The Sofa Game: How To Play Name Calling Fun

If you're looking to liven your class up a little, add some laughs and generally have a good time, the couch game is a good way to go. I know what it's like searching for activities that will actually work...In five years I have come across so many lesson plans and activities that you can easily see from the get go... are just not gonna stand up in class...or...You try, and you fry! I am determined to keep the contents that I put up on this site, as pure lesson winners. I'm not going to fill it with lessons that can only go half the distance. This next lesson certainly fills a 45 minute class period with mega fun...Your students will love you!

The Sofa Game also known as The Couch Game, ranks within my top 5 list. Whilst it's not as "English filled" as a lesson such as Wanna Buy A Duck, it makes the kids concentrate, listen and speak. It is also funny and will give them a good laugh.

General Idea - The main idea is to get the kids all sitting in a circle (boy, girl, boy girl) with four chairs at the head of the circle specially marked as the sofa.
Because the students are sitting in a boy, girl formation around the circle... "the sofa" will be occupied by two girls and two boys. The aim of the game is for the girls to totally occupy the sofa with four girls, and of course the aim of the game for the boys, is to occupy the sofa with four boys. Let's take a look how this will happen.

UPDATE : I have now designed a Sofa Game Activity Pack. Everything you need including more detailed instructions and tactical plans, name cards, Sofa Marker PDF and Seating Plan PDF.

The Sofa Game: Set Up and Play

1. Put all of your chairs in a large circle and get the students to sit around on the chairs in a boy, girl formation. The one chair immediately to the left of the sofa should be vacant...but every other chair should have a student sitting on it. To successfully play the couch game, you will probably need at least 20 students to make this game worthwhile.


2. Get the students to write their English names on paper. (Name Cards available in Activity Pack)


3. Collect names in container


4. Get each student to put their hand in like a lucky dip and draw out someones name.


5. BIG NOTE: Make sure that the students don't show or tell anyone what name they have...in China, this is very hard thing to stop the student's doing, but after a couple of rounds they start to realise that this game works better when they learn to keep quiet about their new persona.


6. Now the students have to pretend that they are the person whose name they have pulled out of the container. Play starts with the person sitting to the left of the empty chair, calling out a classmates name.


7. The student who is holding that name in their hand (on the paper) must stand up and walk to the empty chair. This often causes many laughs when a boy has inadvertently picked out a girls name... and a big, tall and beefy looking Mary, stands up and wanders across to sit in their new position.


8. Now the vacant chair is in another spot...yes? so the person sitting on the left of the new vacant chair calls another name and the new "whoever" moves over next to them.


9. The trick is for the students to try to remember who has who's name. The girls want four girls to move onto the sofa... even if one of the girls now has a boys name, and of course the same goes for the boys.

Obviously the team that wins will be the team that can fill the couch with either girls or boys. My classes love to do girl vs boy games! Competition is fierce.

The Couch Game Resources

• small strips of paper


• container to put all the names into


• something you can use to mark the four chairs that will be "the couch".

OR GO THE EASY WAY WITH THE SOFA GAME ACTIVITY PACK

The Couch Game Lesson Notes

• The hardest thing is not getting the students to cheat or give away their identity. You must stop the kids from calling out or mouthing their new names in their excitement and want to win.


• The next most difficult thing is of course the explanation.  As always, with activities like this one, I find it is best to get it all set up and for the first round, describe and show as you go. The student's catch on pretty quickly when they see how competitive and fun the activity is. When I first gathered enough courage to try this activity (I was scared about how to explain) I just couldn't get over how well and easily it all fell together.

Animal Sounds: Circle Game Fun

You may think that teaching animal sounds to your class is just too easy. We learn those things before we go to school right? But for kids in countries like China, they have never heard the descriptive words we use for the noises that particular animals make. In fact in China the kids don't even know the names of half the animal sound in their own language of Chinese. A lesson in animal sounds is informative and fun. Having spent a lot of my childhood mimicking and perfecting the sounds of animals such as the roosters, ducks and dogs, the kids love it when I also give an imitation of the animals. Anyway lets get to the game.

