Author Archives: kylemawer

Playing At Pirates With ‘The Ballad of Kinetto’

The ‘Pirates of the Caribbean‘ has proved such a successful movie franchise that we’ve decided to get in on the act at Digital Play.  The Ballad of Kinetto is a series of online pirate adventure games involving strong narrative features, some great puzzles and its own pirate heroes – Kinetto and Amber.  ‘The Pirates of [...]

Free Online Game Creator

This free downloadable game creator let’s you make your very own flash games. If you’ve ever fancied turning your hand to making a simple flash game or perhaps you’re looking for a summer course project to run with learners then Stencyl could be just the program for you.  It’s free, online, simple to download and [...]

Stars for good behaviour

Level: Kids of all levels Location: Connected classroom Aim: Better classroom management Game: Flight My star chart for good behaviour was looking a bit dog-eared so I decided to look for some Digital Play that would replace it and I found this game: What is the game? It’s quite simple really.  You pick up the [...]

A Fun Adventure For Eyes And Ears

Stage 07 is a fun and engaging adventure game where you play the part of young woman called Ms Webb who is on an assignment for her job.  As you play the game you begin to understand that things are not as simple as they at first appear.  At the heart of the game there [...]

Abuba The Alien

Level: Pre-intermediate Location: Computer room Language Focus: Game vocabulary (things in the street) Skills Focus:  Receptive – Reading Game: Abuba the alien Preparation Download and print a copy of the Abuba the alien worksheet for each learner. Pre Play Hand out dictionaries and the worksheet for learners to work through. Learners complete page 1 of [...]

10 Gaming Genres To Adapt In Class

Here’s a brief description of ten gaming genres and some tips on how they can be used in the classroom.  All these games were chosen because they are popular with young language learners, engaging and fun.  You can read lesson ideas and plans on this blog by following the links. 1  Point and click These [...]

It’s not a walkthrough – it’s a marathon!

Level: Advanced Topic: Discussing a sequence of events Language Focus: Linkers and sequencers, (first of all, then, after that, finally, etc) Location: Classroom/ Computer room Game: War Bears: Mission 1 I like this game because well, it’s fun first and foremost.  It’s also very easy to keep an eye on learner’s progress in the game [...]

10 Websites to source online games

Here’s a brief description of ten online gaming sites that have a range of possible games to adapt for use in the EFL classroom.  All these games were chosen because they are free, easily accessible, engaging and easily adaptable.  With each link there is a brief description and some advice on how to adapt the game [...]

Escape the (Plush) Room

Level: Primary Location: Computer room Language Focus: Receptive – There is/ are, prepositions of place.  Productive – Short answers (Yes, I can/have etc) Game: Escape the Plush room Situation My class was pretty proficient with most of language structures I used within the live listening dictation I scripted for this activity (including prepositions of place, [...]

Game Tester Job

Learners watch a short video on game testers and then write a job application to be a game tester. Level: Upper intermediate Location: Connected classroom/ Home Language focus:  Vocabulary of games / Formal language in an application letter Skills Practice: Listening / Reading / Writing Maybe you have looked at formal language for writing a [...]