This is a game for review or practice. It is designed to practice both question and answer in any target language but can be used for simple vocabulary review, reading comprehension and more. It's a great guessing game! It can be played with just 2 people and up.

game board, game cards

b/w game board and game cards with b/w backings

How to play:

- divide your class or groups up into 2 teams, the home team pitches first

- one person from the home team steps up to bat (if you lay out the room as the stadium with bases and a pitchers mound, then the person literally steps up to bat.)

- the pitcher (one person from the away team) asks a question. Usually a yes/no question: Here's an example using the sports plays cards from this site: The pitcher takes a card and looks at it, keeping it hidden from the batter. Then the pitcher makes a question

- the batter tries to answer the question. If the batter is correct (as in the example) he hit the pitch. The batter may draw a baseball card. Then follow the directions on the card, either moving a man marker on the game board or literally moving accordingly around the bases in the room (if you choose to layout the room like a baseball infield.)

(If the player gets a strike as his card then he would stay for another question but the pitcher should change.)

- if the batter answers incorrectly, then he is out. The next batter would attempt to answer the next question.

- 3 outs and the teams change, batter and pitcher.

- score all runs for the team on the score board. Any player advancing all the way around the board and back to home scores a point for their team.

Play as many innings as you'd like and be prepared to play the whole period. If I have other things that I want to do and can't work them into the game, I start the game with a set number of innings (3-5.) That way there are no tears when the game is over.

If you need more information about how to play baseball check here.

****** variations ******

Use dice instead of the baseball cards:

- instead of players drawing a baseball card after they 'get a hit', you can have them roll a dice. You'll need to explain or write on the board what each value on the dice means:

Get everybody playing: pair work

- if you have enough cards/questions, you can have 2 people square off against each other. This gets the whole class talking and involved. I usually play this way. You can have 2 or 3 groups sharing the same baseball card stack and question or flash card stacks as long as they're in reach.

Teacher pitches and everyone competes to answer the question: fast paced, good for vocabulary and reading review

- the teacher poses the question or shows a flash card. If the batting team answers first, one person may take a card and p accordingly. If the pitching team answers first they get the out.

Perfect English gets the hit: good when you need to emphasize structure

- You can have the students alter sentences or translate. If they can make the English sentence correctly, they can take a baseball card. If they can't do it they're out. You can give them a strike for a mistake and keep going but one batter may be there for 10 minutes, not wanting to be out. Some examples of altering sentences: sentence to question, present to past, past to past perfect, present to future, affirmative to negative, etc.

Prepared questions for specific purposes:

- use the question card template and have the pitcher draw question cards instead of making up a question or using flash cards.

This is good for reading comprehension, but is still conversational. The question cards can be short 3-4 sentences prepared readings that the batter reads one time. Then the pitcher asks (one of) the questions on the card. Or, just a question.

If you have an idea for a variation, post it in the games forum! I'm sure there are all kinds of games and variations for this.