The “Find the Words in Common” Game
Teaching Aim
This game can be played by two players (or two teams).
The aim of this game is to get students to think about the meanings of words and to practice asking questions.
To make the game cards, you need a list of words that the students have been studying. The length of the list should be a multiple of three.
How to play
Enter the words into the forms on the following pages. Print off the page with the lists of words and cut out the three boxes of word lists.
The box with three lists, with the headings: A, A & B and B, should be kept by the teacher. The other lists, A and B, should be given to the appropriate teams. Tell the students not to let the other team see their team’s list.
Tell the students that half of the words on their list are on both lists, and the other half of the words on their list are just on their team’s list. They have to find which words are in which just their list and which words are in both. It may help to write A, A & B and B as headings on the board at this point.
Team A starts by picking a word from their list and asking Team B if that word appears on their list. However, Team A are not allowed to say the word itself. Instead, they must describe, draw or mime the word. Team B has to guess the word that Team A are trying to express and say whether that word appears on their list or not. When Team B successfully guess the word and say whether it appears in their list or not, the teacher should write that word under the appropriate heading on the board.
Play continues until all the words are in the correct columns on the board. The words should match up with the list that the teacher kept. The winning team is the one that finds all the words that only occur in their list first.
Please get started by entering the title for the game you want to create.