Activity

Blind Man's Bluff

Students wear "crowns" with picture/word flash cards on them and walk around trying to figure out what they are wearing.

Archived from Englipedia.
Originally submitted by Preston on June 30, 2009.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

  • Flash cards - I used the picture alphabet at the front of the New Horizon textbook.
  • Headbands - I used construction paper and glued the flashcards onto the crowns.

DETAILED EXPLANATION:

  • Make flash cards for as many students are in your class plus five and attach them to the head bands.
  • Review "This is ...", "That is..." and "Is this..." with you class.
  • If you're using pictures out of the textbook, tell the students to get their books out and open them to the correct page. Otherwise, you'll need to provide a sheet with all the words/pictures on it for each student.
  • Either walk around the room and "crown" each student or have them come to you. Either way is fine, but be sure you don't let them see what they are wearing.
  • The goal is that students walk around asking each other what crown they are wearing. The model dialogue would go like this:

Person 1: "Is this an ant?"
Person 2: "That is not an ant."
Person 1: "Is this a koala?"
Person 2: "That is a koala!"

  • Once they figure out what "crown" they have, the students come to you and say "This is..." (For example: "This is a koala!")
  • Congratulate them and give them a new "crown" and send them back out into the fray.
  • If you manage to keep track, the student who goes through the most crowns win, but I usually don't bother with this. As long as the students have fun, they don't care about who the winner is.

VARIATIONS:

  • Demonstrating the grammar point and game with the Japanese teacher or a student seems to be the best way to get the ideas across. It's simple enough that the students can quickly understand it without having to use any Japanese.

TEACHING SUGGESTIONS:

  • Be sure to explain the rules of the game before you start! It's easiest to demonstrate with the Japanese teacher or another student. Some students will obviously cheat or simply tell their friends what they're wearing, but at the very least they'll practice the grammar construction with you.
  • Also, as the game progresses, you'll end up with quite a few students who have figured out their crown, so you'll want them to make one line to avoid too much confusion. I laminated my flashcards so that they could be used over and over again, but the head bands may need to be remade any number of times.
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Submitted by Englipedia Archive April 18, 2019 Estimated time: 15-30 min

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