Board Race

(TESOL Ideas--Any Grammar Point, Any Vocabulary Set)

I've included descriptions of Board Races in my Activities That Can Be Used for Any Grammar Point post.  However, I thought I should also highlight it in its own separate post given how often I use it in my materials.  (Even though I had included it in my activities for any grammar point post, I quite often use it for vocabulary sets as well.)

To quote myself from the post on Activities That Can Be Used for Any Grammar Point: 

Materials:  Whiteboard. Markers.  Possibly a PowerPoint presentation to create the prompts

Preparation:  0 prep if the teacher creates the prompts on the spot and yells them out orally.  10 minutes if you create a PowerPoint presentation in advance

The students are put into 4 teams.  The teacher gives the students prompts (either visually, or written, or oral).  And the students race to the whiteboard to write the correct sentence.  The first team to write the correct sentence gets 4 points, the next student gets 3 points, etc.

Variations:

Mini-whiteboard Race

Teams are given mini-whiteboards, and the first team to write the sentence on their mini-whiteboard (and hold it up so the teacher can see it) gets 4 points, followed by 3 points, etc.  Obviously this game works best with mini-whiteboards, but in a pinch, other material can work--e.g. students can write the answers in their notebook, on blank paper, on the floor, etc.)

Mini-whiteboard Race 5 Star Line-up

A mini-whiteboard race (as above) but with a twist.  The teacher writes numbers on the floor from 1-5.  After the student writes their answer on the board, they then run to the number.  The first student to get to 5 gets 5 points.  The student to get to 4 first gets 4 points.

The students must write their answer on the whiteboard first in their group before running to the numbers.  Only one student from each group takes the whiteboard to run.

For an example of this being used for a grammar point, see these prompts for the Present Perfect: 

For an example of it being used for vocabulary sets, see this lesson here: 

(The above prompts are sentence gapfills for a vocabulary set.  But with vocabulary sets, you can also use definitions, or pictures for the prompts.)