'Bananas' - The One
A simple, and great, conversation warmup. I don't know why the word 'bananas' is funny,
but it is...
Level - Intermediate. The students must have a range of sentence structure to draw from
beyond 'What fruit do you like'.
Age - 12-18.
Time - 5 minutes.
Object - To practice creating and asking questions. A review game.
Language skills - speaking, listening, communication.
Advantages - Can be a very fun way to spark a class up a the beginning of a lesson.
Disadvantages - Weaker students may not participate.
How to play...
- The teacher picks a student. They are 'the one'. They stand up and can not laugh or smile. Not scarey...really
- The other students, who are sitting, then ask the 'the one' questions. He/she can only answer with the word 'bananas'.
- A student must stand up to ask a question and remains standing.
- Only students who are sitting are able to ask a question.
- If the 'the one' laughs or smiles, they are out, and the teacher chooses another student to be 'the one' from those that have asked a question (those that are standing).
- The previous 'the one' student remains standing.
- At the end of a time limit (about 5 minutes) the student who is still 'the one' is the winner.
- All active participants (those standing) are rewarded.
I picked up a version of this game browsing a forum somewhere. Would love to be able to find it again. If anybody knows who the godfather of this game is, please let me know by sending me an email.