Animal Sounds Circle Game

Step 1 : Have the chairs all set up in a circle and when the kids arrive get them to sit down

Step 2 : Run through the vocabulary you will teach them. I have just recently done this activity and used these 10 animals (but you can choose your own)

• Dog - Woof Woof


• Cat -  Meow


• Rooster - Cock-a-doodle-doo


• Pig - Oink Oink


• Cow - Moo


• Monkey - Chitter Chatter


• Duck - Quack Quack


• Bird - Twitter/Tweet


• Wolf - Howl


• Mouse - Squeak Squeak

Don't rush through the learning section, make sure they write down the words and get them to repeat the animals sounds. If you can, do some of your own imitations of the animal sounds, the kids love this!

Step 3 : Get the kids to hold on to their books and pens (if they have them on hand) and stand up. Tell them to walk around in a circle in an orderly fashion. As they do this count down from 10 to 1, say STOP and then say SIT DOWN. This has made the kids all move around to new positions within the circle. To make sure they do this correctly, do it again. Tell them to walk in a circle, count down from 10, then tell them STOP and SIT DOWN. If they do this correctly move on to the next step

Step 4 : Tell them that one person will come and stand in the middle of the circle, blindfolded. This person will spin around and stop, pointing their finger at someone in the circle (demonstrate as you explain).

Tell them the person that is being pointed at, must make one of the animal sounds they have just learned and the person who is blindfolded in the middle must guess two things -

•  What animal sound they can hear


•  who is making that sound.

Step 5 : Give the person a few guesses and a few chances to listen to the sound, after they guess or time out,

get the person who was making the animal sound to now step up and be the person in the middle and start again.

Animal Sounds Circle Game Video

Have a look at the game in action -

Your class may end up sounding a little like a zoo, but it's great fun, little preparation and teaches the students animal sounds in a super fun way adding some new describing words to their vocabulary. This is an awesome activity for little and big kids alike!

Name Game - Slap Slap Clap Clap

Slap slap clap clap is a perfect name game and icebreaker activity, helping to learn and remember names whilst getting the students to speak loudly and have fun in the process. It can also be used in a lesson about rhythm. I have used this successfully with 11-15 year olds but I think any age would happily complete this lesson (except maybe extremely young children who just haven't got the coordination skills required).

How To Play The Clapping Name Game

https://youtu.be/gLqMKUtVb3Q?list=PLP_xsoFOetKhtZuNI_Lda5ADrThcr1ujh Click here to see game in action.
1. Start by seating your students in a circle, try not to make the circle too big as the students need to hear each other to successfully participate, so get them to sit close together.


2. Ask if they know the meanings of the two words slap and clap, explain and show them the difference by clapping your hands and slapping your thighs. Now tell them that we are going to play a rhythm or a beat, like they hear when listening music. Demonstrate the beat  slap, slap (slap your thighs twice) and clap, clap (clap your hands twice). For those of you with music training, it is just a straight 4/4 beat, and you need to make sure the students stay in time. Count them in nice and slow to start.... 1234 slap(1) slap(2)clap(3)clap(4)


3. This is where the name game aspect kicks in. Once the very easy rhythm is sorted, explain that the first two times they clap their hands they must say their own English name, demonstrate and then get them to join in... Then tell them on the second time they clap, clap their hands they must say a classmates name... Again demonstrate and get them to follow.


4. Now get the class to be quite and explain that we will all slap, slap, clap, clap,  but say nothing and listen for your name. As the teacher you start... slap, slap, clap, clap(your name) slap, slap, clap, clap (students name). When that student hears their name they must now slap, slap, clap, clap(their name) slap, slap, clap, clap( another students name) and so on and so on.

NOTE : make sure the students keep the continual rhythm, any hesitation is OUT.

-Other ways to get out
If your name is called and you don't continue the name chant.
If you forget to say your name and straight away say another students name instead.
If you say a students name who is already out
If you go out of rhythm( I'm very tough on this particular one).

It all sounds a little confusing, but it's very easy, takes no prep, gets students familiar with others names, gets them vocal and makes them laugh. This is an excellent name game that is made even more fun by incorporating music and rhythm. If you're class is great at this, you could try and find and instrumental piece of music that they can play the name game along with, making them stay in time.
Watch the video and see for yourself how the basic name game chant is played.