Uncountable Food Cards: Explanation

Uncountable Food Cards

• Details

Name of Item	Uncountable Food Cards
Activity Type	Grammar Game
Student Level	Lower Intermediate - Intermediate
Time Allowance	10 - 15 minutes
Preparation Required	copying and cutting up two sets of cards per playing group - one set takes about 10 minutes
Other Items Needed	scissors / copier-friendly card
Vocabulary	slice of / bar of / stick of / spoonful of
Grammar	Quantifying words for uncountable nouns

• Instructions

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.