About this activity
Fourteen board spaces that each ask for a different language skill: name three animals; say a sentence with because; what's the opposite of hot; tell what happens next, the glass is tipping over; use but in a sentence; name the category for dog, cat, horse; finish this — if it rains tomorrow, then; tell a story with a problem and a solution. The breadth is the design: it runs for a mixed group where every student has a different goal.
How to use it in a session
Assign yourself the space that matches each student's goal rather than letting the roll decide entirely. In a group where one student is working on categories and another on complex sentences, both can play the same board and be practising their own target. The last space — tell a story with a problem and a solution — is the most demanding by a distance and worth landing on deliberately. Twenty minutes is a full game.
What to listen for
Watch which spaces reliably produce short answers. A student who names three animals in two seconds and stalls on say a sentence with because has category knowledge and not complex syntax, and the board doubles as a quick survey of where the gaps are. Notice whether answers get longer as the game goes on, which usually means the student has relaxed rather than improved.
Carrying it home
Several of these work without the board. Name three things in a category, or finish an if-then sentence, are car games that take ten seconds and use the same skills.
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- First through fifth, and the difficulty scales by what you accept as an answer rather than by the space.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all fourteen spaces play with no account.
- Can I use it with a mixed group?
- That is what it is for. The spaces cover categories, opposites, complex sentences, prediction and narrative, so students with different goals can play the same game.