8 Irish Games to use in your Gaeilge Lesson

1. Feicim le mo shúilín beag

Feicim le mo shúilín beag is one of my favourite games to use to practice both vocabulary and phonics. I use this game either at the beginning of a Gaeilge lesson as a warm up game and to get them thinking as Gaeilge, or in stations to review new vocabulary.

I have made a downloadable version which is available on mash here. This bundle includes 10 different versions of Feicim le mo shúilín beag. Some of these versions focus on one theme of vocabulary such as mé féin, bia or éadaí and other versions are a mixture of vocabulary from different themes. I have included a PowerPoint version of the game which can be used as a whole class activity on the whiteboard and a PDF version so you can print it for your class to play in small groups or pairs.

There are also various versions of Feicim le mo shúilín beag available here on twinkl or why not pop different vocabulary posters up on the wall in the class and play the game using those.

2. Deir O’Gradaigh

Deir O’Gradaigh is a good filler activity that requires no resources or prior preparation to play. You can use this as a way to practice verbs and vocabulary as Gaeilge but also as a movement break in the classroom. The above slide is taken from my dathanna bundle as part of one of my daily lesson slides and is available here.

For me the hardest part of Deir O’Gradaigh is trying to think of different directions to give without repeating the same ones over and over again. That is why I use either the above template as a guide for me and the children or twinkl have a Deir O’Gradaigh resource available to download to help with this here.

I set a timer for the game, usually about 4 minutes, just because otherwise it could go on forever, whoever is left when the timer goes off wins.

3. Ceithre sa Líne

Just like Feicim le mo shúilín beag, I use Ceithre sa Líne to practice new and old vocabulary and phonics in Gaeilge. I model this game with one or two other students in the class by bringing them up, giving them a dice and letting them play on the interactive board. For this game, they roll the dice and whatever number they land on, they have to say a word from that line. Once they say the word correctly they can mark it off or if they are playing in pairs, use a counter to cover it. To make this more challenging, you could get your students to put one of the words into a sentence or to think of a word that rhymes with the word they choose. When the first person crosses out or covers 4 in a row either across or up and down, they are the winners.

I have this resource above available on mash here. There are 5 different versions of the game which all cover a range of vocabulary from different themes. I have tried to pick out a lot of the same vocabulary from my feicim le mo shúilín resource so that if you have that, you don’t have to go off teaching lots of new vocabulary in order to use this game. Also that way, you can use this came to reinforce the vocabulary taught with the other game. They compliment each other. Similar to Feicim le mo shúilín resource, there is a PowerPoint version of this for use on the interactive whiteboard and also a PDF version which can be printed and used with pairs or in station teaching.

The reason there are less versions of this (5 different versions) than in Feicim le mo shúilín (10 different versions) is simply because of the difference in the time and effort that goes into making both games, to make Connect 4 takes double the time than it takes to make one version of I Spy.

4. Biongó

I LOVE using bingo in the classroom because it is so versatile. It can be used for anything you are teaching, whether that is Gaeilge, English or Maths and the best part is that it requires little to no materials and resources. You do NOT need to be buying or downloading bingo cards and then laminating them and cutting them out. It is the one resource that I refuse to make because it is just far too time consuming for so little payback.

Instead all you need is mini whitebaords and whiteboard markers and you now have an endless supply of bingo boards in any different version you could want. Firstly if I am using this to review a theme as gaeilge, I will ask the class to remind me of lots of new vocabulary or phrases that we learned while doing this theme. As they think of them, I make a huge list of everything on the board. If a particular topic didn’t have much new vocabulary then I will add to the list with words that we haven’t come across in awhile or with phrases or vocabulary that I feel we need more practice in.

Once you have your list made, each student divides their whiteboard up into 9 boxes. In each box they write one of the words or phrases from the list on the board. Straight away you have 30 different bingo boards made without the brainpower of trying to make boards that don’t have all the same words. The class have done it for you. Of course you might have one or two who might have the same 9 words but if your list is big enough then the chances of this happening are slim.

