Games for secondary

It can be difficult to motivate older teenagers to play games because they think they are too cool. they generally favour games where they can sit, but there are some exceptions to this. It is a bit of trial and error but the following games have generally worked with my teenage classes.

Categories:
Split class into two teams, and make two lines. Give each team a piece of chalk and tell the class a category. I tend to do something related to the topic we have been studying e.g. family/foreign cuisine/films.. Team sets up a relay; one member from each team writes a word on the board, comes back and 'tags' next team member, and so on.. At the end, students sit down and teacher counts correct words. Discount bad spelling, illegible writing and repeated words. I usually let the winning team leave the class first for break.

Hangman: 
Can be used with vocabulary learnt in class to strengthen a certain topic. Again, I would split the class into two teams and encourage them to put their hands up rather than all shouting out letters at the same time.

Person BINGO:
I usually use this as a lead in to a topic. Squares have questions relating to the topic, e.g. television might have questions such as "Do you watch TV when you get home from school?", "Do you like watching films on TV?". Pupils ask other pupils in the class, and when they find someone who the question applies to, write their name underneath. Teacher can then check answers by asking the pupil's whose names appear.

Pictionary:
Can be played in two ways. First, split the class into two teams, one person from each team draws.
1. Teacher gives students a letter, students from both teams draw something beginning with that letter. Change student when member of team guesses correctly, teacher then gives a different letter to next student.. This method encourages imagination and quick thinking.
2. Teacher has ready prepared words in a box, students from each team pick word out and draw it. This is less risky (no rude pictures) and can test specific vocabulary.

Sort of pictionary:
Two teams, one person draws on board, one person sits on a chair with their back to the board, the rest of the team act as describers. Teacher gives student a word, and he/she starts to draw on the board. The rest of the team must then describe what he/she is drawing to the pupil on the chair, the pupil then tries to guess the word.

Boggle:
Teacher draws a grid of letters on board, students have to make as many words as possible from letters available.

Post-it game:
Students all write the name of a famous person on a post it and stick it on another student's head. They then have to go around the class asking questions about who they have. Can only ask yes/no questions about the person.

Two truths and a lie:
Teacher writes three sentences on the board, students have to ask questions to work out which are true and which are lies. Students can then do the same for three of their own sentences.