November
1
Circle vocab
I’m not a fan of games where people get eliminated – both in terms of the group dynamic and linguistic production. Here’s a quick five-minute filler which will hopefully ensure learners avoid elimination.
Everyone stands in a circle and the lexical topic is chosen, for example food. Go round in a circle naming food; if somebody repeats or takes too long to think, they go down on one knee. If they forget again, they go down on the other knee – as I use this game just in the last minutes of class, it’s always been time to go before anyone has actually got to that stage. Another option could be that if someone is down on one knee and provides a correct answer, they can stand up again.
This is a really great idea, especially for an ESL classroom. Putting the students in a situation where they feel the pressure to answer quickly will really demonstrate what they understand and what they still need work on.