WORD UP (For kids!)
‘WORD UP’ is a fantastic game for students learning English.If you haven't got it yet then go out and find it. You will be glad you did.The genius of this game is that students are reading, speaking English and listening to English IN English without even realising it!However, my students are younger than those that this game was designed for and so I have been forced to make my own questions and answers and also to uncomplicate the rules a bit!The idea is still the same, but FIRST…You will need to print out and make the dice included in this document.You will need to print out all the WORD UP 'Chance' cards.You will need to print out all the question sheets and answer sheets.You will also need eight tiddly winks (or something similar) of each of the following colors: Orange, green, blue and yellow.(I use plastic colored clothes pegs which the students can clip to their Q & A cards.)There are four types of questions.ORANGE: Missing words.There is a short sentence with a word missing.(Tell the student how many letters there are in the answer.)GREEN: A crossword clue.General knowledge or easy trivia or logic based questions.BLUE: Do you know the answer?Each question has TWO options. Choose the correct one to win the token.YELLOW: Spelling.A basic list of words to spell. (The words are on the same side as the answers.)RULES:The game can be played by up to four players or teams.Each team or student has to get two questions right from each of the four categories.The first team to collect two tokens from each category (eight in all) is the winner.Roll the dice to determine the kind of question you will be asked.The team on your right will ask the questions. (The same player asks you the questions throughout the game.)If you land on a ‘Word Up’ chance card then read and follow the instructions on it.The questions are numbered but they can be asked in any order.NOTES: PRINTING: All the question sheets and answer sheets are numbered.The sheets are laid out so they can be printed 'back to back'. This means that the questions for sheet 1, for example, will have the answers to sheet 1 on the reverse.(This requires some nifty finger work when operating your print preview panel!)OBJECTIVE:For most children who play this game there is usually only one answer. In fact, some of the questions have more than one possible answer.For example the color of blood can be crimson as well as red.But most young learners won't need to be confused by such complicated alternatives just yet!Although the game is competitive (and winning is important despite what the tree huggers tell you) the objective of the game from the teachers point of view is that the kids are talking and listening in English as much as possible.(Unfortunately the images are degraded slightly because of the size limitations of this website. Email me for a better quality set of images.)Good luck and send feedback, please! KKM