Here’s a simple game designed to help pupils understand the importance of adjectives.English
Ages 11 to 14
Pupil A sits with their back to a screen (eg, a large card or an electronic whiteboard) showing a picture of something.
Without explicitly naming it, Pupil B describes the image in such a way that Pupil A can guess what it is.
To encourage more subtle and imaginative descriptions, each picture could be accompanied by a short list of “banned” words, eg, a picture of an elephant could have “trunk” and “tusks” as banned words.
Guessing a picture gets the players a point and moves them on to the next picture. Teams have two minutes to score as many points as possible. This game is great for speaking and listening and encourages pupils to be thoughtful and creative with their use of descriptive words
Irfan Shah teaches English at Lawnswood High School in Leeds.
