This game is an adaptation of the game The Kings Chair published by Gertrude Nye in 1966. Here is what she proposed:.
The original game was meant to practice numbers in the TL.:
Students are seated in a broken circle or oval formation. Players are numbered from 1 up. Player # 1 is the king or the queen, the object of the game is to make him/her move from his/her seat to the end of the line.
The king or queen begins the game by calling any number in the circle. The person whose number is called must answer immediately with another number and so on. Any player who fails to answer immediately or who gets confused and calls his/her own number must go to the end of the line. All players who were seated after him/her move up one chair changing numbers as they move. After each move the king or queen starts the play again.
My adaptation
Use to practice any specific vocabulary and/or grammar form in the target language.
How?
Let’s suppose that you have 20 students in your classroom. Every student is assigned a word from the vocabulary or from the grammar form you would like to practice. If the topic is “the kitchen” each student will be given a word related to it. So you will have words like stove, microwave, pan, glass, burner, dishwasher, etc.
After you have assigned a word to every student, randomly choose a student. If the student is a girl, she will be the queen, if the student is a boy, he will be the king (in the TL). So this randomly chosen student will have double responsibility in the game as she/he will have to respond to her/his vocabulary word plus to the word queen or king.
Explain to your students that the game consists in answering immediately after another student has called on their word. The queen or the king will start the game calling on any of the given words: King calls microwave, then microwave calls on another student saying, microwave calls on stove, then stove calls another word and so on. Any student can call the king or the queen at anytime and they will have to respond to their title or to their word.
The game gains intensity when students are more comfortable playing faster.
Variation 2
Instead of just replying to the call with just their word, students must say a complete sentence using their own word, the sentence must be different every time they are called. For example, if someone said: stove calls microwave, microwave has to reply with something like, I use the microwave to warm up food.
@Copyright Diego Ojeda, this material is intended for educational purposes and it’s free. It is prohibited to profit from it in any way. For questions contact Diego Ojeda @ diego@srojeda.com
DIEGO OJEDA 