This is one of my favorite CI games. It is so easy to load them up with tons of language they’re reading and hearing, and they don’t even know it because they’re focused on winning. I made this game up when I was trying to think of ways to give my kiddos lots of examples of the past tense, but really you could target any grammar structures your heart desires.

To prep the game: type up a bunch of statements about yourself (20 or so), some true and some false, put them into powerpoint and animate them so one statement is projected at a time.  (See image above!)

To play the game: Students have a piece of paper. Teacher projects one statement and reads it aloud. Students decide if they think the statement is true or false and write Cierto or Falso on their paper next to the number of the corresponding statement. (Of course we care most about loading them up with comprehensible language, so ask slowly, repeat several times, ensure that students understand each statement! Train your kiddos to signal you if they see an unclear word. )

Once you’ve read all the statements, students trade and grade (which really is code for MORE INPUT! MORE REPETITIONS!) Teacher projects the statements again, and goes through everything again, really hamming it up (in Spanish or French or Latin or…) It sounds like this (but in Spanish!). #1. Mrs. Chase kissed a famous person. Class? True or false? Who thinks that Mrs. Chase kissed a famous person? (Students raise hands) Who thinks that Mrs. Chase did not kiss a famous person? (Other students raise hands. Pause dramatically to build suspense). FALSE! Mrs. Chase did NOT kiss a famous person. Please! Mrs. Chase only kisses Mr. Chase. And repeat for every. single. statement. Such great repetitions and the kids have no idea! They’re just listening so they can correct the paper in front of them!

Once we finish “correcting” students get their own paper back and I do my whole routine (in Spanish, obvio) Stand up if you have 10 points or more…..stand up if you have 13 points or more….stand up if you have 22 points or more. Students sit down once they’re eliminated and the last few students standing are named the winners and receive a stamp on their stamp sheet.  

And now here’s the kicker! As a follow up, students write statements about themselves. I ask them to write me 5 statements about themselves in Spanish, and indicate True or False next to it. I compile all the statements into another power point (correcting their Spanish, of course), and we play again, but this time it’s about their classmates. (Each student has a statement…if anyone is absent, write one for the absent students). It looks like this, but written in Spanish:

1. Camden has seven sisters.
2. Elise is allergic to dogs.
3. Danny broke is arm 4 different times.
4. Jason’s cousin is on TV.

Students guess if the statement is true or false, and then, when we trade and grade, the teacher asks the student in question. Camden, is it true? Do you really have seven sisters? You don’t? Class, FALSE. How many sisters do you have, Camden? (The reason students write 5 statements, but I only include one statement for each student, is so I can pick the best statement. It is not very exciting if all the statements are similar.)

Try it! It’s such a great game to target the grammar or vocabulary you want to get a lot of repetitions on. Maybe at a small school it would be fun to include statements about other teachers that they students all know. Or you could even do a little research about celebrities and students could guess True or False. Just imagine: Justin Beiber has 6 toes on his right foot.  I’m off to research some celebrity trivia….

If you’re looking for other CI games to try in your language classes, may I suggest The Lucky Reading Game or Pop Up?