The 'Dice of heroes' bowing game.

 

The 'Dice of heroes' bowing game.
Subject	Any vocabulary or structure. Good review game. It is also a good seasonal party game. (Christmas/Halloween.)
Richard’s comments.	A game using English ‘Crown green’ bowling as the source. This is the only ‘Bowling game’ I play as I like the way everyone gets to play every time. (We don’t want students standing around watching do we?). This is much more productive and the students are always engaged. (Engaged students are less likely to be causing disruption in class.)
Group size:	As everyone is playing at the same time, roughly eight is about your limit.
Team teaching game?	This game can be played with one teacher.
Materials	Plastic balls. (Team colours are ideal or individual colours for small classes will work fine.) ‘Target’. Vocabulary cards numbered 1-6 Points. Dice. The ‘dice of heroes’ needs to be quite large and as soft as possible as you are going to rolling it across the classroom during the game. (Obviously care will be needed during the game.)

 

Game set up.	This game we play in teams. Lay out the focus cards and drill the vocabulary or structure. The focus cards can be just six or piles of vocabulary cards divided into six. (In my review game the six piles would be different topics.) One player will have the ‘Dice of heroes’. Everyone lines up along the ‘play line’.
The ‘dice of heroes’	The ‘dice of heroes’ is thrown by one of the students in place of a ball. If it lands nearest to the target it wins the bonus (Two points) and the student retains possession. In other cases, the student throwing the ball nearest to the target wins a point and takes over the dice. We use the dice to provide the number for using with the focus cards.

 

Playing rules.	Everyone plays together. The student getting closest to the target wins the round for a bonus point for their team. Using the number on the dice and the corresponding focus card/s, identify the word or make a sentence structure. Award points for saying sentences, and bonuses for ‘having a go’ Repeat as required. Don’t forget to pass the ‘Dice of heroes’ to the winner of the last round. Change the vocabulary or structure as you progress.
Variations.	Halloween version. I use plastic pumpkins to add to the challenge as the shape is not very predictable when rolled,   Try snowballs for a Christmas variation.   For small classes where you can keep track of who is throwing what you can award bonuses for anyone closer to the target than the dice. (Especially if the teachers are playing the dice role.)