The What Just Happened ESL game is a version of reverse charades in which students have to act their reactions to a given situation.
4+
10-20 mins
Setup
You will need to prepare a list of suitable situations (e.g. You’ve just lost your keys) that you can project on the board one at a time. Or, if you have the Internet available, just use our pre-made What Just Happened interactive game.
Divide the class into two teams.
Game
- The teams take turns playing. One student from the current team sits on a chair at the front, facing away from the board. This student will have to guess the situation written on the board.
- The other members of the team act their reaction to the situation on the board.
- The student at the front has thirty seconds to guess as many situations as possible, with each correct guess worth one point.
- At the end of the time, do the same with the other team. Then repeat with different students guessing. The team with the most points at the end wins.
Tip: Be strict to ensure that students act their reactions to a situation, and not the situation itself.
Target Language
The What Just Happened ESL game is designed for practising the present perfect simple, focusing on the use of ‘just’ for something that happened recently. As the target language is of a set structure, the game works best with students new to this language – i.e. lower intermediate level.
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