The goal for the students playing this game is the find their partner. The goal of this game from the teacher's perspective is that the students are practicing listening and understanding numbers between 1 and 100 (or 99 to be precise).
Basic Info
| Time: | 5 - 10 mins |
|---|---|
| Level: | Elementary, grade 5 - 6 |
| Works with: | Numbers 1 - 100 |
| Class size: | Larger the better |
You will need:
- number cards (one for each student)
Preparation
You will need to prepare the number cards. You will need to make them in pairs so that each pair together makes a total of 100. This game can be played a few times as warm up/ review so if you are so inclined, laminating the cards will allow you to reuse them for multiple lessons, classes and schools.
If you're anti-preparation, try the number finger gesture activity, a short and sweet peer-to-peer teaching and checking activity.
Description
- Students each receive a card. They walk around and find a conversation partner.
- After greeting each other, they ask "What number?" or similar. (See comments below.)
- After exchanging their card numbers, they decide if the total is 100 or not.
- If not 100, goodbye and repeat. If 100, success, they can sit down.
Tips
- Demonstrate the game to the students with the HRT. Demonstrate showing the card rather than speaking/ listening and ask students if that's ok.
Warnings
- In a small class, this game might not work so well.
Comments
The teacher I learnt this game from was using it to practice numbers for a Hi, friends! 2 Lesson 1 class. He had the students asking "How many?" to which the students would respond by first looking at the number on their card then saying the number. This was OK for practicing numbers but I feel it was confusing students understanding of what "How many?" really meant.
If the goal was to practice numbers, giving up "How many?" and instead using "What number?" would have been better. If the goal was to use "How many?", perhaps cards with numbers on them isn't the best medium.
By trying to include "How many?" into this activity, some value was lost. Students finish with a lesser (confused) understanding of the language they used. Conceiving games that use English correctly can be difficult but my personal opinion is that if you have to, it's worth giving up a little fun/ craziness in order to get closer to real English communication.