There are several games we normally played in El Salvador, everyone knows them, but how can you adapt them to your EFL Class? In this blog, I will show you some of the national games I have played with my EFL students and that have worked perfectly great.
1. BACHILLERATO STOP
This is a famous game students play when they are bored or with nothing much to do. Why not to use it as a warm up to review vocabulary?
1. Write on the board different categories, I usually write 7, starting by "Letter", Name, Place (Countries, cities, place of the city), Food (fruits, vegetables, drinks), Adjective, Verb, Thing, and finally Total.
2. Choose a letter and tell students to write a word from each category starting with the letter you said. To vary, you can do it pairs. The first group to finish must scream "Bachillerato stop".
3. Ask the winner to tell you his/her answers. If another group got the same or different answers, they must say it. If the answers are the same in one category, they get 5 points. If they have different answers in one category, they get 10. At the end, they must add up all the points from each category and write it in the "Total" space.
2. TRIPA CHUCA (Dirty guts)
Again, this is a very popular game played among students to have fun when being bored. Here's how you could adapt it to your class
1, Write two sets of words all around the board in a messy fashion, one in english and one with its translation.
2. Break the class in two or three groups. And ask the teams to line up in front of the board.
3. Give each group a marker of a different color and they will have to go to the board and match the English word with its translation without touching any other word nor line traced by the others.
To vary the game, you can give them two bridges in case they are stucked and want to jump from one line to another.
3. MICA
It's kind of a variation of "Tag, you're it".
Once we have studied new words, I take them out and tell them we are about to play "Tag, you're it". If you dont want to be "it", you must say one of the words we just learned plus its translation and freeze until someone gets to give you "Libre". This activity works really well specially with kids, they love it! and also with teenagers in an open area.
4. MAR Y TIERRA
