Talk about Routine (board game)

ACTIVITY
Groupwork: speaking

AIM
To play a board game by asking and answering questions about routines.

GRAMMAR AND FUNCTIONS
Present simple for routines
Present simple questions with question words: what, where, how
Adverbs of frequency

VOCABULARY
Routine activities


MATERIALS AND PREPARATION

Worksheet 2a | Worksheet 2b | Teacher's notes 1 | Teacher's notes 2

Make one copy of Worksheet 2a (game board) for each group of four to five students. Enlarge this to A3 size, if possible. Make one copy of Worksheet 2b (question cards) for each group of students and cut out all the cards. Provide dice and counters for each group.

TIME
30 to 40 minutes

PROCEDURE

1. Ask the students to work in groups of four or five.
   
2. Give one game board and one set of cards, counters and dice to each group.
3. Before the students start playing the game, explain how toplay using the instructions on the back of Worksheet 2b. lf you wish, you can photocopy these instructions and distribute a copy to each group, or display a copy on an overhead projector.
4. Elicit some examples of how to form correct questions using the prompts on the question cards and encourage the students to add appropriate adverbs of frequency.
   For example:
   (on card: What/have for breakfast?) What do you usually have for breakfast?
   (on card: Where/go for your holidays?) Where do you usually go for your holidays?
   
5. Nominate one student in each group to keep score. The students are now ready to play the game. While they are playing, go round to each group and check they are playing correctly. Encourage the students to use their imagination. Be on hand to answer questions and offer help.
6. When the first student reaches the end of the game, ask all the groups to stop playing, even if they have not finished. In each group, the student with the most points is the winner. Compare scores as a class.
   
   

FOLLOW-UP

1. Ask the students to stay in their groups and to collectively write two sentences about each player's daily routine based on the true answers they gave during the game.
   For example:
   Carlos does his homework in the library.
   He meets his friends in a cafe.
2. Ask a representative from each group in turn to choose one of their group's sentences and read it out aloud without mentioning the name.
   For example:
   Somebody in our group does his homework in the library.
3. Mow the other groups to confer briefly and then say who they think the person is.
4. Give one point for each correct answer.
5. Alternatively, ask groups to give their sentences, with the names blanked out, to another group who guess the missing names, write them in and give them back for correction.
   
   

OPTION
You can use the game board on Worksheet 2a to play different games, using your own question prompt cards. Here are some examples of what you could put on the cards:

- sentences with mistakes: students spot the mistakes
- adjectives: students give the opposite adjective
- infinitives: students give the past simple/past participle
- pictures: students give the word for the picture
- words: students give a definition for the rest of the group to guess the word
- lists of words with one odd word: students spot the odd word out
- topics: students talk about the topic for one minute

You could also ask the students to make up a set of questions for another group to use with the game board. [source: Reward Pre Intermediate Resource Pack by Susan Kay]

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