Game Cards: Halloween & Fantasy Creatures

Students love playing games in their free time, be it video, mobile or tabletop games, but numerous studies have also shown the importance and positive impact games can have on learning. By incorporating games in your classroom, you can help your learners develop a positive relationship with the language and English lessons. While working with games, the teacher’s role changes from an instructor to a guide. This helps you to reduce teacher talking time and make the students the centre of the lesson.

Try these ways of using our Halloween Game Cards in your classroom!

Memory pelmanism (all levels):

• Ask students to place word cards on the left and image cards on the right in the same order to create a word-image association.
• Go over the new vocabulary as a class.
• Ask students to turn the cards over and shuffle them.
• Students take turns to turn over two cards and pick up the pair if it matches. Remind students to say the word aloud for better practice.
• To add complexity and motivation, ask students to spell the word to win the matching pair.
• The student with the most paired cards wins.

 Spooky story writing game (pre-intermediate and up):

• Ask students to place word cards on the left and image cards on the right in the same order to create a word-image association.
• Go over the new vocabulary as a class.
• Put students in groups.
• Ask students to turn the image cards over and shuffle them.
• Ask each student from the group to pick up one card.
• Then, have the groups work together on a Halloween story that includes all these elements. If two students picked up the same card (one picked up the spelt-out word and one the image), have the group include this item in their story twice.
• Set a word limit, say 100 words, and time.
• Tell students they should all have a copy of their group’s story.
• Remix the students and have them read their story to their new group.
• Have a class vote for the best story.

When working with games, let your creative mind loose to build a motivating environment in your classroom. Remember that emotions are an essential part of the learning process! Enjoy this material with your class, and let us know how you liked it!