PARTICIPLE PICTIONARY　(The same game, with the sentences modified to suit relative pronoun practice is here.)

 

           This game repeatedly exposes students to the structure of (mainly present) participle modification of nouns, as in these sentences lifted from the text:

          

           The boy wearing glasses is Akira [present participial phrase “wearing glasses” modifying the noun “boy”].

This is a game made in the Japan [past participial phrase “made in Japan” modifying the noun “game”].

 

The game involves students in listening to you and drawing what they hear, so it’s purely comprehension, rather than production. I like it though because students usually enjoy it so much they don’t realize that they’re learning English, which is a trick I think a good activity should be able to play.

 

HOW TO PLAY THE GAME:

 

           Divide the class into six groups. Distribute large sheets of paper to each group, one sheet per student (A3 size seems to be best). Using the sentences below (or your own if you like), describe a series of unique situations. As you describe each one, the students’ task is to draw as quickly-and-accurately as possible the situation you describe. When a student produces a drawing, they put up their hand, and you inspect it. If you recognize the drawing as depicting what you described, that student’s team gets a point. The team with the most points at the end wins.  For example, if you say “the man biting the dog is Tom Cruise”, you would expect a picture of Cruise biting a dog, not a dog biting him, not him biting into a hot dog, etc. I usually prepare a heap of situations, because once students get the hang of it they can go through them very fast. Feel free to use any of the below examples if you wish. Many of them may sound a bit silly, but the idea is to describe a unique situation, not necessarily one the students could easily guess from context, so that they are learning to recognize the meaning of the structure independent of context.

 

 

1)	The girl wearing a baseball cap is very tall.
2)	The mouse eating cheese is small.
3)	The SAMURAI riding a bicycle is MUSASHI.
4)	The girl playing the piano is beautiful.
5)	The teacher wearing a KIMONO is KOCHO-SENSEI.
6)	HARD GAY is the one swimming in the ocean.
7)	The SUMO eating ice cream is crying.
8)	HELLO KITTY is the one doing KARATE.
9)	The monster dancing is cute.
10)	The dog studying English has long ears.
11)	The person doing RAKUGO is [JTE’s name].
12)	The fish sitting in the chair has big teeth.
13)	Ayumi Hamasaki is the girl singing KARAOKE.
14)	President Koizumi is the man washing the dishes.
15)	The teacher eating pizza is [ALT’s name].
16)	The monster fighting Pikachu is King Kong.
17)	The rabbit skiing looks happy.
18)	The one running the EKIDEN is Winnie the Pooh.
19)	Santa is the man wearing sunglasses.
20)	The man playing the SHAMISEN has a big nose.
21)	The person seen on the TV is your homeroom teacher.
22)	The student laughing has a hamburger.
23)	The boy playing in the tree is CRAYON SHINCHAN
24)	The boy drinking cola is Mark Brown.
25)	The woman playing the guitar is SAZAE-SAN.
26)	The Big Lizard caught in Harajuku speaks English.
27)	The robot singing in the shower is Doraemon.
28)	The polar bear sitting in the ONSEN looks sad.
29)	The robot reading comics is Astroboy.
30)	The monster playing soccer is Godzilla.