Introduction
The idea of this game is to get the students to spontaneously form sentences and questions. The students receive vocabulary cards with possible answers to questions about their animal. They are asked questions they have to answer as the animal they picked if they have lost the round of musical chairs and the other students try to guess what animal they are based on those answers, before the animal is revealed. Then that student has the opportunity to ask the next student about their animal. This game could also work with countries, plants or other vocabulary fields.
Target group and Time
- Target Group: Grade 5 (could be adjusted for younger or older students, the musical chair element could be left out e.g. or the questions could be more complex)
- Time: The time depends on group size and participants, rounds can be longer or shorter depending on the amount of questions and the amount of time used for the music playing during the musical chairs rounds. With 5th graders one round typically took ca. 7 minutes.
Learning objectives
- Vocabulary: Every student receives a card with a picture and name of their animal, their favourite food, place, habitat, dislikes and the way it moves. This is meant as a support for the students, they do not have to adhere strictly to the cards. The students do not know beforehand what question specifically they will be asked, so they have to answer and form entire sentences spontaneously.
- Grammar: The students need to form correct sentences and correct questions. Another card with possible question fragments can be provided if the students struggle to form questions without any support.
- Note: The difficulty levels can be adjusted by providing more or less vocabulary and syntactic help on the cards. One could leave the possible answers out completely and only provide the students with the picture and name of their animal.
Instructions to set up the activity
- Explaining it to your students: Let them explain it in their own words (again).
Ask your students whether they know what musical chairs is. They might know the German name for the game. If they do know the game, let one of them explain it in English. (And repeat the instructions if necessary.) Then explain how the students each have to pick a card and then answer some questions according to their animal if they lose the round of musical chairs. Make sure the students know that what is written on the cards is not to be taken as law. Have one of your students repeat the instructions and make sure everybody has understood what they are supposed to do.
- Set up: The cards are distributed randomly.
The cards are shuffled and held out facing down and every student can pick their own card. It is important that they understand what is on their card and do not show it to the other students. Give the students a moment to look at their cards and ask questions if necessary.
The game of musical chairs also needs to be set up. If one uses paerps or canvas bags instead of actual chairs this can be done very quickly. The canvas bags or papers can also be rearranged rather quickly.
Letting it run
- Make sure the students know they can ask for vocabulary help during the game should they need it, but let them answer as independently as possible.
- The card with the question fragments is only supposed to be used when the student really needs it. Ask them if they need any help or if they want to come up with questions themselves before the next round starts so they have time to think of potential questions beforehand.
- Should the students be very enthusiastic and up for it, you can ask them to embody their animals a bit more. You might ask them to demonstrate how their animal moves or speaks.
