Are you more like a teacher or a holidaymaker? GO!
Now take a look around and see who feels the same way. Teachers, give a high-five to someone in your group and share memories of your summer holidays. Holidaymakers, say ‘Opa’ and start thinking about breaking the ice activities.
Here’s the latest breaking the ice game in my collection – Getting to Know You Memory Game – a memory game with a twist to be played in pairs or by a single player for beginner or intermediate or advanced students.
I have made a digital version of the game for the Step on How to Create and Embed Interactive Activities of our ongoing free Sprint for Teachers: Launch Your Own Website.
You can also find download instructions for the paper-based/digital set of cards at the end of the post.
Are You More Like...?
The twist is that the game is actually a blend of a memory game and the Are You More Like game.
You have probably played some variation of the Are You More Like game with your learners, e.g., Question Corners, 4-Corner Discussions; Yes/No Corners; True-False Corners; Like-Dislike-Neutral Corners, etc.
The game is quite simple. Players are asked a question or offered a few options to choose from and are asked to take a respective corner or side, depending on their answer. To turn the game into a speaking activity, instead of a particular action (e.g., ‘clap your hands’), get your learners to explain/discuss the reasoning behind their answers/choices.
How to Play
Just like in the classic memory game, the player/players take turns to flip two cards at a time, searching for the matching pairs.
If the cards selected make a matching pair, the player keeps the matching pair. Otherwise, the player turns the cards both face down and tries again.
The game includes a set of 20 cards (10 matching pairs). There are no identical cards in this game. Players should find matching pairs of opposites in the same thematic category, e.g., coffee and tea:
When the player/players find a matching pair, they should say if they are more like X or Y, and explain their answer by giving details about themselves.
Resources:
A set of cards to be printed out (pdf)
A set of cards to be modified on Canva (sign up for a Canva account and use this template link)
