Required materials: Print outs of the board game page (editable in PPT!) one per group, a 6-sided die per group, and a color-print Challenge Map page for each teacher. You will also want a form of score keeping whether chalk board or online score-keepers, etc.
Set-up: We usually do a warm-up beforehand that you can find on this website such as the "Up, Down, Tap" game in pairs. Then we put pairs together into groups of 4-ish and give each group a board game page and a die. We put blocks on the chalk board to represent each group which we will later tally points into. We demonstrate a couple of example questions and answers to show what we are looking for. (These blocks are directly editable in the PPT so you can put whatever grammar you want them to work on. Currently set for basic questions practice.)
The gameplay is very simple and there is a brief reminder in the PPT. Essentially students role the dice and move that number of spaces on the circle. They ask the question correspondng to the number that they rolled in the boxes on the right, NOT the number they land on in the circle. The person to their right should answer them. If the answer is not in line with the target (if they need a number and ask what time is it, but their partner says noon, that doesn't count, etc.) then they ask the same person again. The number they land on in the circle controls their chances to try the Challenge Map. I use the number 7 as the target, so when they land on 7 they raise their hand and a teacher will come and get them to try the first challenge on the Challenge Map. If you have a large class, or few teachers, I recommend editing the PPT to have fewer of your chosen number so you don't get overwhelmed. (On PPT, ungroup the numbers as they are little pictures, and then copy and paste to adjust to what you need.) If they successfully complete the first challenge, we give a point to their team. After we give the first point, the other teams usually catch on to what is going on. The challenges are English brain teasers not strictly related to grammar or memory, so students enjoy working on them.
Tips: If a lot of groups start to land on the chosen number at once, we assign them an answer order and allow them to stack chances to keep them motivated to keep working and not sit around waiting for a teacher. On their chalkboard block we often use circles or tics as point markers, so we write in their waiting number (or two numbers if they got lucky and hit it twice in quick succession). That keeps them from arguing about whose turn it is to try a challenge and keeps down the noise level a bit.
This is an activity where it's helpful to wear comfortable shoes and breathable clothing as we always end up running around the classroom to give the challenges to each group.
Note: This PPT uses free vector art and the credit is pasted on the printable clearly visible. Please do not remove the credit.
This is great! It seems like a lot of fun for the students. Its allowing them to use/practice their OWN English, without relying on sample sentences or plug and go setence making.
In general, how big are your classes? And how would you place their English level? I could see this working for one of my schools.
@AVGKF Thanks for the comment! My classes range from 22-36 students this year which I usually put into pairs or groups. The school's academic level is low-mid, but it's a sports school and many classes have a lot of energy I can use to fuel the activities.