Board game from Wendy (Col·legi Claver, Lleida)

Happy Easter holidays, everyone!

We leave you with a great idea for a board game that Wendy, Conversation Assistant at Col·legi Claver, has sent us. It’s a great way to get students speaking and it is adaptable to all schools.

Thanks a lot, Wendy!

…………………………………………….

I have to prepare many different activities for the children of Claver, including songs, games and quizzes, to rouse their interest in the English language and get them to practice their pronunciation (which is the main reason they learn with me!)

Recently, with sixth year, the students have been playing a board game, called

‘A Day at School’, which I adapted from a website, specifically made for learners of English as a foreign language.  The game includes a board which features pictures of different areas of a school, including classrooms, playground, swimming pool and cafeteria and before starting the game I test the students understanding of each area.

Students roll the dice and move their counters around the board.  If they land on a red spot, they have to take an action card and read it aloud to the other players.  The action card tells them that a specific teacher has asked them to go to a specific area of the school so they must move their counter to the corresponding picture.  I adapted the game so that the action cards feature actual teachers of Claver, making the game more personal to the students and when the first student reads an action card aloud, it usually produces a laugh and encourages them to speak further about the instruction.

If a student lands on an area of the school without being asked to go there by a teacher, the student to the right of the current player must ask them why they are in that area, for example, if a student lands on the library, the player to their right would ask, “Why are you in the library?” and the student whose counter is in the library has to reply.  There are no rules as to what the student can, or cannot say, as long as they speak English and their answer makes sense, so they could say, “I am in the library because I want to read a book”, for example.

To win the game, players must have at least three action cards before making their way to ‘Goal’ on the board.