Rules of the game

There are two ways to play this game. One is to get as many suitable words as possible so sentences can be made in a given time frame. Or you may choose to have students play the game until a suitable sentence can be made and that student wins. In both ways, students strategically make moves which will help them get their sentences. Students need to move in ways that can get them the optimum words and the desired word to form sentences. Whatever is the focus or items of learning can be used in the game. Use this game as a template and put in your own learning items in. I use this game for review.

First divide the class into groups of four. Give the game a time limit for game one – say 18 minutes, with 2 minutes to make the sentences. (This may depend on class numbers and level). The shorter the game the faster it gets!
Give each group a copy of the No-go game, four place markers, four coloured markers and 1 dice.
Students throw the dice and can move the number of spaces, either up, down or across, but moves cannot be made diagonally and they cannot pass over a marked word. Nor can they land on a marked word.
Once on a free place students mark the spot as theirs with a coloured marker. No one can move over, or rest on that spot from that time onwards.
At the end of 18 minutes, students stop the game and write their words on their notebook. Now they have two minutes to form as many valid sentences as they can from the words they have market
First student group to finish wins the game.

All downloads are in PDF format

no-go_game Download

Esl Game: The No Go Game