Picture Shiritori
Pete Thompson
| GRADE LEVEL: | JHS All |
| SKILLS: | Vocabulary practice |
| TIME: | Ten minutes to a whole class |
| MATERIALS: | None |
| OBJECTIVES: | To review vocabulary, discover new words and check meaning |
PROCEDURE:
This lesson plan is ideal if you are suddenly asked to come to a class or asked on the way to class if you have any ideas for what to do today. It basically exploits the fact that students think any chance to draw is just awesome. Also the drawing means they are not simply transcribing a word from the dictionary without learning its meaning.
1. Start with a warm-up. I often use a game we played at an ALT conference. Asking the class to line up in order according to criteria I give; for example lining up in order of their birthday, starting with January 1st. Then you go along the line and they shout their birthday. Other options are: how many CDs they own, how long it takes them to get to school, etc.
2. The main activity is pretty much as the title suggests. Split the class into teams; in a classroom with 6 columns of students, three teams of two columns seems to work best. Then split the blackboard into three. The first student then comes up to the board and draws something which starts with a starting letter you give. ‘T’ could then be drawings of a tree, a table, tennis, etc.
3. Once the first student has drawn their picture and left the board the next student in the team can get up and draw a picture of something which starts with the last letter of the previous word. For example an egg could follow a tree. When they have finished the third person gets up and so on.
4. The game is now essentially a race to see how many pictures the team can draw on the board before you decide time is up and stop the game. Teachers need to keep checking that the pictures are following the letter before. If they don’t and the chain has progressed, I normally only discount the first incorrect picture/word from the score. If a team runs out of space you can count the current number of pictures then clear their section of the board.
5. In most classes I let them have their dictionaries as if they do use a word they don’t know, they then have to learn the meaning to be able to draw it. At the end of the game, count the scores and the team with the most pictures wins. Reviewing the words to the class as you count scores is worthwhile.
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