Hot Seat
TOF
Description
In pairs, students describe or act out a secret word on the board while their partner tries to guess it without seeing the word.
Details
7 - 10 years, 11 - 19 years
Pairs
Flexible Duration
Materials required
Tags
Creativity, Collaboration, Communication, Team Building, Topic Specific, Listening Skills
Instructions:
1. Put all of the students into partners.
2. Instruct the partners the stand so that one student in the pair is facing the blackboard, and the other cannot see the blackboard.
3. Write a vocabulary word on the blackboard.
4. The students facing the blackboard must describe the vocabulary word on the blackboard in English. They are not allowed to say the word on the blackboard.
5. When the student not facing the blackboard in a partnership guesses the word on the blackboard, both students sit down.
6. The two students left standing who do not guess the word on the blackboard are "out" of the game.
7. For the next round, the students switch so that the one who saw the blackboard in the first round is now guessing the word on the blackboard, and the teacher writes another vocabulary word. The students who were "out" must stand off to the side.
8. The game continues until only one set of partners remains. They are the winners of the game.
9. This game may also be played with acting instead of describing. If you so choose, you can instruct the students facing the blackboard to act out the vocabularywords without speaking.
Variations & tips:
1. Give bonus points for using specific grammar structures in descriptions, like "It is used for..." or "It looks like..."
2. Switch to silent acting (charades style) every few rounds to practice nonverbal communication.
3. Play with trios instead of pairs, where one describes, one acts, and one guesses.
4. Add a “forbidden word” rule, where students can’t use certain common words in their clues (e.g., for “dog,” no “pet,” “bark,” or “tail”).
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