Introduction

In this game called “Hobby Mystery”, students take on the role of sound detectives, who listen to different sounds related to hobbies, as they act out their guesses and discuss their answers. “Hobby Mystery” utilizes elements from Total Physical Response (TPR) but instead of verbal commands, sounds guide the movements, thus allowing for more creative responses. The goal is to engage the students in practicing and expanding their vocabulary. 

Target group and Time

Target group: 5-6 grade. The students should know basic vocabulary for hobbies.

Time: 10-15 min 

Learning objectives

This game combines listening comprehension skills, communication skills and pantomime. This multi-sensory approach supports the retention of vocabulary, which is the main learning target of the lesson. The game allows students to use their individual experiences to interpret the sound and act it out. Different interpretations are encouraged as they lead to conversations about similarities and differences between hobbies.

Instructions to set up the activity

Materials: Bluetooth speaker, cards, and recorded sounds (for sample sounds see below).

Preparation: The teacher chooses hobby vocabulary that should be practiced, records sounds that correspond to the hobbies and prepares cards with each hobby written on it.

For a resource for additional pre-recorded hobby sounds see:  https://freesound.org/

Letting it run

Students stand in a circle and are introduced to the game as follows: “Today we are going to play a game called Hobby Mystery. You are going be to detectives and have to find out the hobby. You will listen to a sound, act out your guess and then we will discuss your idea.“ It is helpful if the teacher demonstrates the instructions using gestures: listen to the sounds (putting your hand to your ears), act out your guess (acting out a few hobbies e.g. kicking a ball, running…), discuss your answer (point to the head and mouth). 

When the students have understood the instructions, the activity starts. The teacher plays the sound twice and the students have to act out their guess without speaking first. Next, the discussion phase begins. The teacher asks the students what they have heard and which hobby the sound represented. The teacher can refer to the students as detective (name of student). The students get to explain their movements and their associations to the sound. It gets quite interesting if the students do different movements and connected the sound to different hobbies. 

After each round when the group has decided on an answer or more, the cards that correspond to the hobbies are revealed and put on the board (see image above).

Drawing.mp3riding a bike.mp3Reading .mp3Playing video games.mp3playing guitar.mp3piano .mp3cooking.mp3