Activity

Spyfall

Based on the party game. Simple conversation game to practice "I have to..." or "I would...".

I did a Halloween version of this game yesterday, and reskinned it with some Spy x Family theming for more general use. This is modified from the party game of the same name!

Prep: printing and cutting the cards.

Rules:
-Break the students up into groups of 4-6.
-Each round, the students will receive a card with the same location written on it, except one student in each group will receive a card that simply says "spy". (Edit - I've also found that instead of cards, it's good to assign each student a number, have them all put their heads down, tap the spies on the shoulder, project the word or character/flag/etc on the screen, and then call out one number at a time. Civilians look up at the board, spies keep their heads down even when their number is called. Saves paper + stress from cutting and keeping track of paper, haha)
-The students go around saying an "I have to..." sentence relevant to the location - for example, for "library", "I have to read a book", "I have to be quiet", etc. For New Horizons 3 Unit 6, the sentence format can be changed to "If I were here, I would...". Since the spy doesn't know the location, they have to guess from context clues to form their sentence.
-After they've all spoken, the whole group votes on who they think the spy is. (I included some useful doubt/suspicion phrases in the powerpoint - when we did the Halloween version it was vampires instead of spies so I told them to "throw garlic" at people who they suspected. You can choose whether you want to include or remove "point gun" from the slide, haha.)
-If they vote wrong, spies win! If they vote right, civilians win!

There are 4 rounds' worth of cards included here! The game tends to drag on if the ALT and JTE don't step in to keep the groups on track with speaking/voting, but groups will usually move at different paces anyway, especially when a spy has to speak first and outs themself right away :)

Files:
Small files
  • spyfall cards.docx (85.5 KB)
  • Medium files (requires an account to download) -
  • SPYFALL.pptx (6.23 MB)
  • 103
    Submitted by kirig19 November 1, 2022 Estimated time: ~30 minutes for 4 rounds
    1. UonumaRobert November 1, 2022

      So the spy doesn't know the location. Very nice idea.

    2. kirig19 November 7, 2022

      @UonumaRobert thank you, classics are classics! :)

    3. jason November 8, 2022

      How have I never thought of using this game in a class. Thanks!
      Gonna try this in ES too with NH6's Let's Think About Our Food. Food cards and they can use "The tomatoes are from __" "Tomatoes are in the green group" or even "It's spicy"

    4. FidgeJohnston November 9, 2022

      Thank you for making this! Tried it a few times today to great success, students had a lot of fun :)

    5. kirig19 November 10, 2022

      @iason Honestly, since first playing it, I keep thinking of other grammar points it could be used for, but I hadn't thought about using it 3-hint-quiz style!! Really fun application!

    6. kirig19 November 10, 2022

      @FidgeJohnston aw that makes me so happy to hear! ;-;

    7. dansdaman November 10, 2022

      Tried this today in my 2nd year classes and they absolutely loved it. Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to adapting this to other lessons as needed.

    8. Danakco November 11, 2022

      A wonderful game and thank you for uploading this simplified version of a tabletop classic! I recocmend any teacher who enjoyed this to check out the card games Spyfall and Spyfall 2!
      I will caution any ALT in a, shall we say, naughtier school or class, to perhaps change bedroom to School. Thus avoiding any sukebe answers and has a nice overlap with Library.

    9. Alisha December 20, 2022

      My students really enjoyed this activity! I used countries instead of places with my 3rd grade students (If I were in this country, I would...) and it was a big hit :)

    10. qundrew January 26, 2023

      Did you find explaining the rules difficult for this activity?

    11. cumguzzlr666 February 2, 2023

      Great slides! I used this for future tense "I will..." too. I had to work up towards making sentences. I started with generating words with the students, then had them practice the grammar point using the words they generated, then they played the game

    12. kirig19 February 8, 2023

      @qundrew Oh absolutely. I've had trouble explaining this game to the class, to the JTE, and at parties in America to my English-speaking friends. I think it's just a little difficult to grasp before playing, so it helps if your JTE can jump in in Japanese, but once people get the hang of it it's smooth sailing!

    13. smarkee February 10, 2023

      Just played this with my 1JHS and they went crazy for it! They got so into it. It was hilarious the first time we played, the spies won in all groups! I definitely recommend this! Thanks for the great info!

    14. kayeozeki July 4, 2023

      Hello, where do they say their answers? Is it just within the group? Or they will need to say it in front of the class one by one?

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