Mime is usually played at a word level and and is an effective activity for reviewing vocabulary. The game is particularly motivating for low-level and shy students, as they can participate even if they are unfamiliar with the word, thanks to visual support. The emphasis is usually on accuracy rather than fluency. However, if you'd like to make the game a bit more challenging, here are some suggestions!
Frozen scene
Divide the class into groups of 5 students.
Give each group a card with a simple situation such as 'at the supermarket' or 'at the beach'.
Each group has 1 minute to organise themselves into a frozen scene using gestures and facial expressions to capture their situation while standing like statues.
The other groups then take turns guessing the scene by describing what they have observed. It's a good idea to have some support phrases such as "They are in the..." or "It looks like they are..." on board.
Mime a story
Divide the class into groups of four or five students.
Each of the groups has to write a short story using the vocabulary they have been working on in class.
Then, one group reads aloud their story while another group mimes it.
All groups end up reading their made-up story and miming the story of other classmates.
Note: When giving instructions, it might be useful to mention how many sentences students should write and that the story should be easy to interpret with mime.
Back to the board
Divide students into two groups.
Ask one student from each team to stand up with their back to the board.
Write a collocation on the board.
The teams have to mime each of the words to the student from their team who is with their back to the board.
The students have to guess the collocation.
A player from one team comes to the front of the class and is given an irregular verb to mime.
The player then mimes the verb to the class.
The first team to correctly guess the verb scores a point. The winning team can then score an extra point by choosing a team member to go to the board and write down the base form, past form and past participle form of the verb. If the team member does this successfully, they score an extra point for their team. If not, the other team can steal the point by correcting the student's mistake. A player from the other team then comes to the front of the class to mime a verb and so on.
The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.
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