Hangman has to be among the top ten word games to play with your English class. It’s so easy to set up and simple to play. It works great as a way to tease the target language you will teach later on – or as a way to review things the students have already learned. Most of all, students of almost all levels and ages can enjoy the game. You just can’t go wrong with hangman.
Having said that, hangman can also get boring really quick. When played too often it can become predictable and unexciting. Even if you go awhile between games, some students will be totally uninterested in seeing the same old stick man slowly being drawn on the board. This is why I’m happy to share with you all some of my favorite ways to change your hangman game for the better.
Capture a Student
This one is easy: just grab a volunteer from the class and have them stand next to the board. Every time a student gets a letter wrong, make a show of pretending to slice or shoot a limb off. The victim must then hide it somehow. When all four limbs are taken, the student is typically left on their knees with their arms behind their back. This leaves their head as the last thing to be taken off. If and when that happens, be appropriately dramatic about it. Hum a death dirge or pretend to mourn over the student’s lifeless body. Maybe draw a tombstone on the board representing the fallen. It’s all in good fun.
This version of hangman is quite popular, but there are some warnings I have about it. First off, if you have two students that dislike one another – they may attempt to “kill” each other during this game. Create a rule that the person that says the killing word become the next victim. That should help prevent purposeful mistakes.
Second, too much dramatics slow the whole thing down. I love adding a little pizzazz to the whole experience, but not at the expense of learning time. In some classes, the students will feed off your energy and ramp it up to 200. You know your students well, so adapt accordingly.
Have them write the sentence
Sometimes it’s fun to let the students try and one up the teacher. If you have a small enough class, let them work together to write a sentence for you to guess. Make sure to give them clear instructions on how many words they are allowed to use and how much time they have to write it. Then, play the game as usual.
If you have a big class you can still play this version, you may need to make a few changes. You can have them split into teams and then play all the games. You can also have them put the sentences in a hat and pick one out at random.
If you want to make this a more advanced speaking exercise, tell them you will play only one sentence. They must debate over which one. This version will take up more time. It depends on the level of your students and how cooperative they are. Be sure to block off a good 10 to 20 minutes for this activity.
Versus Hangman
Split the kids into teams and have them each write a sentence for the other team to try and figure out. Before they present it to the other team, look at what they wrote. You want their sentence to be understandable and within the range of words allowed.
The teams take turns guessing letters in the other team’s sentence and the game ends in one of two ways. Either one team guesses the complete sentence first….. or one team manages to get their man hanged first. If you have a point system in your class, you can give the winning team points.
No Punishments Only Rewards
Speaking of points, you can use them as incentive for your kids to participate and pay attention. This works especially well for competitive students.
In my class, each letter guess right earns a student one point. Guessing a whole word gets two points. If a student manages to guess the entire phrase they will earn five points. This all goes to their weekly points. On Friday, I count up the points and reward a classroom coupon for every 40 points earned. They love coupons and thus are willing to do almost any activity that can help them earn more.
Need coupon ideas? Here are some I use:
Use a Beloved Character
And last but not least, there is using a beloved character. Sometimes you’ll be lucky to have a class where everyone loves a certain character. Use that knowledge to your advantage by drawing the character on the board to erase. If you can’t draw, print a picture of said character to rip up and ruin. Play up your role as the villain and laugh mockingly every time you tear/erase a limb. If you are good at voice impersonations, voice the character’s cries of agony.
Or don’t.
If your class has a particularly delicate personality, they may cry over the tragic demise of the character. Make sure to change your dramatics to suit the sensitivity of your students. This is advice from a teacher who has made a child cry before.
I hope these tips are helpful. I know that they’ve saved me time and time again, but let me know if you have any other fun ways to change hangman. I’m always willing to listen.
Have you ever thought about adding a little bit more than just your thoughts? I mean, what you say is important and everything. But its got no punch, no pop! Maybe if you added a pic or two, a video? You could have such a more powerful blog if you let people SEE what youre talking about instead of just reading it.
Thanks for the feedback! As a new blogger, I’m always looking for more ways to make my content better. I have added videos and pictures to some of my articles, if a bit clumsily. And I will continue to get better as time goes on.