Game

A wide range of classrom games (note that bingo, crosswords, word searches, quizzes and jigsaws are covered separately)

A useful game I created to help my students understand and recognise different types of documents. It is particularly useful as a plenary. I first used it several years ago in an observed lesson, and the game was highly complimented!

Editor’s note
With extensive instructions, differentiation ideas and full Functional English mapping.

Level
Level 2
Level 1
Entry Level 3
English
Rt/L2.2 Identify the purpose of a text and infer meaning which is not explicit
Rt/L1.2
Rt/E3.2
Functional English reading

Cards to help students recognise what nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
They can then play the bingo game or use highlighter pens to identify the different parts of speech in a text.

Level
Entry Level 3
Level 1
Level 2
English
Rs/L2.1 Use implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge
Adult Literacy Rs/L1.1 Use implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge
Adult Literacy Rs/E3.2 Use implicit & explicit knowledge of word types/order to help with decoding/predicting meaning
Adult Literacy Rs/E3.1 Recognise & understand the organisational features & typical language of instructional texts

A set of cards that can be used to play a game where students have shares in a small company. Each group of three players receives ‘market updates’ in the form of cards that require them to divide a number in a ratio, or find the value of an amount given the value of part of the amount. Students are encouraged to keep full financial records. As a differentiation task for confident students, it is possible to calculate the percentage change in value of the shareholding at the end of the game.

Level
Level 1
Level 2
Maths
N2/L2.9
AN N2/L2.8 Find percentage parts of quantities and measurements
N2/L2.7
AN N1/L2.3
N2/L1.10
AN N1/L1.7
Functional Maths - numbers and the number system
AN N2/L1.9 Find simple percentage parts of quantities and measurements
N2/L1.8
Context
Business & Money management

A set of cards to cut out and ideally put in plastic balls or a jazzy box. Aimed at E2- E3 Functional Skills learners as an ice breaker, introductory lesson or for revision. Students need to work out the question and identify the maths skills they are using to answer it. Best printed onto card.
Questions are aimed to appeal to young adult students – e.g. clubbing, Facebook, food, mobiles, etc.
Questions cover the 4 operations, money, time, shapes and more.
26 cards. Includes Functional Maths mapping chart.

Level
Entry Level 3
Entry Level 2
Maths
Functional Maths - numbers and the number system
Functional Maths - measures, shape & space
General numeracy / maths

A set of cards where learners have to find percentages of money.
Note that it is percentage of not off – this should be discussed.

Use as a paired game. Learners share the cards between them, then both turn over one card each. They work out how much their card is worth then the “winner” or person whose card is worth more keeps both cards. Play continues until 1 player has all the cards.

Adapted from Emma Shaw’s Fractions of quantities top trump cards see below.

Level
Level 1
Maths
Functional Maths - numbers and the number system
AN N2/L1.9 Find simple percentage parts of quantities and measurements
Context
Retail Hospitality Customer service

An activity to explore money management and negative numbers. Be prepared to signpost students if need be.

The activity starts with discussing who is most likely to get into debt and then by recognising that anyone can if they don’t have good money skills.

Level
Entry Level 3
Level 1
Level 2
Maths
N1/L2.1
N1/L1.2
AN MSS1/L1.1 Add, subtract, multiply & divide sums of money and record
AN MSS1/E3.1 Add & subtract money using decimal notation
Functional Maths
Context
Business & Money management

A game to help learners get to grips with the likelihood of selecting a particular thing at random. Students practise expressing probabilities as fractions, decimals and percentages. This activity avoids the taboos on dice and cards that some learners have. It also revises concepts such as multiples and “greater” and “less than”.

1 page cards to be cut out – give one set to each student (or pair of students), 1 page for student to complete, plus an answer sheet.

Level
Level 2
Level 1
Maths
AN HD2/L1.2
Functional Maths - handling information and data

Place value starter based on an Open University course activity.

Useful as a carousel activity at the start of a lesson. Could be adapted for E2 by using 2 boxes rather than three. You may want to laminate the second page.

Level
Entry Level 3
Entry Level 2
Maths
AN N1/E3.1 place value <1000, odd / even, count in 10s /100s
AN N1/E2.1 Count reliably to 100, count on in 2s and 10s

A set of cards where learners have to find fractions of money. I use this as a paired game where the learners share the cards between them, then both turn over one cardeach. They work out how much their card is worth then the “winner” or person whose card is worth more keeps both cards. Play continues until 1 player has all the cards.

Level
Level 1
Maths
Mental maths
N2/L1.2
Functional Maths - numbers and the number system

Students need to work in pairs and throw a coin (heads, move 1; tails move 2). Each time they land on a blend they need to write down a word with that blend in it. Great when laminated.

Carrie was inspired to create this game after she saw a similar idea created by Mo Hammond, Liverpool.

Level
Entry Level 2
Entry Level 1
English
Ww/E2.2
Ww/E1.3