Telephone
From Akita Wiki
| Activity | |
|---|---|
| Whisper down the line. Also known as Chinese whispers | |
| Target level | JHS |
 | |
This is a good, light hearted activity to develop students listening abilities. Students must whisper a sentence to each other and compare the final sentence with the original sentence.
Preparation
- Prepare a list of sentences that are appropriate to the level of your students.
- Give a copy of the sentences to the JTE.
Description
- The students should already be in lines, use these as groups.
- Have ALT and JTE whisper different sentences to the students at the front of the row.
- When all students have heard their sentence the game begins.
- The students whisper the sentence to the person directly behind them.
- And that student whispers it to the person behind them.
- When the sentence reaches the last student, he/she stands up.
- Have the JTE write his/her name on the board, until all students are finished.
- Ask the student who was finished first to say the sentence.
- Ask the first student of that group to verify the sentence if they can.
- If you choose to play again, have students rotate 1 position. So that a different person is in first and last position.
Example
These sentences were used with 3rd grade students.
- 25 medals were won by Japan at the Olympics.
- Have you ever eaten jellyfish?
- Was the shamisen invented by a Frenchman?
- Have you ever heard of Superman?
- There are 26 letters in the English alphabet.
- I have been hungry since I got up.
- Have you ever been to China?
- Gorillas are more interesting than elephants.
- Have you seen my new pet rabbit.
- My girlfriend is as cute as a teddy-bear.
- Kitajima swims as fast as a fish.
- Have you ever seen a ghost?
- Braille is used by blind people.
Please change above sentences to more interesting/humorous versions!
Variations
- Give students descriptive sentences; i.e., He had a beard., He wore a hat., etc. Have the students draw the picture on the board instead of write out the sentence. Good for younger students and low level students too!
