True false questions are great for testing how much a student knows or remembers, but those type of questions don’t have to be just for tests.
Try these simple no prep activities which are all based on truth and lies in class today.
Enjoy These Top 5 No Prep Activities Based on True or False
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1
I Cannot Tell a Lie
How well can your students bluff their classmates? In this simple game, students will tell their partner a statement about themselves that is either true or false. Before they make their statement, they should put both hands behind their back. If the statement they will make is true, they hold up one finger on their right hand while keeping the left hand in a fist. If they are going to make a false statement, they hold one finger up on their left hand and leave their right hand in a fist. They then make the statement, and their partner must choose either the right hand or the left hand. If they choose the hand with the finger up, they have chosen correctly and switch roles. If they chose incorrectly, the first student makes another statement and the second tries to guess it correctly. You can also use this activity to review material you have covered in class by having students make statements about the information they have studied. This is a good and unusual way to review before a test.
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2
Bologna
In this game, students make true or false statements about the cards they play on their turn. Start by putting your class into groups of three to six students each. Give each group a deck of playing cards, and ask them to shuffle the cards and deal them out equally. (Each group can also play with two decks of cards, making the game even trickier.) The first player starts by putting one or more cards into the center of the table, face down. These cards can be any number and any quantity. As she does, she makes a statement about how many aces she is laying down. For example, she might say, “three aces”. If the other players believe she laid down nothing but three aces, they continue to the next person who makes a statement about the number of twos he lays down. Play continues around the circle with each player making a statement about threes, fours, fives, sixes and so on until a player makes a statement about the number of kings he is playing and then players go back to aces. Anytime a player thinks another player has made a false statement, he calls, “Bologna!” The players then turn the cards over to see if the statement was true. If the player only laid down what he said, the player who called bologna must take the whole stack into his hand. If the player laid down anything other than what he said and was caught, he must take the entire stack of cards into his own hand. Play continues until someone gets rid of all the cards in his hand or until you run out of time.
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3
Who Knows the Most?
If you want to get your students moving during class, this game will do it. This is a good game to play before reading a passage to get your students thinking about the topic they will be reading about. Designate one side of the room for true statements and the other for false statements. Then have your students stand in a line in the middle of the room. Make a statement about the information your students will be reading. (For example, if they will be reading about J.K. Rowling, you might say she was unemployed when she wrote Harry Potter.) After you finish the statement, students must run to either the true side of the room or the false side of the room depending on what they believe about your statement. Any student who runs to the correct side of the room stays in the game. Anyone who ran to the incorrect side of the room is eliminated and must sit down. Play until only one or two students remain. That student earn the title “The One Who Knows the Most.” Follow up by reading the passage as a class.
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4
True False Face Off
In this game, two students come to the front of the room and face off making true (or supposedly true) statements about a topic. Start by having the two students stand at the front of the room facing each other. Then give them a topic about which they will make true statements. (Any topic will do. Try things like American food, St. Bernards, Football, you, etc.) Students take turns making true statements, resorting to lies when they can no longer think of something true to say. If one player thinks the other player made a false statement, they say, “That’s a lie.” If it was a lie, the person who made the statement must sit down and the other player wins the round. If the statement was true, the person who said it was a lie must sit down and the first player wins the round. At that point, have another student come to the front to face off against the winner and give them a new topic to speak about.
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5
Two Truths and a Lie
This is a fun game to help students get to know each other or to fill a few minutes at the end of class. Have everyone in class write three statements about themselves on a piece of paper. Two statements should be true and one should be false. After everyone has written their statements, students take turns reading what they have written. After each person reads his statements, the class tries to guess which statement was the lie. The more students play this game the better they will get at making their lies sound true. If you do play it more than once in class, make sure students come up with new statements each time you play.
The world is full of truths and lies, and your ESL classroom can be, too. These fun, no-prep activities will get your students thinking (and bluffing) while they practice their English skills.
What are your favorite true/false based activities to use in class?
Share with us in the comments section below.
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