Boys and girls - a speaking game/activity for young students

   I made this game to help my first and second graders learn to talk about people's names, age and mood (sad/happy). It's also a good way to revise colours and numbers (1-14), as well as practise making affirmative, negative and interrogative sentences using to be (am, is are) and different pronouns. 
   There are 14 boys, 14 girls and 7 sets of tockens. Here's an example of how to play:

 Spread the boy cards on the table and hide 7 pots with gold and 7 ghosts underneath. Your partner looks away so that he doesn't see where you place the tockens. He turns back when you're ready and describes one of the boys (He is red and happy. What's his name? How old is he?) You answer the questions, pick up the card and put it away. Your partner gets the tocken hidden under it.  Then he chooses 6 more boys and you both follow the same pattern again. The aim of the game is to get as many pots with gold as possible. Once your partner has chosen 7 boys, then it's your turn to guess. In the end, you compare the number of pots with gold you've got and find out who the winner is.

This is only one of many possible variations. You can use other tockens as well, or only one of them (put it under one of the boys/girls cards and let your partner guess the card you've chosen - asking questions, of course). The Easter eggs could be used for Egg Hunting game. Children can also practise spelling the names on the cards, thus revising the alphabet. You can practise using have got/has got, possessive pronouns (my/her/his/their etc.) Just use your imagination :-)

Countries and nationalities - a speaking activity

 Here's how we play this game in class:
 1. A student chooses a girl (from the first slide)and the others guess who it is, asking the following questions: Is she German? Is she 8 years old? Is she from France? Is her name Ann? 
The student has to give short answers (Yes, she is/No, it isn't, etc.) 
2. After that the student turns away from the screen and answers his fellow students' quesions about the girl he's chosen (this time special quiestions, like "What's her name? How old is she? Where is she from? What nationality is she?") 
3. Do the same with the slides showing boys and pairs of people.

  
Download the activity

Talking about people - 8 activity cards

I'm going to use these cards with my 4-th graders, so that we could review the material from the previous year. I'm planning to use them in several ways.

  First, each student takes a card and tells the class about the child/children on his card.

  Next, each student chooses a card and the others ask him/her special questions to find out as much information as possible. Then they say what they've found out about that person.

  Finally, students work in pairs and try to guess which picture their partner has chosen. They ask general questions about age, clothes, food, favourite season, hobbies, country and nationality and name.

The activity cards are editable.

My Family - a speaking activity

 Student A and student B are two siblings who " have lost their memory" as a result of a serious fight. They ask each other general/special questions to find out the facts they don't remember and circle the right words / fill in the missing information. If they don't know how to write a word, they can ask the partner to spell it.

e.g.: A   - Is our grandma's name Liz?                          A   - What's my name?       

         B   - No, it isn't. Her name is Mary.                      B   - Your name's Lucy.

        A   - Is our grandad on holiday?                               B   - How old am I?

        B - Yes, he is.                                                                 A   - You're 11.

The worksheet is editable, so you can change anything you need.

"Hello! Who are you?" animation

This is a short animation about two teddy bears meeting for the first time. They tell each other about themselves - name, age and their families. The target vocabulary is extremely easy. After watching it, you can practise the same questions and answers with your students and ask them to tell what they remember about Sam and Betty. Here is an online exercise with the animation.