[little sage]

Mesmark,

Great variation of Bingo, making it conversational!

I think the game I'd pick for myself if I had to choose only one would be Go FISH! Like Bingo, it can be played with almost any vocab set, as long as you have a large enough set of paired cards. Not for large classes, though.


A Go Fish refresher:

-Shuffle a set a word cards and deal out about 6 to every student.

-Put the remaider in a messy pile in the center of the desk.

-Choose a question stem that matches the vocabulary.

-Have students put any pairs of cards that they are dealt face down on the table: each pair of cards is worth one point.

-Each student, in turn, asks another random student sitting anywhere in the group, a question in the hopes of finding a match to one of the cards in their hand. *Make sure the questioner clearly states the name of the person they are talking to.

-Instruct the students that when someone asks "Tara, do you have a frog?", IF Tara has the matching frog card in her hand, she MUST answer yes to the question and then give the card to the questioner. If Tara does not have the match, she answers No and the questioner "goes fish", choosing one card at random from the remainder pile.

-When a student pairs up all their cards and their hand is empty, they can choose a card from the remainder pile and continue to play.

-When all cards are paired up, students count their pairs. The person with the most pairs wins.


Examples:

Food cards: "Sarah, do you want a taco?" "No, I don't. Go Fish" or "Yes. Here you are"

OK. That's a decidedly weird conversation. If that troubles you, you could change the sentence stem to the standard "Sarah, do you have a taco?" "Yes, I do/ No, I don't" OR "Excuse me, Sarah, can I have a taco ?" "Sorry, I don't have one." or "Sure, here you are."

Job cards: "Jason, do you want to be a ballerina?" "Yes, I do/ No, I don't" (See, quite funny if some macho boy has to answer yes.)

Variations:

For a class of 10 young kids (too many for a card game, frankly) I kept them at their desks in pairs and dealt out 6 cards per pair of students. They whispered to each other to prepare their question and to decide who they would ask. It became a kind of team game, but still just as fun. Great for listening and remembering practice.

So, that's my choice. A nice, quiet card game .