Action charades

Write a list of actions on some slips of paper (wash dishes, clean teeth, etc), and put the slips into a box. The students should be assembled into teams. One student takes a slip from the box and acts out the action, while the teams race to guess the action using the Present Continuous tense (for example, "Are you riding a bicycle?").

Kim's game

The name "Kim's game" derives from Rudyard Kipling's novel Kim, which is the story of the orphan boy who grows up in India and is trained for government intelligence work.

The training begins by showing Kim a tray of precious stones and gems for a minute's observation, then covering it, and asking Kim to recall the details of each stone. At first Kim can remember only a few, but soon, by practice, he is able not only to name all the objects, but to describe them too.

In its most common form, several articles are placed on a table and covered with a cloth. The cloth is removed for one minute, while the students attempt to memorise everything on the table. After a minute, the cloth is placed back over the articles, and the students try to recall the items.

Simon says

Simon says is a classic children's game. One person is the leader, who must give instructions to the other students. Students must follow all instructions that begin with "Simon says" (for example, "Simon says, clap your hands"). If, however, a student follows an instruction that does not begin with "Simon says", he or she is "out".

Word association game

For those in the UK, you may know this game as "Mallet's Mallet", from the television-show Wacaday . Start by suggesting a word to one of the students. The student then says a word that he or she associates with the original word. The next student suggestions a word that he associates with the previous word, and so on. Anyone who hesitates is out (it's probably best to avoid hitting students over the head with a Wacaday-style yellow sponge hammer!).

Yes/no game

Different students volunteer to be asked questions. They must avoid saying the words "Yes" or "No" for a given period of time e.g. 1-2 minutes.

This is done by using expressions like: "I do", "I am", "that's true", "that isn't true", "that's not correct", "exactly", "precisely", "that's right", "that's correct", "I think so", "probably", "possibly", "usually".

The questioners can try to trap them through deliberate misunderstanding and echo questions: "Did you say usually? So you said you live in Stuttgart? Perhaps?.