MFL Jenga

This is one of the reasons I love Twitter!I had seen pictures on Twitter of people using Jenga in Languages lessons and thought it would be a fun thing to do. Having raided the toy cupboard at home for the Jenga set, I wrote a number on each of the blocks in permanent marker. Next, I prepared a numbered sheet of questions (54) to revise some of the vocabulary and structures my class needed to work on. As pupils came in and realised they would be playing Jenga, they were very excited and I was slightly concerned at how much learning would happen. However, I needn’t have worried. If anything, behaviour was better than usual as they were highly motivated and were fixated on the Jenga game so were less likely to become distracted. Each time someone removed a block, they had to find the question which had the same number and answer it. The level of peer support was very high as pupils wanted to get on with the game, so everyone tried to help in getting the answer right. In conclusion, everyone was happy. There was very little preparation for me. The students were motivated and therefore had a go at more difficult questions than they would otherwise have done in a traditional lesson.