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Crazy Abilities

People

A laptop

A Ferrari

&

&

&

birds

calculator

cheetah

An aeroplane

A penguin

You

&

&

&

Superman

a duck

your best friend

A parrot

Your mum

A turtle

&

&

&

a child

dad

a tree

A monkey

A cat

A kangaroo

&

&

&

a squirrel

an owl

a flea

Your teacher

A gun

An American
woman

&

&

&

you

a thunder bolt

an English man

CHOOSE
PLAYER

Written by Tim Russ for Teach-This.com 2013

REVERSE

SKIP

PICK UP ONE

PICK UP TWO

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Crazy Abilities
This teaching activity is based on the card game Crazy Eights. This game gets students to
think what the pairs of items on the cards have in common in terms of skills or abilities, and
express that using the modal verb can. They must also learn to use strategy to win.
Before class, copy and cut out one set of cards for each group of three students.
Procedure
Write a few pairs of items similar to those on the cards, and model the target language.
Example:
A: What can a bird and Superman do?
B: They can both fly.
Divide the class into groups of three and hand out the cards.
The students shuffle the cards and deal them out. For groups of three, each player should
have five cards and five cards should be in a pile.
If you have a group of four, each player should have four cards and four cards should be in a
pile.
The first player in the group chooses one of his or her cards, lays it on the table, and directs
a question using the target language to the player on his or her right.
If the respondent gives an answer that is accepted by the group, then he or she wins the
right to pick one of his or her cards, lay it down and direct a question to the next player on
the right.
If the answer is not accepted, then he or she is not allowed to lay down any of his or her
cards, but the next player is, and the game proceeds from there.
The wild cards (reverse, skip, pick up one, pick up two and choose player) can be used by
any player who holds them to delay opponents at any point during the game.
The player just says aloud what is on the wild card and the group must follow the order
Wild cards
REVERSE = the game changes direction
SKIP = the player to the right of the one holding this card misses a turn
PICK UP ONE and PICK UP TWO = the next player must pick up one or two cards from the
pile
CHOOSE PLAYER = the player holding this card may choose the next player to have the
right to lay down a card and ask a question
The first player to get rid of all of his or her cards wins the game.
Written by Tim Russ for Teach-This.com 2013