I will take “Places” for $20 please.
Quite a long time ago, when Jeopardy was a familiar TV game show, I used the idea to create a game for eliciting questions and naming items of a category. It was a good game because it really made students think about categories and how to describe words. It also emphasized using the correct forms for who, what, where, and does/do questions. I liked using it with groups because it worked on so many goals at once with multiple opportunities for practice. The students were always enthused about playing it mainly because they liked the play money. Sometimes they would request keeping the money as a reward.
The directions for making this game can be found under the Expressive Activities category heading, or click the star below for a pdf.
click on star for directions
Previously the game was not as complete. You were left to find the category pictures on your own. Well you are in luck. I left my materials for this game at my old school so I had to reconstruct it. I decided since I had to make a new one, I would update it on the blog as well. Now you should be able to print all the materials out without searching for the category vocabulary. I used the picture program Picto Selector which I am liking more and more. It is free to try so you may want to take a look. I made the category cards from it.
To prepare materials for this game, you need to print and cut out the cards. I had a pocket calendar I used previously which made an easy place to insert the cards. I no longer have it. As a substitution, I bought a foam board used for project presentations at the dollar store. It makes a cheap alternative. I can hang cards on it with push pins. I really prefer the pockets but this works. Star stickers are optional. I stick stars on the back of some of the money cards to indicate a double pay out. You need play money. You may be able to find some at the dollar store. If not,there is some you can print for free on www.KidsMoneyFarm.com.
In order to set the game up, I placed the category cards along the top row. I then placed the object cards in a row below the categories they belong to.
I then took the money amount cards and pinned them on top of the object cards. It should look like this.
I do pre-instruction about what kinds of questions to ask for the type of answer you want to get. For example I emphasize who questions are for people answers and work best for the category of occupations and where questions are best for the places. This may be confusing for some students who just want to describe the picture. There are free charts that illustrate who, what, where, why and how questions on TPT or Pinterest.. I usually have one of these posted in my room for reference.
The students play by choosing a category and a the dollar amount. The student is given the card with the pictured object or action and is given the task of asking a question so that the other students will reply by giving the answer on the card. For example: If a student asks for places for $20 he would get a picture of a road. He would then ask the students the question, “Where do people drive cars?” Hopefully the other students will provide the answer, road The student who asked the question gets the dollar amount in play money.
Depending on the abilities of my students I vary what I expect before they earn the money. Generally, if the student produces a grammatically and semantically correct question that elicits the correct answer he gets the dollar amount of the card. If there is a star on the back he gets double.
