Game: Guess what I'm thinking!

This is a good way to review vocabulary at the end of a unit, or even when reviewing for final exams at the end of the year. The more vocabulary categories you include, the more fun and interesting the game becomes.

Level: All
Materials: Board

Target Vocabulary/Grammar: Any/Making correct answers to find out specific information.

Prep time: None.

Write on the board 3 or 4 categories of vocabulary that you've been working on with the class. For example: school objects, clothes, food; or if your working with parts of the house you can write: bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, etc. If necessary, make students name some objects before the game starts, this will be a good way to motivate them for the activity.  Pick a student at random and ask him to choose on object belonging to any of the categories you wrote on the board. Make sure you tell him NOT to say it out loud. Then tell the class that their job is to find out what object this one student has in mind, and they can do so by asking yes/no questions. I suggest that you establish some kind of questions hierarchy to make sure the activity doesn't end in a heartbeat and there's some kind of order. I prompt them to ask in this order: size, form, weight, color, uses, and then category. I also try to avoid questions like: Is it a food? or Is it a school object?. Instead, I insist that they produce questions like: Can you eat it? Is it sweet? Do you use it at school? It just allows students to think outside the box and shows them they can obtain the same information in different ways. Try to leave specific information for the end, otherwise the amount of questions the students are likely to produce will be limited. The student who can guess the object, gets to pick the word next, and the game is repeated.

Tips:

• Depending on the level of the class the questions can be more specific or advanced. It's possible to use this activity with any group, you just need to be creative.
• To add some emotion to the activity, try separating the class into two groups and let them compete.
• If you think necessary, make students write their word of choice in a piece of paper, to avoid confusions, lies, etc. (especially for team competition).

Hope it works for you!

XO