Scary Stories:

Object of Game: Tell a chilling tale or two.

1. Sit around in a circle in a darkened room, with a flashlight in the middle of the circle.
We do not recommend candles, as it can be dangerous with the kids.
2. One player starts the game by saying "Once there was......" and makes one or two
sentences. It should relate to and build upon what was previously said.
3. The next person to the right then adds to the story a couple of sentences. Go around
the room at least once.
4. Try to make the stories scary or gross.

Tips and Ideas, start with:

Once there was an old man walking through the graveyard.......

Once there was an old lady who look so much like a witch.........

Once there was a shadow.................

Once there was an erie sound that was like...........

WINK MURDERER

Number of players:
5+

Activity:
Have everyone stand in a circle and close their eyes.
One person must sit out each round. This person will pick the murderer and the detective.
The non-player will walk around the circle and tap a player once on the head to indicate
they are the murderer. They will then tap another player on the head twice to indicate that
player is the detective.
The players can now open their eyes. The non-player must now wait out the round.
The detective should move to the middle of the circle and try and figure out who the
murderer is through a asking the players questions.
Meanwhile the murderer will 'kill' people off by winking at them, without the detective
catching them. If a player is killed, they should die dramatically and then leave the circle.
The detective only has three chances to guess correctly who the murderer is; if they fail,
they must remain detective for the next round. If they guess correctly, the murderer is the
detective the next round.

Chain Spelling (Shiri-tori)

Level: Easy to Medium

The teacher gives a word and asks a student to spell it, and then a second student should
say a word beginning with the last letter of the word given. The game continues until
someone makes a mistake, that is, to pronounce the word incorrectly, misspell it or come
up with a word that has been said already, then he/she is out. The last one remaining in the
game is the winner.

This game can be made difficult by limiting the words to a certain category, e.g.. food, tools,
or nouns, verbs, etc.

Bang Bang

Level: Easy

Divide the group into two teams. Explain that they are cowboys and they are involved in a
duel. One student from each team comes to the front. Get them to pretend to draw their
pistols. Say "how do you say..." and a word in their mother tongue. The first child to give the
answer and then "bang bang", pretending to shoot his opponent is the winner. He remains
standing and the other one sits down. I give 1 point for the right answer and 5 extra points
if they manage to "kill" 4 opponents in a row.

Editor's Note: Instead of saying the word in the students' mother tongue, it would be
possible to use a picture or to say a definition ("What do you call the large gray animal with
a long nose?")

Battle Ships - A Vocabulary Game

Level: Easy to Medium

Preparation:
Divide the students in to groups of four or five. Then ask the student to make the name for
their ships for example with the names of animals, cities, movie stars or let them find their
own favourite names.

Ask them to choose the Captain and the Shooter. The captain's duty is to memorize his
ship's name, so he can reply if somebody call his ship's name. The shooter's duty is to
memorize the names of the ships of 'their enemies', so he can shoot them by calling their
ship's name.

Activity:
Arrange all the captains in a circle, the ships' crews must line up behind their captains. The
shooter is the last crew member in line.

The teacher must decide a lexical area of vocabulary, this vocabulary will be used to defend
their ships from the attacks. Every students (except the shooters) must find their own
words. The lexical area for example, "Four Legged Animals". Give the students 1-2 minutes
to find as many possible words as they can and memorize them.

Start the game by calling a ship's name, for example the ship name is "THE CALIFORNIAN".
The captain of THE CALIFORNIAN must reply with a word from the lexical area given, for
example he says "TIGER" followed by his crews behind him one by one, "COW"; "SHEEP"
until it  is the shooter turns and he calls out the name of another ship and the captain of the
ship called must reply and his crews must do the same thing. No word can be repeated.
If the captain is late to reply (more than 2 seconds) or his crew can not say the words or a
word repeated or the shooter shoots the wrong ship (his own ship or the ship that has
already been sunk) the ship is sunk, and the crew members can join the crew of another
ship.

The teacher can change the lexical area for the next round.

In the last round there will be two big groups battling to be the winner.

Describing Appearances & Characteristics of People

Level: Easy to Medium (Low to low intermediate)

Each student is then give one sheet of paper.  One student sits at the front of a room. 
He/she describes a person and the rest of the class draws the person being described.

It is more interesting if the person being described is known by everyone. Once the student
has finished describing that person then he/she reveals who it is and each student shows
his/her drawing. The laughter from this is hilarious as the impressions tend to make the
character in question look funny.

It is a good idea to encourage students to ask the interviewee student questions about who
they are describing.

Hangman

Hello spelling and vocabulary.  I think that aside from flashcards, Hangman might just be
the easiest game to play.  And it’s a fantastic time filler. 

I love to use Hangman when introducing new topics that we are going to study in class, or
clues as to what the assembly is going to be about.  I also like Hangman as a way to get to
know students, or to tell everyone book titles of upcoming stories.  So easy and so fast. 

Plus, you can just as easily have your students come up to the board and have them pick the
word.  I haven’t met a student yet who didn’t want to do that.

Get Out of Here

‘Get Out of Here’ is a fun game I like to play right before the end of the day, right before
recess, or lunch.  I stand in the doorway with either a set of Trivial Pursuit questions or
flashcards. 

In order to get out of my classroom you need to answer 3 questions correctly.  If not, you
head to the back of the line and start over. 

For students who answer those questions correctly, they can get out of my room earlier
than others.  And who doesn’t love that?
Fast Facts

This game consists primarily of giving students 100 simple math problems and a limited
amount of time to use them.  I use this daily with my elementary students and tutoring
students. 

The whole idea is to get your students to understand these math problems so well that it
becomes rote.  For 100 problems for a 3rd grader, give them 5 minutes; a 4th grader gets
four minutes; a 5th grader gets three minutes; and a 6th grader gets one minute. 

This same idea can be applied to pronunciation of words.  With two students, give one a
timer and the other has 100 words that they have to say correctly.  The same time structure
applies too.  It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s a great way to work on a skill.

Scavenger Hunts

Scavenger hunts are a lot of fun, but they definitely take some planning to get set up.  The
great thing is, they can be used for nearly every subject. 

I like to set up a scavenger hunt for when starting new social studies, science, or reading
units.  I go through the material beforehand and I create questions, fill-in-the-blank,
pictures, dates, people – anything that I want my students to really know before we get into
the unit.  And then I put them into small groups and they have to search the textbooks,
encyclopedias, online, and around the classroom for the clues. 

If I’m really on my game I try to get other classrooms involved and have students go to visit
there for clues.  It’s so much fun.   I’ve tried doing scavenger hunts when doing nature units
– but that does present the logistics on keeping an eye on all students, so plan accordingly if
you decide to go that route.