Activate: Games for Learning American English - Picture This

ABCs provides students with vocabulary practice by asking them to think of vocabu­lary words that are related to many different topics. Students use Picture This cards as a starting point for each topic. Then they come up with related vocabulary items that begin with many letters of the alphabet. This game works well as a whole-class activity or as a competition among groups.

Same & Different provides students with the opportunity to use their background knowledge about the items on the Picture This cards to create descriptions that compare and contrast two items on a card. This game works well groups of 3, having one student select the two items and the other two students alternate comparing and contrasting the two items.

Questions, Questions gives students practice forming yes/no questions. Using a Picture This card, a player chooses one item, and the remaining players take turns asking yes/no questions to try and guess the ite

In Guess Which Challenge, students create sentences that use one of the words on a Picture This card.

In a Minute provides students with practice forming questions that begin with wh- words: who, what, when, where, why, and how. First, players read and respond to the six ques­tions on a Picture This card. Then players race to write as many questions as they can in a set amount of time. This game wor

Mix It, Fix It! allows students to practice creating well-formed questions. This game works best in small groups.

In Name It!, players take turns using English to describe the items or ideas pictured on the Picture This cards. I

Paraphrase It! provides students with practice saying the same thing in a variety of different ways by paraphrasing. This game works best in groups of 3-4 students

In Pass It On, students use the vocabulary words on a Picture This card to create a story. Download cards and instructions.

Students practice creating questions that contain very specific information about one item from a Picture This card, so that there is only one correct answer to the question.

In Simple Switches, students ask each other questions that they have altered from the original question on a Picture This card.

Word Strings provides students with practice forming phrases and sentences, using vo­cabulary words from a Picture This card as a starting point. This game works best in groups.