Review vocabulary with the crazy cards game 

This is a very interesting idea to practice and review vocabulary with your students and the best of all is that you can also use it in an online setting. 

This activity can be used with any level of students from basic to advanced

Let me show you how to use it.

Let’s take a look at the materials you will need

1.     Casino cards (Don’t worry if you don’t have them. At the end of this post you will find a link to download casino cards you can print and use for this activity.)

2.     Numbers and letters chart (At the end of this post you will find a link to download the PPT with the chart )

INSTRUCTIONS

First, you need to draw this chart on the board, if you have a projector or a tv you can prepare a PowerPoint with the chart. Another great idea is to draw the chart on a poster paper so you can easily take it from one class to another.

The second step is to organize your students into groups, 4 to 5 students per group would be awesome. You also need to remember to select a team leader.

Now one student from team A will pick a card from the maze and say only one word with the corresponding letter. For example, if a student from team A picks a card with the number 2, he or she will need to say a word that starts with C or P ( let’s say they used the word cat for this example). If the student says the word correctly, his or her team will get a point.

Now it is team’s B turn to get a point. For this, you will ask the team to create a sentence using the word that the student from team A said. For example, if the word was Cat, team B can create a sentence like “ I have a CAT”.

And now you need to repeat the same process, but this time team B will select the card, and team A will say the sentence.

Remember that this activity can be a competition between the teams, whichever makes more points wins.

TIPS TO PLAY THIS GAME

• Give clear instructions to your students. Here I have some possible instructions you can give to your students :

• You will work in two groups (* the number of groups may vary)

• One student from group A will pick a card and say a word with the corresponding letter. (1pt)

• Group  B will create a sentence with the word. (1pt)

• A student from group B will pick a card and say a word with the corresponding letter. (1pt)

• Group  A will create a sentence with the word. (1pt)

• We will use 10 cards.

2.     IMPORTANT!!! Before starting the game, you must give a demonstration to the students. So before you start the competition you can call a couple of students to demonstrate what they are supposed to do.

3. Establish clear rules before starting the activity. Some suggested rules for this activity could be :

             – Be quiet while your classmates are giving their word or sentence.

             – Respect the time limit that you have to give the word or sentence.

4.     For the time limit, you can tell your students before you start the activity that to say the word they have 30 seconds to think and to create a sentence, 40 seconds.

5.     You can also use this activity in an online setting. What I usually do is to show five cards to my students on my webcam, and ask them to pick one. In an online setting, you can ask the members of the groups to send you their word using the chatbox.

6. At the end of the activity, it will be also a good idea if you can reflect on it with the students. So you can get feedback from your pupils and look for ways to improve your teaching.

7. If you don’t have casino cards, you can create your own, because basically what you need are the numbers for students to select.

Download the PPT here :

Download a set of printable casino cards here :

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