This is an activity I use all the time (if you look through my materials, many of my lessons include a "grab the card" stage). But I've just realized that I never made a blog post explaining it. So here it finally is.
This game was also extremely popular in the classrooms when I lived in Japan. (The Japanese call it "karuta".)
It's the perfect game to practice any vocabulary set.
Basically, cards are created in which there is one vocabulary word on each card. (And of course, when I say "card", I mean just paper that is cut out into small card-sized pieces.)
For lower level students, the card will often just be a picture--example here. The teacher will say the word, and the students will grab the picture card that corresponds to that word.
For higher level students, the card will usually be a word--example here. The teacher will define or describe the word, and the students will grab the word card that matches the definition.
In Japan, this game was usually played as a competition. Students were put in pairs, and each pair was given one set of cards. (For younger students, this usually involved the pairs sitting on the floor with the cards between them. For teenage students, they put the cards on their desk). The teacher would say the word (or describe the word), and the students would try to grab the card before their partner could. If a student successfully grabbed the correct card before their opponent, then they got to keep that card. At the end of the game, the student with the most cards was the winner.
The Japanese had some additional rules--to prevent students from just grabbing all the cards at random, there was a rule that if you grabbed the wrong card, there was a penalty. (The penalty was usually either having to give back one of the cards you had previously won, or having to lose a turn.) Also, sometimes it was necessary to make a rule that the hands had to start out behind the back or on the head. (This was to prevent students from starting out with their hands hoovering directly above the cards in a way which blocked their opponent's access.)
Since I've left Japan, I've played this game in countries which are less familiar with this game. So to get across the concept, I frequently start out playing it as an all class game. The class is divided into two teams. One representative from each team comes to the front of the room, where the cards are all laid out on a table. They compete against each other to grab the correct card, and the winner gets one point. I keep the score on the whiteboard. After the first pair finishes, they go back to their seats, and we get one more representative to come up from each team until we have cycled through either all the cards or all the students.
For classes in which the students need a bit of waking up, I occasionally adjust this to "run and grab the card". In this case, the students start out at the other side of the room. When I describe the card, they have to run across the room to grab the card before their partner.
Once we've played one round as a whole class, I then transition from a whole class game to a small group game--that is, each group then gets a set of cards, and we play again in smaller groups. For teenagers and adults, I'll put them in groups of 3 or 4, but then nominate one of them to describe the cards instead of me. One member of the group will describe the cards, and the other members compete to grab the cards. Then, we change the person who describes the cards. Usually the winner of the previous game becomes the person who describes the cards for their group in the next game.
Addendum--Grab the Card for Grammar Points
This game also works for some grammar points. In fact a few years ago, I included it in my Activities That Can Be Used for Any Grammar Point workshop. Below is the description of this game
Grab the Card (Karuta) (Materials: One set of cards for each group of students, and a list of prompts written down for the teacher ) (Preparation: Make up a list of prompts and matching cards. Cut up and shuffle cards. 25 minutes)
The students are put into small groups, and given a list of cards with the target language (which they spread out among themselves). The teacher reads prompts, and the students try to grab the card matching the prompt. Whichever student grabs the card first gets to keep that card. At the end, the student with the most cards is the winner. (You may have to introduce penalties for students who grab wrong cards--e.g. lose one point, miss a turn, et cetera).
This game works when you have two complementary sentences (e.g. active/passive) or a sentence that divides neatly into two halves (e.g. if… then…), but it can also work with simple sentences if the prompts are situational--i.e. the teacher reads a situation, and then the students grab the sentence that matches the situation.
Example of a grammar version of this game is here: Modal Verb Karuta
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