Are you a teacher looking for ways to help students pronounce the letters ‘th’? I recently found myself in this position and couldn’t quite find something appropriate for adult learners. I wanted to make it fun and preferably some sort of game, but there’s a fine line between games that adults will enjoy and those that they will find childish.
So I had a think and came up with my own. It’s called ‘Bother or Birdbath’, and it’s essentially played with small cards and a die. It’s relatively simple to create and to be honest, I’m not sure who had more fun – me creating it or the students playing it!
To make Bother or Birdbath:
- In a Word or Excel table, type as many words as you can containing the letters ‘th’ - like this:
Use a fairly big font (about 16 points) so that the words are not too small. You probably need about 100 words, so if you don’t have much time, feel free to contact me for a copy of my list.
- If you have a laminator, it’s a good idea to laminate the table so that the words last longer.
- Cut the words into individual slips/cards and place them in a box or tin.
- Make a grid like the one below, again in fairly big font, and do not cut it up. Laminate it if you can:
Game instructions
In turn, each student takes one word out of the box and then throws a die. They then follow the instructions on the above table, according to the number on the die.
For task numbers 2 and 6, the instructions are fairly straightforward. If the student is right, they keep the word.
For task number 3, it’s important that students have already been pre-taught the difference between voiced ‘th’ and unvoiced ‘th’. If you don’t intend to teach this explicitly, you can change number 3 to a related task of your own invention.
If they throw a 4, (Ask the person on your left to pronounce the word) and the player on their left gets it right, that player keeps the word. If they get it wrong, the player who threw the die keeps it.
If they throw a 5, (Read all the words on your pile) they must put back any words that they mispronounce. Don’t be too strict on this one, the main thing is to get a good approximation of the ‘th’ sound and for there to be no major errors.
The winner is the person who has the most words when all the cards are gone from the box.
I would recommend playing each game with no more than 4 students, but feel free to adapt it as you like. Of course it would work with other sounds too.
You are very welcome to distribute this game as widely as possible. The only thing I ask is to please make sure my name is mentioned on the instructions as the game designer: © Michelle Mildiner 2023 – and please spell my surname correctly 😊.
Let me know what you and your students think of the game in the comments box below!
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