Bingo

This is a game where students have different cards that consist of squares.  The teacher has a list of the objects in the squares, and reads it until a student gets a complete line of squares (vertically, horizontally, or diagonally).  The student says "Bingo" and repeats the objects back to ensure that it is correct.  It is good for targeting reading and listening at the same time for the alphabet, numbers, or vocabulary.

Required Materials

1) A list of items to cover

2) Bingo cards (an excellent Excel spreadsheet for generating cards is here).  A picture of cards generated using this spreadsheet for learning Arabic letters and sounds is below.

Instructions

1) Create the bingo cards for your class and distribute them to your class

2) Read the words until someone gets "Bingo"
3) Ask them to read the words back to make sure they really have "Bingo"

Variations

Bingo can be adapted in many different ways to target different language skills.  The most traditional way is to put numbers in each square.  You can also put words, as in the picture above.   Or, you could put pictures in each square, and read off vocabulary words, or you could put words, and display pictures on a screen.  You can also have each student read a word off your list to give them more practice rather than reading them all yourself.  

Battleship

This is normally a board game, but it is easy to make with paper and pens or by printing out a copy. It is essentially a guessing game, but it can be used to work on numbers and/or the names of letters.

Required Materials

• 2 copies of a 10x10 grid. The axes can be marked with numbers 1-10, or one can be 1-10 with the other using letters, or the X axis could be 1-10 and the Y axis 11-20. See the example here. The Arabic example below uses 1-10 on the X axis, and 10, 20, 30, etc. on the Y axis, so a grid point is a single number - the grid point below '5' and across from '40' would be given as '45.' Students can thus practice numbers 11-99.
• Play pieces, or the size of the different "ships" can be marked directly on the grid as follows:
• Aircraft carrier: 5 grid spaces
• Battleship: 4 grid spaces
• Submarine: 3 grid spaces
• Cruiser: 3 grid spaces
• Destroyer: 2 grid spaces

Instructions

1. Class is divided into groups of 2.
2. Each player randomly places their ships on the grid, hidden from the eyes of the other player.
3. Each player takes turns calling out the name of a grid point. If their opponent has a ship at that location, they say, "hit", otherwise they say "miss." One variant of the game allows each player to make as many "shots" as they have remaining ships.
4. If the other player has struck all the points of  ship, it is dead. The game continues until one player kills all their opponent's ships. 

Additional Resources

An Arabic board emphasizing numbers

Color and Bodyparts "Oral Xerox"

This is a information-gap game/activity that I have used successfully in a number of classes. In the Arabic curriculum, colors and bodyparts are introduced in the same chapter, so this is an excellent activity which works to activate both. Students color in an outline of a body, and then describe these outlines to other students verbally while they color in another blank outline. When the students are finished, they can compare the original and the copy for immediate feedback.

Required Materials

• A drawn picture of the human body (something like this might be useful), with 2 times as many copies as students
• Arabic teachers: You can white out the labels from the diagram of the body on page 334 of Al-Kitaab Part 1, 2nd Edition
• Markers, crayons or colored pencils sufficient for the whole class to use

Instructions

1. Each student is given one copy of the body diagram, and encouraged to color in the body however they like. 
2. When students are finished coloring the diagrams, collect them, and divide the class into groups of two. Shuffle the diagrams, and give back one per group.
3. Students should sit back to back or in such a way that they cannot both see the picture. One member of the group takes the role of describing the picture, while the other has a blank diagram that they color in according to the description that the student provides (in the target language of course). When they are finished, they can compare the original and the copy to see how well they communicated.
4. When a group is finished, the teacher gives them another picture and the students switch roles and play the game again.

Flyswatter vocabulary game

The flyswatters and fast pace make this vocabulary game really fun. I originally played it in my high school Latin class, and remembered it years later.

Required Materials

2 flyswatters

Blackboard/whiteboard

List of target words and cues

Instructions

1. The teacher writes all of the target vocabulary words scattered across the board.
2. The class is divided into two teams. A representative from each team comes up to the board and each representative is given a flyswatter.
3. The teacher reads a cue, and the students might strike the corresponding vocabulary with their flyswatter. The first student to hit the correct vocabulary word wins. You can limit the number of times students are allowed to hit the board to keep them from just guessing.
• Cues can be anything as long as they allow the students to uniquely guess the word. Typically cues are the translation of the word, or even better, a sentence in the target language with a "blank" where the word would be.
4. For the student who didn't choose the correct word, or who was slower, you can ask them to give a sentence with the word, and they can receive a point for a well formed, meaningful sentence.

Word Race

This is a game for learning the alphabet by practicing reading and writing sounds.

Required Materials

A numbered list of words you would like the students to practice

A timer 

Instructions

1) Divide students into groups of 3-4 and put the word list at the front of the room

2) Start a timer for the amount of time you would like to play

3) One student from each group comes to the front and reads the first word on the list

4) This student reports back to their group and pronounces the word until all group members have written it correctly

5) A second student from the group comes to the front to read the second word and dictate it to their group

6) The group that completes the most amount of words in the allotted time wins.  

Taboo

This is a vocabulary game where students try to use descriptions and speech to get other students to guess a word. The name comes from the more advanced variation where not only is there a target word, but there are also "taboo" words which a student may not say while trying to get their group to say the target word.

