About This Activity

Overview

The Country Clues Deduction Game is an excellent way to provide students with engaging, repeated practice of intermediate level vocabulary words and sentence structures, in particular, the phrases less than and more than.

Students will need to know only __ vocabulary words to play this game (with Set ?). However, learners do not need to learn the names of the countries included, as it is only necessary to be able to read them, not produce them from memory.

To play this game, a participant with the Country Information Table (with 66 countries listed) must deduce which of the 66 countries matches the country on their activity partner's Country Clue Card.

Currently, 4 different sets of 18 Country Clue Cards are available for this game. These are all compatible with the included 66 country Country Information Table.

 

Activity Presentation Phase Instructions

 

Country Clue Card Example

Botswana Country Clue Card

Average temperature more than 22°C
Population less than 5 million
Part of Africa 
National flag with blue, white & black

 

Country Clue Card Example

Senegal Country Clue Card

Average temperature more than 28°C
Land area less than 200,000 km²
Population less than 20 million
National flag with green, red & yellow

 

Country Clue Card Example

Indonesia Country Clue Card

Average temperature more than 25°C
Population more than 200 million
Part of Asia
National flag with red & white

 

 

Download Activity Materials

 

 

How To Play

Groups: This activity is best practiced in pairs of two participants. One participant in each group will be the asker and the other will be the answerer.

Materials: One or more sets of 18 Country Clue Cards + one laminated Country Information Table + one whiteboard marker

Time / Game Round: 1-3 minutes

 

  • The asker should lay out one set of game cards in front of them and the answerer should draw one "secret card" from an identical set of cards. The "secret card" will therefore match one of the 18 cards laid out in front of the asker.

  • The answerer can look at the "secret card," but they aren't allowed to show it to the asker. The asker can only learn which body-parts appear on the "secret card" by asking verbal questions.

  • The asker's GOAL is to narrow down which of the 18 cards in front of them matches the "secret card" possessed by the answerer.

    To do this, the asker can use the sentence patterns like "Does the monster have one or more _________________?" and systematically insert different body-parts into the blank in the sentence pattern.

    A list of recommended sentence patterns for the asker's questions is available below under Sentence Patterns to Use While Playing.

  • Based on the answerer's 'yes/no' answers, the asker can "eliminate" any cards that logically can't match the "secret card" held by the answerer. The best way to "eliminate" the non-matching cards, is to flip them over face-down. Then the asker can continue to ask more questions to further narrow down the remaining "face-up cards."

  • Each round of the game continues until the asker has narrowed down the cards in front of them to just one card. They can then ask the answerer, "Is this your card?"

 

For more detailed instructions for how to print, prepare, and introduce card-based deduction games like this one, click the blue button below.

 

How To Play

 

 

 

Words to Learn Before Playing

The Core Vocabulary Words listed below are all words that students should learn BEFORE playing this game. Students will only need to learn the words listed for Set A to play this game with that set of cards. However, to play the game with Set B, students will need to learn the words for both Set A and Set B. Likewise, to play the game with Set C, students will need to learn the words for Set C and all previous sets.

 

Standard Use Vocabulary
Used With All Sets 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10*, blue, brown, color, gray, green, monster, orange, pink, purple, red, yellow


*Additional numbers could be used to play this game, but aren't required knowledge to be able to play. 

 

Vocabulary Words Used in Activity
Card Set A (18 Cards) arm, body, ear, eye, foot/feet, hand, head, knee, mouth, neck, nose, shoe, tail, thumb
Card Set B (18 Cards) finger, fingernail, hair, hoof, horn, shoulder, toe, tooth/teeth, wing
Card Set C (18 Cards) bone, brain, elbow, flower, heart

 

Important Notes: 

  • Currently, three different card sets for Body-Part Monster Cards are available. To play with each set of cards, students need to learn the Core Vocabulary Words listed for that set AND all previous sets.

  • The sets are arranged in order of importance. Each sequential set uses increasingly less essential body-part vocabulary words. For example, 'brain' is used less often in everyday conversation than 'hand.' Therefore, 'hand' is used in Set A and 'brain' is used (with some other lower-priority vocabulary words) in Set C. However, both words are useful, and definitely worth learning.

  • It's entirely possible (and even recommended, once your students understand the game) to combine more than one set of cards together to create a more varied and interesting card deck. 

 

Words to Learn While Playing

The following words will be used to the play this game (with every available set of cards). However, these words don't need to be pre-taught. These words can and should be learned WHILE playing the game.

 

Standard Use Vocabulary
Used With All Sets are, card, does, doesn't, have, how, is, isn't, it, many, more, no, or, the, this, what, yes, your

 

Sentence Patterns to Use While Playing

The following sentences and sentence patterns are recommended for use while playing this game. The best way to teach these sentences, is to use them in context while introducing the game and demonstrating how to play it.

 

Standard Sentences and Sentence Patterns
What color/colors is/are the monster's _________________?
The monster's _________________ is/are _________________.
Does the monster have one or more _________________?
Yes, it does. / No, it doesn't.
How many _________________ does the monster have?
It has ___ _________________. 
Is this your card?
Yes, it is. / No, it isn't.