It’s game time

Introduction:

These are activities for upper intermediate students to introduce and practise sports idioms. Students unscramble the expressions, match them with the correct definitions and play a game.

Level: C1

Time: 60 minutes

Objectives:

To introduce sports idioms and expressions.
To unscramble sports idioms and expressions.
To match the expressions with their definitions.
To practise the new expressions whilst playing a game.

Materials (Click on the worksheets below to download the PDF files):

It’s game time Worksheet, one per student.
24 It’s game time Cards, printed, cut out and laminated for future use.

Procedure:

Put students in pairs and ask them to briefly discuss the following questions: What are the most important events in the sporting calendar in your country?Which is more important in sport –winning or taking part? Who are your sporting heroes? What are the qualities of a true champion?
Hand students It’s game time Worksheet.
Individually, students try to order the underlined words in sentences 1 to 12 to discover what the correct expressions are.
When the students have finished, they compare their answers with a partner.
Check the answers as a class.
Now the students match the expressions with their definitions and compare their answers with their partner.
Check the answers as a class.
Divide the students into two or three small teams of 2 or 3 and place the cards face down on the table in front of the students.
The first student from the first team draws a card and performs the action written in red on the card, e.g. they define what a safe bet is.
The first team to guess the correct answer keeps the card.
Then a player from another team draws the next card. The game continues until the cards have run out. The winner is the team with the most cards.