Title: Party Games
Author: hallhou
Last saved by: Antoni Ruszkowski
Company: City University of Hong Kong

Party Games – Off the Beaten Path

Hall Houston

Hall Houston is an English Instructor at City University of Hong Kong, English Language Centre. His first book, The Creative Classroom, was published in 2007 by Lynx Publishing (www.lynxpublishing.com). His professional interests include cross-cultural communication, discourse analysis, creativity and critical thinking. E-mail: hallhouston@yahoo.com

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Introduction
Pass the Penny
Avoid the Letter
Drawing in the Dark
Guesswork
Anatomically Incorrect
Can You Guess
Famous Names
Murder Mystery
Talk Away
Reference List 

Introduction

Games have been popular in language teaching for decades. As Thornbury notes (2006), “many non-classroom games are language-based and therefore lend themselves to use (or adaptation) in the language classroom.”

Games have several functions in the language classroom. They can be used to celebrate on special occasions or holidays, help a class unwind after an exam, encourage students to interact, and heighten positive feelings within a group. 

Competitive games that use a limited amount of vocabulary can be adapted so that students produce more language. Teachers can make explicit the words and phrases needed for the game by writing them on the board and doing a quick drill. Also, the teacher can produce a deck of cards with review questions on them. A student who loses can be asked to draw a card, read out the question, and answer it. Alternatively, a winning student can be asked to read out a question to another student.

While 20 Questions, Hangman and What’s My Line are already quite familiar, this article will present several party games that are not as well known and might be a big hit in your next class.

Pass the Penny

Students stand in a circle with their fists held out, with one student in the center. Students in the circle pass a small coin around the circle, or merely pretend to pass it. When the game begins, the student in the center must shut his or her eyes, as the other students pass the coin around. After 10 seconds, he or she opens his eyes and tries to guess who has the coin. The student must tap the fists of a student who looks guilty. Meanwhile, other students keep passing (or pretending to pass) the coin around the circle. If the guesser is incorrect, he or she must continue to look around and guess. When someone is caught with the coin, he or she must replace the student in the middle.

Avoid the Letter

Write a letter up on the board. Challenge students to answer questions without using the letter. For example, you might write the letter Z and ask students “Where can you go to see animals in cages?” A clever student might answer “Oh, I know, it’s a…pet shop.” A student is penalized 1 point for using the letter. After you’ve asked everyone,  call a student to come to the board, write another letter, and continue the game. The winner is the student with the fewest points.

Drawing in the Dark

Ask one student to serve as a judge for a drawing contest. Give all remaining students pen and paper. Their job is to draw a picture described by the judge in the dark. The judge then turns out the light, and students must produce a drawing that fits the judges’ description. (For example, the judge might say “Draw a picture of a tall man in a suit standing outside a bar looking at his watch and whistling.”). The judge then turns the lights on, takes a look at all the drawings, and declares a winner. 

Guesswork

Before class, put several items on tables or desks scattered around the classroom. These can include a thick book, a glass jar filled with marbles, a photo of a person, and an item of clothing. (You might think of other items.) Each item should be labeled with a question, such as “How many pages in the book?” “How many marbles in the jar?” “How old is she?” “How much is the dress?”

At the beginning of class, give each student pen and paper. Tell them to wander around and guess answers to the questions. When they have finished writing down their guesses, announce the answers and give points to the student closest to the correct answer. The student with the highest number of points wins a prize.

Anatomically Incorrect

Put students in a line. Have one student stand in front of the line and choose one person to interact with. He or she should point to a part of his body and identify it incorrectly. For example, the student points to his ear and says “This is my nose.” The other student has 5 seconds to do the opposite, such as pointing to his nose and saying “This is my ear.” If the second student makes a mistake, or doesn’t finish within 5 seconds, he or she must replace the first student. If the second student gets it right, the first student must continue with another student, using different body parts.

Can You Guess

Ask one student to come to the front of the class. He or she must choose a popular song, and sing the first 3 notes, substituting the correct lyrics with “Can you guess..”
Students take turns guessing the song. A student who guesses correctly gets 3 points, and the next student in line comes to the front of the class to choose the next song.

If no one guesses the song, the student sings it again, adding another note and word – “Can you guess the…” If anyone guesses this time, he or she wins 4 points. Each time the song is not guessed correctly you add a word until 8 notes have been sung, using the entire question – “Can you guess the name of this song?” If no one guesses the title of the song, the student at the front of the class gets 8 points.

Famous Names

Students sit in a circle. The first student chooses a type of celebrity (movie stars, singers, directors, etc.). The next student in the circle must say the name of a famous person in that category (Bruce Willis), and the next student must provide another name, whose first name begins with the first letter of the previous celebrity’s last name (Winona Ryder). If a student makes a mistake, repeats a name or fails to think of a name, he or she is out of the game. In addition, if a student calls a name with the same initials for first and last names (Marilyn Monroe), the direction changes (clockwise to counterclockwise or vice versa).

Murder Mystery

Before class, prepare an index card and an envelope for each student in the class. Write “detective” on one index card and “murderer” on another. Put each card into an envelope and seal both. Put a blank index card into each remaining envelope and seal them as well.

When class begins, hand out the envelopes, and tell students to open them without revealing the contents to their classmates, except for the detective who must show the class the “detective” card.

Now instruct the detective to leave the room, turning off the lights on the way out. The murderer now should gently tap the back of someone’s neck, and that person should let out a scream and fall to the floor. (You might want to warn teachers in adjacent classrooms before you start this game!). The murderer should move away from the victim.

The detective comes back and turns the lights on. He or she must ask questions to ascertain who the murderer is. The murderer is allowed to lie, but all others must tell the truth.

The detective is allowed only one guess. If the guess is incorrect, the detective loses.

Talk Away

Invite one student to sit in a chair in front of the class. Select another student to keep time on a stopwatch. Ask the class to think of a topic for the seated student to speak on.

The student in the chair has one minute to talk on the subject. The student can say whatever he or she wishes, provided he or she follows 3 rules:

•	Don’t go off topic.
•	Don’t pause for more than 5 seconds.
•	Don’t repeat yourself.

If anyone in the class thinks the student has broken a rule, he or she is allowed to challenge. If a rule has been broken, a new student takes the first student’s place and a new topic is chosen. If not, the student is allowed to continue for the rest of the minute.

Reference List 

Burrows, T. (2002). Party games. London: Ryland Peters and Small.

Cullen, R. (2006). The little black book of party games. White Plains, NY: PetePauper Press.

Frankel, L., & Franken, G. (2007). Party games for adults. New York: Sterling Publishing.

Thornbury, S. (2006). An A-Z of ELT. Oxford: Macmillan Education.

The  Creative Methodology for the Classroom course can be viewed here.
The  Secondary Teaching  course can be viewed here.