Odd one out
Give pupils a set of 3 or 4 statements or images. They must prepare to say which the odd one is out and why. Can be a challenging starter, and quick to engage all if they respond with A-D cards.
Tag - plenary
Noughts and crosses
9 keywords or questions are placed into a 3×3 grid. Pupils play 0/X against each other to answer or define the key term, the first to three in a row wins!
Keyword chop
Half of the class are given questions and half are given answers, or half given one word of a key term and the others the other half. Pupils must silently go around the room trying to find out who their partner is. Once they have found one another they can either see if they can …
Just a minute
Pupils have to talk for a minute recapping a topic without pausing or hesitating and no repetition is allowed. Great to play with a timer on the board, pupils can ‘buzz’ one another out should they do any of the above!
Jeopardy
You say the answers and the pupils say the questions. It is useful if you tell pupils that the answer must begin with, “who is” or “what is” to narrow down the response.
Guess who
Pupils are given a key word or character and in pairs (often stuck to their heads with a post it) They have to question one another to see if they can decipher the key term or idea. It is useful to encourage pupils to link learning together e.g. a hobby or place to live in …
Globingo
This is a kinaesthetic form of bingo where each child starts off with a board of questions (9×9 grid). The first person to get the 9 cards (with questions on them) completed by 9 different people wins!
Give me 5
Pupils are shown a category or topic. They have 30 seconds to write down up to 5 different answers and score 1 point for each correct answer plus a bonus of 1 point for any answer that is unique in your class (i.e. not suggested by anyone else).
First letter, last letter
Give pupils a start word and in pairs or teams they have to find the next word in the list. It must start with the last letter of the previous word. Eg. Sheep à Panda à Anteater. To make it harder you could set the subject area or word type (ie. adjective).
Countdown
Give 9 letters and get pupils to make as many words as they can. If it works for the topic you are teaching, hide a key word in amongst the letters and see if anyone gets it!