Activate Manual

102
Activate: Games for Learning American English
Game 7: Reading Race
Reading Race
is a fast-paced game that gives students practice reading the words on 
Word Bricks
out loud. The goal is to see how many 
Word Bricks
each team can read out 
loud in 1 minute. Thus, 
Reading Race
is a great game for improving sight recognition and 
pronunciation of English words.
Instructions
1. Have students (the players) sit in pairs or small groups, and give each team as many 
Word Bricks
as possible (divide the entire collection of 
Word Bricks
evenly among all 
the pairs or groups).
2. Tell players that they will have 1 minute to read the words on as many 
Word Bricks
as 
possible. In their teams, players should take turns picking up a 
Word Brick
and read-
ing both words on it as fast as possible.
3. When you start the timer, Player 1 picks up a brick, reads the words on it, and places 
the brick in a “read” pile.
4. Then Player 2 does the same as soon as Player 1 finishes, and so on.
5. At the end of 1 minute, players count how many words they have read aloud and 
record their totals. 
6. If teams exhaust all their 
Word Bricks
before 1 minute is up, they should begin again 
using the same pile of bricks. 
7. You may have the teams play again with the same or different 
Word Bricks
and try to 
break their previous record.
Optional: Have the same teams play a few days later. Players can try to improve their 
totals again and again.

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103
Activate: Games for Learning American English
Game 8: Sentence Boundaries
In 
Sentence Boundaries
, the teacher gives the players five specific requirements for their 
sentences. Each round of the game requires the players to create sentences that fol-
low different patterns. The first team to complete all five patterns (in order) and earn 5 
points wins the game. Possible patterns include:
• 1 sentence with exactly 5 words
• 1 sentence with exactly 8 words
• 1 sentence with exactly 6 words AND 1 sentence with exactly 7 words
• 1 sentence with 2 verbs
• 1 sentence with 1 adjective and 1 adverb
• 2 sentences with 2 different verbs