Playing Taboo in Zhanjiang

Last week in my Oral English class we played taboo. It proved to be quite a big hit. The students had a fun time trying to describe the "taboo" word without using any of the other "clue" words listed underneath.

While the students played in pairs, I went around the room and joined in with various groups for a word or two.

Taboo really proved to be a great exercise as it made them think hard of different words and ways of describing some common things. After we finished playing, I had the students make their own taboo cards. I think most people had caught on and were able to do so, though some seemed like they may not have fully gotten the idea... In any event, I'm going to include a few sample cards that I found cute, amusing and maybe even a combination of the two.

Apple (regarding the student who recently left)

• She
• Went to
• Guangzhou
• Have a
  
• Job
  

I don't think this student quite caught onto the idea that the words below were supposed to be clues that you can not say as opposed to clues that lead you to the answer. I thought it was funny though that they made a card for their former classmate.

Hamburger

• KFC
• Bread
• Vegetable
• Salad
  

I wasn't so sure about that one...

Mother

• Woman
• Take care of you
• love
• warm
• cook room

Married

• Happy
• Sweet

Zombie

• Death
• Eat
• Person
• Beat

Baby

• couple
• love
• crystal
• generation
• money

Great Wall

• Beijing
• China
• Famous
• So long

McDonald's

• American
• Dining
• Fast Food
• Nutrition time
• Red hair

Malnutrition?

Women (submitted by a female student)

• Long hair
• make-up
• dress
• shopping

Rice

• eat
• Chinese
• daily
• lunch
• supper

Summer

• hot
• season
• warm
• high temperature
• boiling

I also managed to make it onto a few different student's papers...

Scott

• teacher
• come from
• Florida

Scott

• teacher
  
• USA
• Florida
• man
• handsome

Scott

• foreign teacher
• tall
• speaking teacher (I have this class for Oral English and English Listening)
  
• listening teacher
• friend