Pass the FCs

 Pass the FCs

Another Q&A game is Pass the FCs. This activity can get a little chaotic and is not exactly the best game for pronunciation, but it is nevertheless a fun way to drill home the Q&A and vocabulary you are working on.

The two teams get out of their seats to form two parallel standing lines along the centre of the classroom.

WHITEBOARD

teacher

Team A                                          Team B

#1s                                  #1s

#2s                                  #2s

#3s                                  #3s

#4s                                  #4s

#5s                                  #5s

#6s                                  #6s

The teacher now hands an FC to each of the #1 students. Let us say for example that the FCs are for personality adjectives and the Q&A is “Are you ...?”, “Yes I am/No I’m not.” The teacher hands an [annoying] FC to the #1s from team A and a [cheerful] FC to the #1s from team B.

“Are you annoying?” asks the #1s from team A to the #2s from team A while handing them the FC. “No, I’m not,” replies the #2s as they take the FC. The #2s now turns to hand the FC to the #3s, asking again, “Are you annoying?” “Yes, I am!” replies the #3s as they quickly take this FC from the #2s and turn to hand it to the #4s. And so it continues until the FC reaches the end of the line.

At exactly the same time as the above is occurring, the team B students are doing the same with the [cheerful] FC.

“Are you cheerful?” asks the #1s from team B to the #2s from team B while handing them the FC. “Yes, I am,” replies the #2s as they take the FC. The #2s now turns to hand the FC to the #3s, asking again, “Are you cheerful?” “Yes, I am,” replies the #3s as they quickly take this FC from the #2s and turn to hand it to the #4s.

The first team to get their FC to the end of the line is the winner. Another good idea is to have the student at the end of the line rush to the start of the line once they have received the FC. They run to the teacher, and hand the FC to them, asking the question as they do so.

Then for the next round that student stands at the start of the line and the others all shift down, thus giving another student a turn at being at the end of the line.

The teacher will be monitoring and may take points away from students that do not speak clearly or who decide to mumble out the Q&A too quickly. You can also pick on two students to, “Do it again!” if they do not say it properly.

Once you have given this game a few rounds, you can try playing it with more than one FC for each team. Three or four FCs can in fact be progressing down each line. This of course adds to the fun as well as keeping all the students busier. But be careful, using more than one FC at a time can get a little chaotic.

Another version of Pass the FCs

This version is better for accuracy and pronunciation because you focus on one team at a time – the teacher monitors the passing of the FCs carefully, making sure the Q&A is spoken clearly and correctly.

In this version one team forms a line and passes an FC along that line. The other team meanwhile are doing an activity that starts when the passing of the FCs begins, and ends when the passing of the FCs stops. For example, team A passes an FC along their line, the teacher monitors this and makes sure they are doing it properly. While this is going on, the team B students are taking turns to throw balls into a basket. When the team A students have passed their FC to the end of the line, the team B students must stop throwing. The balls in the basket are counted. The teams swap over and now it is the turn for the team A students to be throwing balls into the basket while the team B students pass an FC along their line. Swap over again; possibly give them two or three goes at each activity. Finally call the game to a stop and the team that has landed the most balls in the basket overall is the winner.

There is therefore the onus for students to pass the FCs quickly and say the Q&A well (otherwise the teacher will make them do it again) because the team passing the FCs must try to limit the amount of time the other team has to throw the balls.

For alternative versions, the students can be playing Jenga, trying to remove as many blocks as they can in the limited time; or you can have them trying to build a tower of blocks, making it as high as they can in the limited time.

To make each round last longer, you can have them pass more than one FC along the line, or make them pass the FC down the line and then back again.