[i2i]

This one is a lot of fun and really gets the kids thinking about sentences.

First, write down 10-30 sentences (pertaining to some subject you have already taught), some written correctly and some written incorrectly. Do this before class.

Example:
My name is Bob.
I 14 years old.
I like pizza.
I live Korea.

In class, divide the class into 3-6 teams. The more teams, the more fun! Assign each team a name or let them choose.

Teams should not have more than 4 students on them.

On the board write each team's name and under that write $1000.

Example:
Crazy Team
$1000

Now every team starts with the same amount of money and their goal is to buy the most correct sentences (each correct sentence will get them 1 point) and have the most remaining money left over. If one team has 3 points and $0 and another team has 2 points and $900, the team with 3 points wins.

How to Play:

1. Write one of your prepared sentences on the board.
2. Ask if anyone would like to start the bidding for the sentence at $10.
3. Let the teams out bid each other as they try to buy the sentence.
4. Once the bidding starts to fizzle out, give the old, "Going once. Going twice. Sold." routine and that ends that round.
5. First deduct from the bid winning team the amount of money that they spent on the sentence.
6. Then ask the class if the sentence that they bought is correct or incorrect.
7. If the sentence is correct, that team gets 1 point. If the sentence is incorrect, no point is given.

Repeat this until you run out of sentences or everyone runs out of money.

Tips:
Allow students to bid in easy to say and add increments like $5 or $10.

Set a minimum and maximum bid per sentence. For example, you must bid at least $10 and if the bidding reaches $500, the bidding stops and the team who bid $500 or over buys the sentence.

If a team runs out of money early in the auction, let them buy some more money from the bank (ie. you) by correcting an incorrect sentence or buy doing some other English feat.

I really like to get into auction mode creating a sort of bidding frenzy by speaking as much like an auctioneer as possible. something like this:

"i got 10 dollars over here do i hear 20, 20 dollars anyone for 20 dollars i got 20 dollars do i hear 30 dollars 30 dollars anyone for 30 dollars 30 dollars for team crazy do i hear 50 dollars ...etc... 100 dollars going once. 100 dollars going twice. sold for 100 dollars to the crazy team!"

This is a lot of fun and great for practicing little things like articles, punctuation and tenses.