeks. Feel free to add your own ideas for classroom warm-ups in the comments.