LINGO: End of Class Game

In one of my recent posts I talked about Black Stories, which I've found to be a great way to end class if we have some extra time (and the kids love it so far - they ask for a new card every day).  But what do you do with lower level classes that finish early?

One quick game that my students like is LINGO.  It's based off the game show by the same name, but instead of using English words, obviously we use German words (or French or Latin).  

How do you play?  You have a five letter German word that the class is trying to guess. Students need to figure out what my word is by using other five letter words.

Students guess a word and you use circles and squares to let them know if the letters are in the word they chose.  Circles mean that letter is in the word they're trying to guess... it's just not in the right spot.  Squares mean that letter is in the word they're trying to guess AND it's in the right spot.  No symbol means that letter isn't in the word at all.

Here's how a game might look...

Students have a total of five chances to figure out the word.  All words are five letters long, and for the sake of clarity I don't use any words that include umlauts.  

This is a great end of class game or quick warm-up to get them thinking.  To make things go faster, I keep a binder ring with a bunch of five letter German words.  This way I don't have to think of words on the spot and I have a visual to double check letters (which I definitely need...).  

It's also great to have because once students are familiar with the game, you can give them the words and let them lead the game.  The only rule - if you don't know what the word means, you can't use it (keeps German 1 students from grabbing German 4 words and stumping the class)!

If you're interested in a set of cards for German, I have some available on TPT - just click here!

- Frau Leonard