In her third and final instalment, Carol Read presents ten more activities suitable to use with any pack of Top Trumps cards. The activities are available to Staff Room members.
21. Create your own cards
Organization: pairs, whole class
Language focus: vocabulary and language relating to the chosen pack of cards; numbers; present or past simple; descriptive adjectives
Materials: any pack of Top Trumps cards (one card for each pair); access to reference books and / or the internet; template of card for children to complete on pieces of A5 coloured card (one for each child) (optional)
Note: This activity is suitable to do once children are familiar with the content and language of the set of cards chosen.
Procedure
1. Explain that children are going to create their own cards to add to a pack of Top Trumps cards they are already familiar with, e.g. baby animals.
2. Ask children to suggest the names of animals they would like to add to the pack, e.g. koala bear, rattlesnake, hamster, pony, etc.
3. Divide the class into pairs.
4. Give each pair a card from the Top Trumps pack. Explain that they should use this as a model for the card they are going to create.
5. Give children a minute to decide on the card they are going to create with their partner.
6. Ask the pairs to report back in order to ensure that they have all chosen to create different cards.
7. Explain that children should work with their partner and use reference books and / or the internet to research the card they are going to create. Children should then use the information they find to decide on the scores for the statistical categories on their card and to write a brief description. If you like, children can also either download an image or draw a picture of the card they have chosen to create.
8. Give children time to prepare their cards in draft form. Be ready to monitor, help and advise as necessary.
9. If you have prepared copies of a card template for children to complete, give one to each child.
10. Children work with their partner and create two copies of the card.
11. When children have finished, they exchange and read each other’s cards.
12. Children can use the cards they have created in other activities and games suggested in this pack.
22. Musical cards
Organization: whole class
Language focus: vocabulary and language relating to items and statistical categories on the cards
Materials: selected cards from any pack of Top Trumps cards (one for each child); any lively instrumental dance music
Procedure
1. Explain that children are going to play a musical game using Top Trumps cards (this is a version of the traditional game ‘Musical bumps’).
2. Give a Top Trumps card to each child.
3. Ask children to read and familiarize themselves with the statistics on their card. Give them a few moments to do this.
4. Get children to stand up and move to a space in the classroom away from their desks.
5. Explain and demonstrate that when you play music, children should dance freely. As soon as you pause the music and call out a statistic e.g. Cuteness – Five! children who have a Top Trumps card with this score (in the case of baby animals, children who have the cat, white tiger, duck, lion, chicken, giant panda, owl cards) sit down on the floor as fast as they can.
6. Explain that children have three ‘lives’ in the game. Children lose lives either if they are the last to sit down or if they sit down mistakenly and the statistic on their card doesn’t correspond to what you say.
7. Do one or two trial rounds of the game before playing. Check that children have understood how it works and are responding correctly.
8. Play the game. Have a pack of cards to hand so that you can quickly and easily check how many and which children should sit down when you pause the music each time.
9. Stop the game before any child has lost all three ‘lives’. The children who lose no ‘lives’ are the winners.
23. Draw and guess!
Organization: groups, whole class
Language focus: vocabulary relating to the items on the cards; It looks like a … / Has it got …? Is it a …? Yes, it is. / No, it isn’t.
Materials: selected cards from any pack of Top Trumps cards; paper and pencils
Procedure
1. Divide the class into groups of 4-6.
2. Explain that children are going to play a game in which they take turns to draw a picture from a pack of Top Trumps cards for their group and guess what it is.
3. Explain and demonstrate that one child from each group should come to the front of the class. Show these children a Top Trumps card (show different cards to the children from different groups).
4. Give the children 30 seconds to look at the photo and remember the name on their card without the other members of their group seeing what this is.
5. Children go back to their groups. They draw a picture of what is on the card for their group. Explain that they are not allowed to say the name and can only answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to questions.
6. As the child draws, other children in the group ask questions and try and guess what is in the picture, e.g. Has it got a tail? Yes, it has. Is it a dog? No, It isn’t. The legs are long. Is it a giraffe? No, it isn’t. Look. Its ears are big. Is it a deer? Yes, it is.
