Category: English games

I have read a lot of articles and explanations about the past continuous tense. Here I try to sum up everything that I have learnt to a visually appealing mind map and under the map you can find three games to practise the tense. Let’s start with the mind map:

Advertisement:
[showmyads]

 

Here are three games to practise the grammar point:

The first game is called Penalty Shootout. In this game you should choose the correct past tenseand then try to score a goal. Good luck. To play this game, click the download button and then open the file in Adobe Reader. (The game will not play in a browser).

The second game is called Hoopshoot. Once again, you have to choose the correct answer and then try to score. To play this game, click the download button and then open the file in Adobe Reader. (The game will not play in a browser).

If you want to be the first to know about our new posts follow us on TWITTER:

Follow @Zdendaa

Furniture vocabulary is one of the easy areas for learners of English. However, I think that it never hurts if the students experience some success.

In this post, there is a video with all the words, an infographic and three games to practise the vocabulary.

Start your lesson with the vocabulary film. Listen and repeat the words and then say the English word for the furniture that you see in the picture. The words are presented and then repeated. The video is based on the learning method described and recommended by Baddeley in his book on memory. I can confirm that it works.

Play the video at least twice in the lesson. Your students will remember the words better.

ADVERTISEMENT:
[showmyads]

Here is a mind map showing all the important furniture words. The pieces are placed in the rooms but they could appear in a different room.

And now it is time to practise the new vocabulary. Here you can find three games. First is a quiz and if you label more than 70% of the pictures correctly you will get to play a game called Indiara. The game is in HTML5 so it will play on all mobile devices and desktop computers.

Furniture vocabulary – label

The second game is basketball. If you choose a correct answer you will get a chance to throw the ball into the basket. Good luck 🙂 To play this game, you need to download the game and then open it in Adobe Reader. Then click on the game and it will work.

The third games is called Matching. Your task is to find the picture and the correct word. Will you manage it in fewer then 40 turns? This game is in HTML5 and it will play on all mobile devices and desktop computers.

Furniture vocabulary – matching game

Past simple is one of the most important English tenses. Scott Thornbury once wrote that he would sacrifice all the perfect tenses and other grammar if he could teach past simple properly. I agree with him, because if the students could you this tense, then I would probably forgive them everything.

To teach all the basic English grammar rules about the past tense I use the following mind map.
ADVERTISEMENT:
[showmyads]

I believe that it is critical that students know the irregular verbs. Here you can find two games to learn and practise the verbs. You cannot master the basic grammar rules without some memory work and a lot of practice. To play the games, click the download link and open the downloaded file in Adobe Reader. Then click on the game and enjoy.

During the week more activities on Past simple tense are coming. Watch out for them.
To be the first to learn about our latest games and activities follow us on TWITTER:
Follow @Zdendaa

Free graded readers

Students often find the vocabulary for personal qualities really difficult to learn and understand. Here I try to present the vocabulary in a slightly different way and give the students a chance to practise the personal qualities in games.

Advertisement:
[showmyads]

Start your learning with this video. Repeat the words with a native (American) speaker and read the definitions of the words.

Here is a mind map where I tried to organise the personal qualities into reasonable and memorable categories.

And now it is high time to practise the new vocabulary in games.

To play the En Garde game, download the file and open it in Adobe Reader. Then click the picture and the game will start.  Your task is to choose the correct answer and then stop the target as close to the centre as possible. Hopefully, you will be faster and more accurate then your opponent. The game is in Flash and will play only on desktops:

Personal qualities Wordsearch.

To be the first to learn about our latest games and activities follow us on TWITTER:
Follow @Zdendaa

Free graded readers

Reported speech is quite difficult. Students are often confused why the tenses change and what they mean. Here they will get a chance to understand the grammar point better.

First, they can watch the two videos explaining the usage of reported speech.

Advert:
[showmyads]

The second explanation is based upon the Grammar challenge by BBC too. This time they explain the reported questions. Right click the link below and download the file. Then open it in Adobe Reader, otherwise it will not play.

Grammar challenge reported questions

Here you can see a mind map which tries to sum up all the grammar points into one picture.

And as this site concentrates on games to practise grammar and vocabulary, here is another game to practise reported speech. In this game only the basic rules are practised and therefore the option that the direct speech remains as it is, is never correct in this game.

Reported Speech – En garde game

To play the game, click the download button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Then open the downloaded file in Adobe reader (it is free) and it will work.

Follow us on TWITTER:Follow @Zdendaa

Food, glorious food … Food is one of the most important vocabulary areas to teach. You can teach about 30 different vocabulary items connected with food in this post. There are several activities to use: an infographic, a video and an online quiz.

(more…)

Many students do not understand the present perfect tense. Here is an infographic which should make the present perfect tense easier for students to understand.

(more…)

Many students find the difference between present perfect tense and past simple very confusing. To help them I have created the following infographic.

(more…)

To learn this difficult tense you first have to learn the past participles. Regular verbs just add the ending -ed but you have to memorise the irregular ones. Here is a mind map which might help you memorise the irregular verbs first

(more…)