I was inspired by a post on Bianca‘s blog to think of another use for the Jenga game which I bought last summer.  I’ve played a fun game with it a couple of times and although it does encourage students to speak, I’ve found that they spend more time deciding which block to remove than they do on answering the question.  It also means that, with larger groups, there’s a lot of “quiet time” when only one student is participating and the others can easily get distracted.

This new use of the tumbling tower is more inclusive and also more competitive, whilst still promoting the challenging element of not collapsing the tower.

Divide the class into teams and explain that you’re going to ask each team a question.  If they get the question correct, you move on to the next team.  But, if they get the question wrong, they have to remove a block from the tumbling tower.

You could use this as an end of topic revies, asking questions related to vocabulary and grammar points recently covered, or as a comprehension activity after a reading or listening.