Instructions for teachers
Make sure you have enough things to stack with, probably at least twelve per set. If there aren’t enough blocks available, add other things such as paper plates, parts of plastic kitchen sets and classroom objects, and/ or get students to work together in teams. More difficult things to stack with such as plastic animals and spoons can also be fun, as long as they are mixed up with easier to stack things like plates.
Cut up one set of cards per class or per group. The “-s” parts can be left on the cards to be folded behind if they aren’t needed (if there is only one of that thing) or cut off to be added to the sentences as needed.
Discard any cards which are too difficult for your class (e.g. the prepositions cards) and/ or cards which don’t match the things that things available for stacking. You might also want to make some extra cards to describe other things you want students to stack with and/ or prepare some blank cards for you or the students to write on if extra words are needed.
There are several games that can be played with these cards and blocks.
There is/ There are stacking race
The teacher or a student makes a sentence out of the cards to describe a tower. The other people read the sentence and race to make a suitable tower.
There is/ There are descriptions race
Students watch as the teacher or another student makes a tower and then race to arrange their cards into a sentence describing (part of) that tower.
There is/ There are statements stacking game
Students must arrange the cards into a true sentence describing (part of) the tower in order to be able to add more blocks to it.
All of the games can also be played orally without cards (perhaps as a warmer) and/ or with students writing out their own full sentences (perhaps as an extension).
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Cards to cut up
| there | there |
| there | there |
| is | is |
| is | is |
| are | are |
| are | are |
| a | a |
| an | an |
| one | one |
| two | two |
| three | three |
| four | four |
| five | five |
| six | seven |
| eight | nine |
| ten | eleven |
| twelve | thirteen |
| red | green |
| blue | yellow |
| block | -s |
| block | -s |
| block | -s |
| block | -s |
| plate | -s |
| bowl | -s |
| cup | -s |
| chopstick | -s |
| saucepan | -s |
| frying pan | -s |
| jug | -s |
| saucer | -s |
| pencil case | -s |
| ruler | -s |
| book | -s |
| pencil | -s |
| pen | -s |
| notebook | -s |
| on | on |
| in | in |
| under | under |
| between | between |
| next to | next to |
| and | and |
| and | and |
| and | and |
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Blank cards
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PDF version for easy saving and printing: there-is-are-stacking-games
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