[dingomandy]

I play Past Tense Shoot Out!

2 students stand back to back. I give one student a word and they have to make up a sentence - past or present (or future for advanced kids) - using that word. On my signal, they take 3 steps, turn and 'shoot' their index fingers at each other. First kid 'fires' off his sentence - the other kid has to repeat the exact same sentence but in a different tense.

Example:

T: "Your word is 'play'."
S1: " I played in the park!"
S2: "I am playing in the park!

If S2 can repeat the sentence in a different tense, the first student sits down and S2 becomes the new S1, and someone else steps up to challenge them.

The kids loved trying to come up with longer and more complex sentences to try and trip up their opponents. They showed absolutely no mercy to them!

[anglomania]

Quote carda

The German (business students) use a pseudo present perfect when they mean the past; i.e., I have parked my car on the road because I couldn't find a free space in the parking lot. That's because the German spoken past tense uses the "have."

A good game for the present perfect: the mes-english "get four"!

Hi there,
I think I must be a bit thick!! I''ve had a look at the Get Four game on MES-English - but I don't get how it works!!
The students put a mark in a square and then make a sentence using the two parts of the sentence (from the two edges of the board that lead to that square). But how does the game work? Can they only put their mark in the square if the sentence is right? IF it's like battleships, shouldn't students mark lots of squares and the opposing group has to make a sentence to try to guess where the opponenents have marked their squares? I don't understand the interaction between the different teams. It doesn't explain it well on the site - or I'm thick!!! Please help

[mesmark]

In the Get Four game the formation of the sentence doesn't affect game play. Students play the game and in addition to that make sentences at the end of their turn. They will simply be trying to form proper sentences or questions. There's no need for perfect formation nor any need for a response from the other player.

Ideally the other player(s) will be listening and help with any corrections if needed.

The game goes much quicker than battleship. You can also play with multiple players. However, it doesn't require the same need to communicate information that battleship has.

I hope that helps.

[anglomania]

Hi there, yes it helps, thanks!
In the meantime I realised that rather than battelships, it's more like the game "connect 4" - well, that's how I've been playing it anyway
I think the great thing about this game is that you can invent new ways of palying it. I mean, it could really be played liked battleships, where students mark a few "ships" or lines of 3 or 4 symbols and the other team has to guess where they are by forming sentences and seeing if they get a "hit" or not.
The possibilities are endless!
Great game, thanks

[mesmark]

That's great! I'm glad to hear that the game is working out.

Yes, you can play it like connect 4. I usually explain that it's more like tic tac toe, except you need 4 marks in a row and not three.

Another fun rule is to tell them they must build off from any one of the sides or adjacent to another mark already on the board. That makes it a little more of a strategy game.

One thing different from battleship is that this game allows for the same axis points. In battleship, you need to have every square on the board refer to unique points. With this game you can have the same item listed multiple times.