7. The child who guesses the picture correctly in each group has the next turn to come to the front of the class and be shown another card to draw.
8. At the end, briefly ask the children to report back on which cards they found easiest and most difficult to draw and guess, and the reasons for this.
24. Mime and guess!
Organization: groups, whole class
Language focus: vocabulary relating to the items on the cards; Does it …? Yes, it does. / No, it doesn’t. Can it …? Yes, it can. / No it can’t. / Has it got …? Yes, it has. / No, it hasn’t. Is it a …? Yes, it is. / No, it isn’t.
Materials: selected cards from any pack of Top Trumps cards
Procedure
1. Divide the class into groups of 4-6.
2. Explain that children are going to play a game in which they take turns to mime and guess what’s on a Top Trumps card in their groups.
3. Explain and demonstrate that one child from each group comes to the front of the class. Show these children a Top Trumps card (show different cards to the children from different groups).
4. Give the children 30 seconds to look at the photo and remember the name on their card without the other members of their group seeing what this is.
5. Children go back to their groups. They mime what was on the card to their group. Explain that they are not allowed to say the name and can only answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to questions.
6. As they mime, other children in the group ask questions and try and guess what’s on the card e.g. Has it got ears? Yes, it has. Can it run fast? Yes, it can. Is it fierce? Yes, it is. Is it a tiger? No, it isn’t. Is it a lion? Yes, it is.
7. The child who guesses the mime in each group has the next turn to come to the front of the class and be shown a card to mime.
8. At the end, briefly ask the children to report back on which cards they found easiest and most difficult to mime and guess, and the reasons for this.
25. Top Trumps dominoes
Organization: pairs, groups
Language focus: vocabulary relating to the items and statistical categories on the cards; They’re both … / They’ve both got … / They both score … for …
Materials: any pack of Top Trumps cards (one set for each pair or group)
Procedure
1. Divide the class into pairs or groups.
2. Explain that children are going to play a game of dominoes using the Top Trumps cards.
3. Demonstrate that in order to be able to put a card next to another card, children must find a fact or feature in common between the two cards. For example, with the baby animal cards, you can put the deer next to the cow because they both score 8 for independence.
4. Give a pack of Top Trumps cards to each pair or group.
5. Demonstrate the game with one group. One child shuffles and deals the cards between the players. The child on their left starts the game by placing one of their cards on the desk. Children then take turns round the group to add cards in either direction and state the reason e.g. They’re both called cubs. / They’re both born from eggs. / They both score 2 for cuteness. If a child can’t go, they say Pass! The child in each pair or group who gets rid of all their cards first is the winner.
6. At the end, briefly ask children to report back on some of the common facts and features between the cards in their version of the game.
26. Top trumps tennis
Organization: pairs
Language focus: vocabulary on the cards
Materials: none (although the activity is based on the lexical set of a pack of Top Trumps cards that the children are familiar with.)
Procedure
1. Divide the class into pairs.
2. Ask the children to turn their chairs so that they are facing their partner.
3. Explain that the children are going to play a game of ‘word tennis’ based on the Top Trumps pack of cards they used last lesson or last week.
4. Demonstrate that the child who starts pretends to serve the ball and names one of the cards e.g. kangaroo. Their partner then pretends to hit the ball back and names another card, and so on e.g. camel / rabbit / American bison / grizzly bear / guinea pig, until the children can’t think of any more cards from the pack.
5. Ask the pairs to keep a score of how many cards they remember in their ‘rally’ (there is a maximum of 30) and to report back at the end.
27. Match the cards
Organization: pairs, groups, whole class
Language focus: vocabulary relating to the items on the cards
Materials: 8-15 cards from any Top Trumps pack cut in half (one set for each pair)
Procedure
1. Divide the class into pairs.
2. Give each pair a set of the cut-up cards in jumbled order.
3. Ask the children to match the two halves of the cards, i.e. the part with photos and the part with the statistics and text) as fast as they can. If you like, you can set a time limit for this and turn it into a race.
