Vocab Games and Activities that Reinforce Vocabulary

Flashcards

 The right way to use a set of flashcards is to go through the deck and set
each card into one of 3 piles
o Pile A = Easy. These are the words I know already
o Pile B = So-so. I know these words but not very well.
o Pile C = Hard. These are the words I have the most difficult time with.
 Pick up Pile C and work with those cards continuing to place them into the 3
piles
 Continue doing that with all the Pile C cards until there are no cards left in Pile
C.
 Continue with the cards in Pile B, going through the deck and putting them in
one of the 3 piles.
 When you have gone through all the cards and they all ended up in Pile A, the
easy pile, you have learned your words.

Flashcard Games
Flash a Friend = Get with a partner and go through the flashcards showing the
flashcard to your partner.
Sentences = Partners show each other a flashcard and partner needs to put the
word in an appropriate sentence
Pairs on Floor = Partners take one set of cards and place them out on the floor,
with German side up. Teacher says English meaning. The partner who grabs it
first, gets to keep the card. Each card grabbed is a point. Reverse with English
up and teacher calls out German.
Tic Tac Toe = Partners put words 9 words in Tic-Tac-Toe formation. Students have to
say the German and the English meaning to have it count as right. Playing with
picture side up is harder than word side up. It helps to have different color
bingo chips to place on the cards but it is not necessary.
Connect Four = Similar to Tic Tac Toe but players put out more cards in the square
and the first one to “connect four” wins.
Partner Races = Partners race against each other to see who can go through their
pile faster.
Partner Race Complete = same as above, but if a student doesn’t know a word,
he puts it at the bottom of the pile and must go through his entire stack of
cards again.
Beat the Clock = All the students go through their flashcards at the same time and
try to say all the vocab words within a certain time period.
4 Corners = 4 students put their card with word side up so the other players can
read the word. A deck of cards is shuffled and passed out. Students turn over
a card at the same time. The person with the highest card has 3 seconds to
say one of the vocab words of his opponents with its translation. If he’s right,
 he gets a point. If he is wrong the second highest card has 3 seconds to
translate a word.
War = Students hold their own cards in their hands with the picture side up. At the
same time, the students flip their cards over so that the word side is facing up
on the table. Students race to call out the other person’s vocabulary word with
meaning first. Winner gets a point. If the same vocab word appears, another
word is thrown down and students race again to see who can say that vocab
word with its meaning first. Winner gets 2 points, one for each card on the
table.
Bingo = Students put a certain number of vocab words down on their desks, i.e. 10
words with the word facing up. Teacher calls out the words as in a regular
bingo game. If the student has that word he turns it over to the picture side up.
Winner is the person who has all 10 words called. If you have enough vocab
cards, you can also have the students arrange their cards into a normal looking
bingo board with 25 squares (5x5) or 16 (4x4) and play regular bingo.
Quiz Me Race = Partner B holds Partner A’s cards with the words facing up. Partner
A says the meaning as Partner B moves through the stack. You can have this
be a race again the clock. Whichever partner takes less time to go through the
stack wins. Or it could be a race against a different partner group. Both
partners have to go through the stack faster than the other partner group.
Guess the words in the story = Students pick out 10 vocab words that they think
they will hear in a story or a dialog. They lay those cards on their desks. The
teacher tells the story and each time one of those words is used in the story,
the student gets a point. If you have pictures or transparencies of your stories,
it helps to have the students look at the pictures before they pick their words.
Slap / Point = Students lay out a set of vocab words and work against a partner.
Teacher says a word. The first partner to slap the word and/or point to it gets a
point. Teachers can make this game more challenging by giving a description
of the word or burying the word in a sentence.
Find the word on the Ring = Same as Slap, but the students keep all their words
on their ring. They have to go through the ring and find the word.
Snakes and Ladders = Using a Snakes and Ladders board or one you create,
students must translate a vocab word. If the translate wrong, they sit out a
turn.

Other Games

Bluff
kids split into 2 equal teams
Nmbers 1-30 written on board corresponding to vocab words
Team A chooses a number on the board.
T looks on her cheat sheet to see which word corrsponds to #
Team B hears the word and all the students who think they know the word stands
up.
Time limit is given, such as 5 seconds no more than 15 seconds.
Team A choose one person from Team B to translate the word.
If person from Team B answers correctly, they get points based on the # of students
standing up. If person from Team B answers incorrctly, that team gets negative
points based on the # of students standing up. Team B then chooses a number for
Team A and the game continues until all numbers on the board are erased. You may
have few numbers than 30 written on the board as long as it is an even amount.

Airplane Rows
Students move so they are sitting in rows with partners. They sit next to a partner
in 2 long rows so that there are 2 rows of 2. Each person needs a sheet of paper
and pen/pencil. Each student is playing against the person next to them. The
teacher says a word and the students write the translation and slap their paper. The
person who has the answer right first, wins. If there is a tie, they do “Rock, Paper,
Scissors.” All the winners move up to the chair in front of them. The losers stay
seated except for the losers at the front of the row. The winner in the front stays
and the loser moves all the way to back of the row.

Schnappt die Puppe

Divide class into 2 teams. Place a stuffed animal/doll on a chair. One person from
each team comes up to the chair. They put their hands behind their back. The
teacher says a word and the first student to grab the Puppe and say the answer
wins a point for their team. Can be played with vocab words, questions over a story
or with a reading. With a reading the teachers leaves a word out of the sentence
and the students must fill in the correct word. Students may have the reading at
their seats but may not bring it up to the front of the class.

