Battleships
Overview
Purpose
Vocabulary reinforcement
Learning outcome
Students can recognise and respond to specific vocabulary in German.
Skills
- Listening
- Speaking
Type
Pair activity
Related units in Ja! kit
- Unit 6 Die Familie
- Unit 9 Wann hast du Geburstag?
Instructions
Instead of the number coordinates used in the traditional battleships game, this variation uses German names of animals and colours.
Materials
To download the grids template, select from the following Word or PDF formats:
- Battleships template for 'Battleships' activity (Word, 28KB)
- Battleships template for 'Battleships' activity (PDF, 10KB)
Make one copy for each student.
Steps
- Divide students into pairs.
- Without their partner seeing, students colour in four ships anywhere on to the top grid, using the same numbers of squares as the ships listed below the grids.
- The two students take turns to try to 'hit' each other's ships, by calling the coordinates in German, for example, "Der Fisch ist gelb" (The fish is yellow).
- If a ship is hit, the student who owns it must say "ja", and both students put a cross onto that square. If there is no hit, the receiving student says "nein" and their partner draws a circle in that square so they know not to call it again.
- When all the squares covered by a ship have been hit, the student who owns it must tell their partner which ship has gone.
- The activity continues until all the ships are hit. The winner is the player with the last surviving ship.
Tips
- Model correct pronunciation of all the words for the students before play begins.
- Listen to the students as they play to check and correct their pronunciation.
Variations
- Adapt for use with any unit by changing the words for the coordinates. For example, use numbers and the days of the week, or times and activities (using Unit 9 Am zweiten Juni).
- Use pictures of the animals rather than the words. Students say the name of the animal by looking at the picture. (They will need to know the animals' names first.)
Further learning
Students respond to the specific vocabulary by drawing the required animal in that colour. This can be done in pairs or as a team relay. For the relay version, the leader of each team calls out a colour and an animal, and their team member whose turn it is races up to the board and draws the animal with that colour.
Language to use
- Achtung! Fertig! Los!
Attention! Let's play! - Wie heißt ______ auf Englisch/Deutsch?
What is ______ in English/German? - Gut gemacht!
Well done! - Du bist dran!
It's your turn!