4. When children are ready, ask the pairs to work in groups of four in order to compare how they have matched the cards and check that they have done this correctly.
5. Check the answers with the whole class.
6. Ask children e.g. Did you need to read the information on the cards in detail to do the activity? (No). What did you need to do? (look for the names of the cards in the text). Use this to explain that we can often find information we need by scanning, or look at text very quickly, rather than reading every word.
7. As a follow-up, you may like to ask children to work individually, choose one of the cards and read the text in more detail in order to identify what they think is the most interesting fact.
8. When they are ready, children take turns to report back to the class.
28. Top Trumps crossword
Organization: pairs
Language focus: vocabulary and language relating to the items and categories on the cards; numbers; present simple or past descriptions; It’s … / It’s got … / It can …
Materials: any Top Trumps pack (one pack for each pair); A4 sheets of paper (one for each pair)
Procedure
1. Divide the class into pairs.
2. Give a pack of cards to each pair.
3. Explain that children are going to design and write a crossword based on the Top Trumps cards in the pack.
4. Explain that children should choose a key word (or words) from the cards in the pack for their crossword and write this (or these) vertically. They should then make the crossword by writing other words horizontally, numbering the squares and writing clues based on information given on the cards in the pack.
5. Demonstrate what you mean by building up part of a crossword with the class on the board.
- It eats seals and fish in winter.
- It’s a very sociable animal.
- It weighs 20 grams at birth.
6. Children prepare and write clues for a crossword with their partner based on the pack of Top Trumps cards. Ask them to do this in draft form in their notebooks first.
7. When children are ready, give a sheet of A4 paper to each pair and ask them to prepare the final version of their crossword.
8. Children exchange and do each other’s crosswords in order to find the key word(s). They refer to information on the cards to help them solve the crossword clues as necessary.
9. At the end, children return the crosswords to the original owners, who check the answers.
29. True or false?
Organization: whole class, pairs
Language focus: vocabulary and language relating to the items and categories on the cards; numbers; I think it’s true / false because … / Perhaps it’s true. / I’m not sure. / I don’t know.
Materials: any Top Trumps pack (one pack for each pair); set of 6 -10 true false statements relating to the cards (one copy for each pair or you can project these on the board)
Procedure
1. Either project or give out the true / false statements about the pack of cards that you have prepared. Examples from the baby animals pack could be, e.g. An elephant weighs 100 kilos at birth (false, it weighs 115 kilos at birth) / A baby kangaroo lives in its mother’s pouch for about one year (true).
2. Ask children to say whether they think the statements are true or false and, if possible, to give reasons for their views.
3. Divide the class into pairs.
4. Give a pack of cards to each pair.
5. Ask the children to read the relevant cards and find out whether the statements are true or false.
6. Check the answers with the whole class.
7. Ask the pairs to prepare and write one more true and one more false statement about different cards, e.g. A goat is a very curious animal (true) / Guinea pigs are from Guinea (false).
8. Children take turns to read one of their statements to the class and use the relevant cards to find the answers as fast as they can.
30. Top Trumps whispers
Organization: teams
Language focus: vocabulary on the cards; It’s a giraffe.
Materials: 6-12 selected cards from any Top Trumps pack (four sets)
Procedure
1. Divide the class into two teams. Get each team to stand in a line facing the board.
2. Place a set of cards face down on a table or desk at the back of each line.
3. Stick a set of cards on the board in jumbled order at the front of each line.
4. Explain and demonstrate that the child at the back of each line turns over the first card, looks at what it is, places it face up on the table, and then whispers, e.g. It’s a white tiger, to the next child in the line.
That child whispers it to the next child, and so on down the line, until it gets to the child at the front. This child then selects the correct card from the set on the board and places it face up on the desk. The same child then goes to the back of the line, picks up the next card, looks at what it is, places it face up on the table and starts the whispering process again, e.g. It’s a duck.
5. Once the teams have turned over all the cards at the back of the line and collected all the cards from the board, compare the order of both sets of cards to check that they have done the activity correctly.
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