Pictionary
| Activity | |
|---|---|
| The classic drawing game. | |
| Target level | ES - JHS |
 | |
Make flash cards of a dozen or so animals. It's preferable to draw the animals yourself, because then the cards are in keeping with the rest of the activity. Go through the cards twice, each time asking, "What's this?" Insist on full sentence replies ("It's a/an ___"). Let the students have a long look at each picture the first time through, but reduce this to a 1/4 second look on the next. It is also a good idea to jumble the card order. As each card is identified, fix it to the board for future reference. Next, have the students to get into groups. Pass out one Over Head Projector sheet, which you have marked into 12 sections, to each group, and two marker pens. Tell the students that they are going to have 5 seconds in which to draw the animal you nominate in one of the squares on the sheet. Give each group a name, and mark it on the bottom of their cell as you distribute them. Each student gets to draw an animal you nominate in one of the squares before passing the sheet to the next student. It is important that you strictly adhere to the time limit; use a stopwatch and count down the last three seconds. When the final square is filled (it's a good idea to have at least one more animal than there are squares on the sheet), collect the sheets and ready the over head projector. Choose one sheet and announce the group who created it. They have the job of asking the question, "What's this?" as well as judging the correctness of the answer ("Yes.., No..."). Cover the entire sheet before putting it on the over head projector, and then slowly reveal the picture of your choice after the team have asked their question. The remaining students must raise their hands and try to identify the scribble drawing on the screen. Sometimes they are obvious, but sometimes only a few lines and/or dots were drawn. Start off with the more obvious pictures, and gradually select more and more weird pictures. The students enjoy this activity immensely, partly because of the strangeness of the animals they see, and partly because they can see their own artwork on the over head projector for the first time.
Divide the class into teams. Divide the board into 6 boxes and assign each group a number. Have the students Janken to see who will be the first person to draw. Call each of the winners up to the front of the class and give them each a card from your pile. Make sure that you tell each student that the card is a secret. Bring a timer, and give the students exactly one minute to draw a picture of the object on their card. When the time is up, each group must ask what the picture is of. To guess, they must use the vocabulary, “Is that a ___?” Give each team that guesses correctly one point. Words for the cards can be borrowed katakana words.
High School version: (also can be modified to be used with gestures) Words are put onto cards or pieces of paper. The class should be split into at least two group. Each group can have the same words or different words. The students must draw (or gesture) the word without saying anything. The first group to have a student guess the word gets a point. The team with the most points at the end wins. Variations: you can specify that only one student can answer (but others can help them figure out the answer). Also, you can do a “race” where students from each team must finish a set (maybe 8 words) and the first team to complete it wins.
