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Word Bowling Game

This is a good warm-up exercise, and flexible - adapts to classes of most sizes and abilities.
  • relaxes - fun team game
  • review vocabulary
  • easy speaking - good confidence builder for students (esp. low-level).

    • How to Play

    Divide the class into teams. Any size is ok - just vary it according to how long you want the game to last, how big your class is, etc..

    Then, each team takes turns to word bowl.
    First, they pick a number from 1 - 50, which will correspond to a vocabulary category on the teacher's sheet (see below). Of course, they don't know beforehand what category the number corresponds to.
    Then, they have one minute to say as many words as they can within that category.
    If, when the minute is up, they have got ten words, then have a strike.
    If not, then they are given another 10 or 15 seconds, or however long you want, to try for more words - to bring the total up to ten, and thus give them a spare.
    The scoring works the same as normal bowling, which you or your students or JTL are bound to know. Each team takes turns, and whenever you decide to stop, just check the scores, and you'll find your winning team.


    You can adapt this endlessly. Use easier categories than the ones below; use small teams; don't bother with teams at all, and do it individually (but that would take forever).

    Some possible word categories

    Print this out and use it - doctor it if you want.
    1. Western Animation Characters 18. School Subjects 35. Emotions
    2. Musical Instruments 19. Famous Movies 36. Currencies
    3. Colors 20. Foreign Movie Stars 37. Foreign Writers
    4. Parts of the Body 21. Kinds of transportation 38. Worldwide companies
    5. Things in the Kitchen 22. Foreign Languages 39. Rivers in the World
    6. Flowers 23. Weather Words 40. Parts of a Car
    7. Months of the Year 24. Capital Cities 41. Foreign Artists
    8. Electric Things (Appliances) 25. Island Countries 42. Foreign Singers of Groups
    9. Animals 26. Things for Desk Work 43. English Names for Men
    10. Jobs 27. Things in the Living Room 44. English Names for Ladies
    11. Fruits 28. Things in the Bathroom 45. Fish
    12. Team sports 29. Non-team sports 46. (American) (Baseball) Teams
    13. American States (etc.) 30. Foreign Types of Food 47. Parts of a House
    14. American Cities (etc.) 31. Things in the Classroom 48. Airlines
    15. European Cities (etc.) 32. Sports not using a Ball 49. American Presidents
    16. Countries (...in Asia etc.) 33. Birds 50. Words beginning with K (etc.)
    17. Vegetables 34. Kinds of Shops

    And add your own - e.g. insults... ice-cream flavours... smelly things...
    NB. Some of these categories are prone to katakana-tion by students - so beware of them speaking Japanese but scoring points because the word happens to come from English.

    You might also think categories asking for names (e.g. movies, writers, teams, etc..) are too easy - requiring no English, and just general knowledge. But they remain a good warm-up exercise...