This is based on a popular English-lesson game you probably know already, called Pelmanism (maybe you know it by another name). This one has a little extra twist added.

The two worksheets need to copied onto two different colours of card, cut out, and there needs to be one set for each group of four or five students. Actually each worksheet contains two complete sets of either foods or the corresponding "counters". So a pair of worksheets will make two complete sets. To play the game, both sets of card are randomly spread, face down on a table, around which the students are gathered. One player starts by picking up a pair of cards, one of each colour.

This pair of cards will provide that student with a food (e.g. bread) and a "counter" or quantifying word (e.g. Stick). The student then has to decide whether the counter can be used with the food in question. This can be quite contentious sometimes. In this case, the student could argue that a "French Loaf" constitutes a "stick of bread". The ultimate decision should rest with the other group members. However, you may want to monitor and write down any pairings that you think simply "too weird" to pass unchecked.

Anyway, if the group do accept the card pair as valid, the student gets to keep the pair of cards and the next student has a go. The winner is the student who accumulates the most pairs of cards by the end of the game. It should be noted that because the matching up of cards is not fixed to certain set pairs, it is possible that some unmatched cards will be left over at the end of the game.

In the table below, the first row contains links for the "counters" and the second row contains links to the "food cards".

You have a choice of two different methods of getting this handout to your printer. It all depends on whether your computer has "Adobe Acrobat Reader" installed. If it has, then this would be the recommended method for printing out the worksheet. Try selecting the "PDF (Adobe Acrobat)" link below. If all goes well, a new application window should appear including a print button, which when selected will print out one copy.

If, on the other hand you do not have "Adobe Acrobat" select the "HTML (web page)" link below. (Also, this method is recommended for users of Netscape Navigator, which seems to have trouble interacting with the Acrobat program like this.) If all goes well, a new browser window will open, from which you can either click the "print button" on the toolbar or open the "File" menu, select "Print" and then adjust the "Print Dialog Box" to your own preferences.

The final link below is to enable you to print this "instruction page" if you want to. Click on the link, and when the page appears on a new screen you will be able to print it using the browser's "print button" or "file menu". After printing, close the window again so that you can continue to navigate around the site.

For teacher training courses, English courses in Bristol UK and free interactive exercises, visit The Language Project Website.