Family Feud for the classroom
No matter where or who you are teaching, sometimes you just need a game to liven things up. Here is an easy to do game that can be used to reinforce learnt vocabulary and will get your students happily involved.
Family Feud or Family Fortunes in the UK is a game show where contestants try to name things in categories. It can be easily adapted to be an ESL game that always manages to be a hit in the classroom. There are various PowerPoint versions around on the internet as well as tons of Family Feud questions and answers for you to create your own games.
On this page, there are game cards and instructions for playing the game with simply a board, pens and paper. This is always useful in classrooms that lack computers and projectors or are prone to technological mishaps.
How to play Family Feud for the classroom?
There are several ways you can play a family feud ESL game. First of all, we’ll look at the ESL Vault version which is slightly different to the TV show but has always proven successful for all ages that are able to write.
You will need to split your class up into teams of pairs or small groups. Make sure each team has a piece of paper and a pen. Next, instruct each group to put their team name or number on their blank sheet of paper.
Now take one of the Family Feud for the classroom cards from the free printables on this page, and write the category on the board. Stress that students should only write a maximum of 8 or ten answers, no more. Give them a set time limit, around 2- 3 minutes works well, and let them write down their answers.
Once the time limit is up, tell the students to put down their pens and exchange their piece of paper with another team. Next, write the answers on the card on the board and get students to count how many correct answers are correct on the other team’s piece of paper that they have.
Once the students have counted the scores, call out the team names/numbers so that the students can give them to you. Write them up on the board where the whole class can see them. With the scores recorded, ask the students to return the answers they have to the correct group. Finally, move on to the next round and repeat the process.
You can play as many rounds as you see fit, usually, 3 is a good minimum. Also, you can have bonus rounds where the points are doubled. After all the rounds are finished, tally up the scores of each round and declare the winning team!
Variations on Family Feud for the classroom
There are several things you can do to be more like the game show. The game show uses survey results, you can get each student to do a survey of the class. Give each student one of the category questions you will use, ask them to survey the class and bring back the results.
This way you can use the results for the answers and also the number of students for each response as points awarded. The math does become more difficult this way and takes a lot longer to add up when playing the game.
To be just like the TV show you will also need to divide the class into two teams only. This however does limit student participation in larger classes.
With one team going first they must try to guess all the answers and are only allowed 3 strikes or incorrect responses. If they fail to provide all the answers, the other team gets to try and guess one of the remaining ones. If they do, they get all the points. If not, the points go to the other team.
The first 9 cards have these questions and answers –
Name 10 things in a classroom
Name 8 things in the sky
Name 10 things in the ocean
Name 10 animals at the zoo
Name 10 kinds of vegetables
Name 10 kinds of fruit
Name 10 things that are green
Name 10 items of clothing
Name 10 pieces of furniture
Sheet 2 has these Family Feud questions and answers –
Name 8 sports with a ball
Name 8 places with crowds
Name 10 kinds of children’s toys
Name 8 kinds of farm animals
Name 10 kinds of food kids like
Name 10 kinds of feelings
Name 10 things in a bathroom
Name 10 outdoor jobs
Name 10 things that are blue
Printable number 3 has the following classroom Family Feud questions and answers –
Name 8 things you do with your feet
Name 8 things you do with your mouth
Name 10 countries in Europe
Name 8 reasons people wake up at night
Name 10 reasons people are late
Name 8 kinds of drinks
Name 10 kinds of musical instruments
Name 10 things people do at parties
Name 10 places people sleep
Further notes on Family Feud for the classroom
You can easily make your own Family Feud games by creating your own questions and lists. Create games that best suit your student’s knowledge and revise previously studied vocabulary.
For young learners, you can make easy games such as – name the colours of the rainbow, shapes, things that are cold, or food on sandwiches. For higher-level learners, you have pretty much unlimited options and it is a good idea to go back over the curriculum and textbooks to find suitable target vocabulary. With a small amount of thought and research, you will have plenty of questions and answers.