Flyswatter Game
Vocab words are listed on the board and two teams are choosen. One person from
each team goes to the board with a flyswatter. The teacher says the word and the
first students to hit the correct word wins a point.

Variations: print off sheet of vocab words for each pair of students. They
compete in pairs at their seats with the vocab words, keeping whole class involved.
Can also be used to pratice der, die and das. On the paper is written der, die and
das. The teacher says a word and students point to the article.

Pictionary Relay
Students sit in rows. The first person in the row is facing the board. He has a paper
and pen. All the other students have their backs to the row. The teacher WRITES a
word on the board. Nothing is said. The first person in the row DRAWS a picture and
then hands it back. The row hands it back to the last person in the row. That person
writes the word under the picture and runs to the teacher with the paper. The first
row who gets it right, wins. After each word, the kids get up and move back. The
person who was at the end of the row becomes the drawer.

Steh auf!
Type/write up a list of vocab items leaving space to separate the words so that you
can cut them out later and use them as flashcards. Print the list on 3 separate
colors. Cut out the words so that you have separate color coded stacks. Divide the
class into 2 teams. Give each team one set of flashcards and the teacher keeps the
third set. Each team distributes their stack of cards among their members.
Distribution does not need to be equal, i.e one person may have 4 another may
have 10. Every student must have at least one vocab card. Teacher uses his set of
flashcards to give either the gesture or English of the first card to start the game.
There is one person on each team who have this word. The first person who stands
up and yells the corresponding word on their card gets a point. The teacher cycles
through the stack of words once.

3 Schlangen
The class stands in 3 rows facing the teacher. The 3 students at the front of each
row is competing against each other. The teacher gives a vocab word and the
students gesture the word. The student who gestures first, gets a point. The teacher
simply says “Punkt” and points to the winner. The winner keeps track of his/her own
points. These 3 students go to the end of the line and the next three students are
up. Students can switch lines since each row/line is not a team. Students keep
moving through the line until they have earned 5 points they sit down. Activity ends
when 1/2 the class has earned 5 points. This games moves quickly.

Jail
The class is divided into 2 teams and they stand in a row. The teacher gives the first
person in each row a word. The student who translates it first is the winner. The
Loser moves to a corner of the room on the same side labeled “Gefängnis”. If the
Winner has anyone from his team in jail, he grabs that “inmate” and takes him to
the back of the line. If there is no one from his team in jail, the winner simply goes
to the back of the line. The game ends when everyone on one team is in jail.

Wer hat das Wort?

Use a story that students have read and will be tested over. Take the story and
highlight about 30 words. Most of these words should be vocabulary words but they
don’t need to be. Type/Write these highlighted words so that you can cut them out.
First make 3 or 4 copies of this list and then cut out the words. Have students
randomly pick 5-10 words, depending on the size of the class. The teacher starts to
read the story and when s/he gets to one of the highlighted words, s/he pauses or
says mmmmmm. The first student who notices he/she has that words yells it out
and gets a point. The teacher continues reading the story. If you want to “play”
again, have the kids put the words back, shuffle the cards and have them select 5-
10 more.

Charades
Divide students into 2 teams. Give each student 5 index cards and have them write
down a word on each card. The words written down need to be vocab words but
can be words from any time in the year. Only German is allowed on the card. After
a few minutes, collect the cards from each Team and keep them separated. The
cards that Team A made, will be given to Team B and visa versa. Team A starts. One
person from Team A stands up and randomly takes a card from Team B’s stack.
Using gestures only he has 30 seconds to get his team to say the word. If his team
guesses the word, his team gets a point. If not, no points are awarded. Team B is
then up. Alternate between teams regardless of points earned.
Variation - If you have a Guesstures game you may cut cardstock cards to
fit the game apparatus and use this for the game timer.
2 – Combine the cards into one stack and have 1 participant from each team
 look at the word drawn. When the teacher says go, the students from each
team at the front gestures the word to their team. The team with the first
correct answer wins a point.

Cootie catcher – Change the template for your vocabululary. Make two different
sheets with different vocab. Copy each onto a different colored paper. Have
students fold into the cootie catcher form. They then must find a partner with the
opposite color cootie catcher than what they have. The T gives out one vocab word
and the students A move the catcher as they spell the word. There are then 4
vocab words visible. The student B then chooses a vocab word from those showing.
Students A must then say the German word and give the translation. They may
then look inside to check their answer. Student B then must take that vocab word
and move their cootie catcher as they spell it outloud. Student A then chooses the
word student B must translate. Continue until all words are done or for a timed
period.
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Tanzspiel – Students pair up and link elbows (left elbow to left elbow for
righthanders, right to right for lefthanders). One person has the chalk/marker.
Partners stand at the board. Teacher gives a word in English or in German. Person
with the chalk/marker writes ONE letter of the German word and circles around
handing his/her partner the chalk/marker. Partner #2 can either write the next
letter in the word or correct ONE letter on the board. The partner pair keeps circling
around passing off the chalk/marker to each other until the word is correctly spelled.
This is a race. Multiple partner pairs can be competing at the same time to see who
finishes first correctly.