Activity

Thanksgiving Dinner - Vocab/Memory Game!

Students try to remember what was said before them and add one more word.

This is a Thanksgiving-themed variation of a game that I learned as the Alphabet Game or the I'm Going on a Picnic game. All you need are copies of the vocab sheet! It's easy to demonstrate, easy to play, and it gets students speaking. They also enjoy learning about some of the special foods Americans eat at Thanksgiving. It's fun to use as a warm-up game around the holidays.

The concept is basically that the students are all at the table at Thanksgiving, and they are saying what foods they want to eat.


How it works:

Make groups of 4.

Pass out a copy of the vocab sheet to each student. (I highly recommend printing these in color, as the students really enjoy the pictures of food).

Janken to decide who goes first.

The first student says, 'I want -' and chooses one food item from the vocab sheet. For example, 'I want turkey.'

The next student must remember what the last student said and add one more item. 'I want turkey and cranberry sauce.'

The next student then must remember what both previous students said and add their own item. 'I want turkey, cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes.'

Continue until someone messes up, then start over again.

The goal is pretty much to go as long as you can. You can play around with different rules/goals.


Notes:

Students need to not only say what the previous students said but also say it in the correct order. So, even if they get all the items in there, if they say it in the wrong order, game over.

My students didn't have much trouble pronouncing the words, even some of the wordier ones like 'green bean casserole.' In fact, they enjoyed the silliness of it.

This is also a good opportunity to emphasize how to list two or more things, for example, only saying 'and' before the final item. That's something I see a lot of my elementary students struggling with.

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Submitted by ForestHart November 18, 2024 Estimated time: 15 minutes
  1. ambercece November 19, 2024

    I might just use the vocab sheet for my English board XD It's a good game, hope I get the opportunity to play it with the students. Thanks!

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