This is a game that I've only used sparingly over the years, but is very popular with some of my colleagues. It's usually used with younger learners, but can be used with older students as well. (In fact, a couple terms ago, I had one of my university students request that we do this game in class.)
The game requires access to some sticky balls. (Image below)
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| Image taken from here |
This may require a teacher to go out and buy their own supply of sticky balls, but in my experience, stick balls are becoming a standard item in most teacher staffrooms nowadays. (What has your experience been?)
The teacher displays a slideshow which shows a sentence with a gap-fill. Students are presented with two or more choices of how to fill the gap-fill, and must throw the sticky ball at the correct answer to get a point.
The scoring is at the teacher's discretion. Some teachers play that the student just has to get close to the correct answer. Some teachers play that the sticky ball has to make contact with the correct answer. And some teachers play that the sticky ball actually has to stick to the correct answer.
(In fact, if you don't have any sticky balls in your classroom, you can just play this game with normal balls. The balls can't stick to the correct answer, but the teacher can just watch the board and determine which balls have struck the correct target.)
Obviously this game works best if there is a flat surface that the balls can stick to. So in my classroom, it means that I pull up the projector screen so that the slideshow is being projected directly onto the classroom wall.
Here is an example Sticky Ball Game that I made (slides, pub). This game is for the geographic use of "the". Students have to read the sentence, and determine if the gap should contain the word "the" or not, and throw the sticky ball at the appropriate circle.
An alternative to the sticky ball game is the "throw the ball in the basket" game. The set-up is essentially the same, but this time you have baskets that are placed on the grown under the appropriate choice, and the students have to throw the ball into the basket to get a point.
Variation: Throw the Ball
Instead of jumping, the students are given two targets (e.g. one target for present continuous, one target for present simple). The teacher gives them the prompt, and they must throw the ball at the correct target.
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