The initial need for a comparatives board game
A few years ago, when teaching comparatives – comparative adjectives – I realised my activities were starting to look a bit tired and outdated. I started thinking about creating some new activities. Around about that time I was also experimenting with Illustrator for some very simple design work. One option that came to mind was a comparatives board game.
I began by playing around with the idea of a comparative adjective board game, and how it might work. After a few failed attempts, I came up with a draft version ready to test in the classroom. It was based on students answering questions in the following format: ‘Which is _______ (tasty) chocolate or ice cream?’. Students need to make the question with the correct comparative adjective, and then answer the question. I tested the board game out with a couple of classes, and it seemed to work rather well. However, there was one problem. The board game was entirely text based, and as a result looked rather dry and uninspiring.
Back to the drawing board
I continued using that version in my classes, meanwhile, thinking of ways I could add images to make the activity more visually appealing. Last year, I started up my TpT store, and began buying vector images and clipart so I could make materials look as professional as possible. My favourite clipart artist is Ron Leishman, and I’ve been using his work in l lot of my resources such as my going to future board game. You can find Ron’s work on both Teachers Pay Teachers and his own website www.Toonaday.com. It was my hope to make a comparatives board game featuring his work.
For my classes I was making powerpoints with two images juxtaposed as a prompt for students to make a sentence with a comparative. However, I couldn’t visualize that working for the board game. I hit a creative dry spell, and put the idea on the back burner.
Inspiration strikes
Then earlier this year, amid the chaos of hybrid teaching, face-to-face teaching, huge numbers of students calling in sick, or having to self-quarantine, and a variety of other dramas – it came to me. I didn’t need two pictures. Instead, I could use just one picture with a similar kind of text prompt as before. I quickly got to work. Eventually I managed to find 23 images that would go with a suitable question prompt for a level appropriate comparative adjective board game. I was able to get a good mixture of adjectives taking ‘er’, ‘more’ and also the irregular adjectives (good, bad, far). This, in my view, was one of the essential components of the activity.
The finished product
I printed and tested the finished board game, and I must say, I am very happy with the way it turned out. And I got a fantastic reaction from my students too. I’m really looking forward to using it again in my class next semester.
So that’s the story of my long running project to make a comparatives board game. It’s available to buy NOW on my TeachersPayTeachers store. I’ve also included it in a new ‘ESL Communicative Board Game Bundle’ with more of my board games and a great discount.
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Happy Teaching !