Required Materials

(ideally) Small slips of paper with current vocabulary words
(for advanced students) Small slips of paper or small cards with the target word, and "taboo" words written on them

Instructions

1. Divide students into groups - you can divide the class in half or into smaller groups.
2. One student in each group is given a vocabulary word card, and required to use sentences, descriptions, etc, to get the other students to guess the target word. 
3. If playing a more advanced version and the speaker uses the "taboo" word, then their turn is over (or alternately, they lose a point for each taboo word they use).

Variations

• This game can be played for points between two teams, in which case a time limit should be set. During the time limit, only students from the same group can try to guess the word. If the student exceeds the time, students from the other group may guess the word. Whichever group guesses the word correctly receives a point.
• The game can be played as a race between two groups. Each group is given the same number of vocab cards. Each person in the group is required to draw a vocab word. When the group guesses the word correctly, the next person in the group has to draw. The first group to guess all of the vocabulary words wins.
• In order to make the game more communicative, one can ask students to use a correctly guessed word in a sentence for an extra point or a piece of candy.

Charades

This is a vocabulary game where students try to guess a vocabulary word based on another students' gestures. It can be played in small groups or as a class.

Required Materials

(ideally) Small slips of paper with current vocabulary words

Instructions

1. Divide students into groups - you can divide the class in half or into smaller groups.
2. One student in each group is given a vocabulary word, and required to use gestures to get the other students in the group to guess the word. The gesturer must be silent the entire time.
3. You may give students special signs to indicate part of speech so they can reduce the scope of possible words. Some other special signs are typically used in charades: 

• A tug of the ear is used to indicate "sounds like" (followed by gestures for a similar sounding word)
• Touching the forearm with fingers indicates a particular syllable in the word (the first time this is done, it typically indicates the number of syllables in a word.) So the person gesturing would first touch their forearm with 3 fingers for "elephant," and then could touch their wrist again with one finger to indicate they are going to make gestures that are for the first syllable.
• When the word has been guessed correctly, the gesturer touches their nose. 

Variations

• This game can be played for points between two teams, in which case a time limit should be set. During the time limit, only students from the same group can try to guess the word. If the student exceeds the time, students from the other group may guess the word. Whichever group guesses the word correctly receives a point.
• The game can be played as a race between two groups. Each group is given the same number of vocab cards. Each person in the group is required to draw a vocab word. When the group guesses the word correctly, the next person in the group has to draw. The first group to guess all of the vocabulary words wins.
• In order to make the game more communicative, one can ask students to use a correctly guessed word in a sentence for an extra point or a piece of candy.

Pictionary

This is a vocabulary game where students try to guess a vocabulary word based on another students' drawings. It can be played in small groups or as a class.

Required Materials

Chalkboard/whiteboard/large drawing pad or students' notebooks

Pens, etc.

(ideally) Small slips of paper with current vocabulary words

Instructions

1. Divide students into groups - you can divide the class in half or into smaller groups.
2. One student in each group is given a vocabulary word, and required to draw something that will help the other students guess the word. They are not allowed to write any words, or to use gestures or speech (except to confirm whether or not the guesses are correct).

Variations

• This game can be played for points between two teams, in which case a time limit should be set. During the time limit, only students from the same group can try to guess the word. If the student exceeds the time, students from the other group may guess the word. Whichever group guesses the word correctly receives a point.
• The game can be played as a race between two groups. Each group is given the same number of vocab cards. Each person in the group is required to draw a vocab word. When the group guesses the word correctly, the next person in the group has to draw. The first group to guess all of the vocabulary words wins.
• In order to make the game more communicative, one can ask students to use a correctly guessed word in a sentence for an extra point or a piece of candy.

Human Typewriter

This is a game which helps students solve dictation exercises as a class. It works well in that it gets students moving and relying on each other to complete the task.

Required Materials

1. Cards or pieces of paper with all of the letters of the languages' alphabet or writing system written on them.

Instructions

1. The cards containing the alphabet are distributed among the students. In most classes, some students will have more than one card, though they should be distributed so that no student will be relied upon to much (so that for English, one student might have "X" "Y" and "Z" rather than giving one student "A" "B" and "C").
2. The teacher says a word aloud.
3. The class is required to spell the word by standing up holding the appropriate letter in order. So for English, if the teacher said "cat" the student holding "C" would stand up, then the student holding "A" would stand, followed by the student holding "T." The students should say the name of their letter aloud.
4. You can also have the students say more information about how the word is spelled. So a student could say "capital" for the first letter in an English word, or give the name of the vowel for languages with an abjad like Arabic and Hebrew (e.g. "Jiim wa-fatha")

Liar Liar

This is a good game for students to practice asking questions and to make sure they listen to the responses from their fellow students. It helps if the students are familiar with each other enough that they know when someone is giving incorrect information.

The game is played by choosing several students who are not allowed to tell the truth. A single student is also chosen who must ask questions of the other students until they can figure out which students are the 'liars.'

Detailed Instructions

1. All students in the class sit in a circle, facing the center
2. One student is chosen to be 'it.' 
3. Once the student is chosen, they are asked to leave the room. Once out of the room, the teacher chooses one to three students to act as 'liars'. Students may also volunteer themselves.
4. The chosen students are not allowed to tell the truth in response to questions, but must give a response.
5. The student who is 'it' returns to the room, and must ask questions of the other students in the target language until they can discover which students are 'liars.'
6. The game can end either when the student who is 'it' finds one liar, or all of them. One of the 'liars' then becomes it for the next round.