Word Slap: A Fast-Paced Vocabulary Review Game

https://www.coolenglish.org/activities?category=fun&subcategory=subcat-1783448155264-g7v7mxq (fun) Sixteen pictures fill the screen. The clock starts. Somebody has to shout the answer before it runs out.

Word Slap is a new picture-card review game built for the front of the room. Four volumes are live, each with three topics. Every topic contains sixteen words, each with its own image. Volume 2 is free and requires no account, so a whole class can go straight to it. Volumes 1, 3, and 4 are subscriber-only.

Three levels on one board

Easy shows the word and plays its pronunciation. Students only have to find the matching picture and call its number. "Fourteen." It is pure recognition, and a quick way to introduce or review a topic.

Medium takes the word away and gives a clue instead. "It is orange and long. Rabbits eat it." Now the answer has two parts, number and word. "Fourteen, carrot." Requiring both means a student has to name the vocabulary and find it on the board, not one or the other.

Hard gives a harder clue, closer to a dictionary definition. Students may know all sixteen words and still have to stop and think before choosing one.

Each level runs on its own clock, and the clock tightens as the clues get harder. Levels switch mid-game without reloading, so a class stuck on Hard can drop to Medium and climb back.

The teacher runs the board

All sixteen images stay on screen for the whole round. Nobody waits for a turn, because everybody is scanning and comparing the entire time.

Students answer out loud and the teacher taps the picture to confirm. A student cannot simply point across the room and hope the teacher knows what they mean, which keeps a loud class honest. Teams can be added from the game screen, and the scoring stays with the teacher.

What is in the four volumes

• Volume 1: Food, Sports, Animals

• Volume 2: Clothes, Jobs, Vehicles (free, no account needed)

• Volume 3: In the House, School Things, Places in Town

• Volume 4: Nature and Weather, Instruments, Technology
  

That comes to twelve topic sets and 192 words.

Worksheets and homework

Every topic also has a printable worksheet with a word bank and a name-the-picture section, generated separately for each level. Print one topic or all three at once.

The game itself travels too. Start it together in class, then share it with students to finish on their own, and the same sixteen pictures come back a second time without becoming a different task.