Next start choosing random words or phrases from the board. I usually call these out in English so that the class have to think of the Gaeilge for the word and then try to find it, rather than just read the word from the board. When a student has the word they either cross it out with the whiteboard marker or use a counter to cover it. If you are worried about students changing their answers, then I would just give out counters or cubes or anything at all that they can use to cover the box. As I call them out, I circle them on the board so that I know whats been called and I don’t have to listen to ‘Did you call _____ yet?’ every two minutes.

5. Wordwall

Word wall is one of mine and my students’ favourite online resources to use for games for any subject, next to Kahoot. There are literally games available for nearly every topic you are teaching and for those topics not on it, you have 5 resources that you can make for free. The best thing about wordwall is that the more teachers who know about it, the more resources get made, and the more resources become available for everyone. Wordwall is free to signup but there is an optional payment if you think you’d like to make more than 5 resources.

One resource that I made for my class to review Irregular verbs in the Aimsir Caite is this one. This game is a matching game where students flip over the one ghost and try to find the matching translation. The activity is timed and at the end the children or class can be put on a leaderboard according to the quickest time. My class were so determined to beat the class score that they started asking me to put it on google classroom so they could play during golden time and at home.

Another game I use on wordwall is this one which focuses on the days of the week, months of the year and the seasons. This one is a sorting game and is available here.

Finally is this one, which is the game show quiz based on vocabulary to do with bia. Any of the game show ones are so popular with my children because there are lots of added extras in the game like double points or extra time and like Kahoot, the quicker the question is answered, the more points someone receives.

Of course there are so many more amazing games, simply go to community and then type in your topic in the search box and see yourself what is available.

6. Jenga

Jenga is a game that I only use in stations as it does require the effort of setting up the tower over and over and I don’t have enough of the jenga blocks to use it in pairs or groups in the class. For this I just painted jenga blocks that I already had in my class but you can buy versions of jenga which are already divided into different colours in Tiger or on Amazon. I will say that painting them is easy and more cost effective but the actual jenga blocks do not slide out as easy when they have been painted.

The game in the picture is available as part of my mé féin games bundle which can be downloaded here. For this the cards are separated according to colours. Each card either has a word or picture on it. Each student picks up a card according to what colour block they want to remove from the tower. They either name the word in the picture or read the word and if they are correct they get to keep the card and remove a block. Whoever has the most cards when the tower falls is the winner.

7. POP!

POP! is so simple and can go on for ever. The game changes so quickly that the students never get bored of it. POP is such an easy game to make, you can use bits of paper or lollipop sticks. On each stick or piece of paper you write a word, on about 5 or 6 sticks then I would write the word POP!! Students take it in turns to pull out a lollipop stick or piece of paper out of a box, if they can read the word on the stick they can keep it, however if they pull out the POP!! stick, then they have to place all of the pieces that they won back into the box and start again from scratch. Whoever has the most sticks by the end of the designated time is the winner.

The version in the picture above is from my mé féin bundle and can be downloaded here.

8. Chuaigh mé go dtí an tsiopa agus cheannaigh mé….

An old one but a good one for practicing all sorts of vocabulary. This is a memory game that most people are very familiar with. I tend to play this in small groups just so that children aren’t getting bored when it passes their go or when they are out of the game. The point of the game for anyone who doesn’t know is that everyone takes it in turn to say something they bought in the shop, the next person then has to remember what everyone before them has bought and list it out while then adding their own one at the end. I allow children to use all words that they can think of as Gaeilge during this game, so for example numbers, verbs, colours, days of the week and so on. As a sentence it probably won’t make sense but it meets the purpose as regards to practicing the vocabulary.

If you are teaching the theme of bia, this is a great one to reinforce new vocabulary learned. Having posters around the room will help children think of words to add to their shopping list also. The posters in the picture above are available from mash here.