Numbers, ordinal numbers, dates, days of the week, months and times
Instructions for teachers
Cut up one pack of cards. Divide the class into teams of two to four students and give them about 20 blocks each. If you don’t have enough blocks, you can also use paper cups, classroom objects such as erasers, etc.
The teacher or a student picks one card and reads out the words and/ or holds it up and the teams race to make a tower or towers of the suitable height quickest, for example a tower of nine blocks if you said “September” or four towers of one, nine, zero and one block for “Nineteen oh one”.
Some of the packs have trick cards that make no sense, in which case students shouldn’t even touch their blocks. Towers must be able to stand on their own without the students holding them, but their tower falls over they can just try again. When one team has built a tower to the right height, get them to say and/ or write what the tower represents and/ or count up the tower or towers (“One o’clock. Two o’clock” etc).
When you have played a few rounds, students can write more cards to test each other with.
Numbers stacking race games
Numbers
one | two | three | four |
five | six | seven | eight |
nine | ten | eleven | twelve |
thirteen | fourteen | fifteen | zero |
oneteen | twoteen | fiveteen | tenteen |
Ordinal numbers stacking race game
first | second | third | fourth |
fifth | sixth | seventh | eighth |
ninth | tenth | eleventh | twelfth |
thirteenth | fourteenth | fifteenth | twentieth |
oneth | twoth | threeth | fourst |
Dates stacking races game
The packs below can be used separately or you can combine them with ordinal numbers above with two or more towers representing the different parts, e.g. numbers and months (“January 12th”), days and dates (“Monday 7th”), days and full dates (“Monday 13th February”). For example, “January 12th” would be one tower of just one block and then a second tower of twelve blocks.
Days of the week stacking race game
You will need to decide which day is the beginning of the week (Monday or Sunday) and drill students on that before playing this game.
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday |
Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
Sunday | Blahblahday | Jubjubday |
Months stacking race game
January | February | March |
April | May | June |
July | August | September |
October | November | December |
Twouary | Threecember | Jarch |
Years stacking race game
Students make one stack for the century and another for the decade and year, e.g. one tower of seventeen blocks then one tower of three blocks for “Seventeen oh three”, or one tower for each figure, e.g. one block then nine blocks then one block then fourteen blocks for “nineteen fourteen”.
nineteen fourteen
|
nineteen oh one |
eighteen oh five
|
two thousand and one |
twenty sixteen |
twenty ten/ two thousand and ten |
seventeen ten
|
nineteen eighteen |
fourteen oh four
|
Times stacking race games
Times with o’clock stacking race game
Note that the last two are not correct English and so are tricks.
one o’clock | two o’clock |
three o’clock | four o’clock |
five o’clock | six o’clock |
seven o’clock | eight o’clock |
nine o’clock | ten o’clock |
eleven o’clock | twelve o’clock |
thirteen o’clock | twenty five o’clock |
Simple times with a.m. and p.m. stacking race game
Students can stack above twelve for the afternoon times, or make one tower for each figure, e.g. a tower of one and a tower of three to mean “13:00” for “one p.m.”
one a.m. | two a.m. |
three a.m. | four a.m. |
five a.m. | six a.m. |
seven a.m. | eight a.m. |
nine a.m. | ten a.m. |
eleven a.m. | twelve a.m. |
one p.m. | two p.m. |
three p.m. | four p.m. |
five p.m. | six p.m. |
seven p.m. | eight p.m. |
nine p.m. | ten p.m. |
Simple times with “in the morning” etc stacking race game
Students can stack above twelve for the afternoon times, or make one tower for each figure, e.g. a tower of one and a tower of three to mean “13:00” for “one o’clock in the afternoon”
one o’clock in the morning | two o’clock in the morning |
three o’clock in the morning | four o’clock in the morning |
five o’clock in the morning | six o’clock in the morning |
seven o’clock in the morning | eight o’clock in the morning |
nine o’clock in the morning | ten o’clock in the morning |
eleven o’clock in the morning | twelve o’clock in the afternoon |
one o’clock in the afternoon | two o’clock in the afternoon |
three o’clock in the afternoon | four o’clock in the afternoon |
five o’clock in the evening | six o’clock in the evening |
seven o’clock in the evening | eight o’clock at night |
nine o’clock at night | ten o’clock at night
|
Times with minutes stacking race game
Students put one block per hour in the left-hand tower and one block per five minutes in the right-hand tower, e.g. two blocks and eleven blocks to mean “Two fifty five” or “Five to three”. Alternatively, they can make one tower for each figure, e.g. two blocks then five blocks then five blocks for “five to three”.
The numbers above fifty five are tricks, so students shouldn’t touch their blocks if they hear those numbers.
one | two | three |
four | five | six |
seven | eight | nine |
ten | eleven | twelve |
oh five | ten | fifteen |
twenty | twenty five | thirty |
thirty five | forty | forty five |
fifty | fifty five | sixty |
sixty five | seventy | seventy five |
Times with past and to stacking race game
Students can make one tower per figure, or one tower for the hours and one tower for the minutes with one block per five minutes (e.g. eight blocks for “twenty to”).
“Half to” is a trick, so students shouldn’t touch their blocks if they hear that. You could also add “o’clock”, in which case students should put no blocks in the right-hand tower.
five past | ten past |
(a) quarter past | twenty past |
twenty five past | half past |
twenty five to | twenty to |
(a) quarter to | ten to |
five to | half to |
one | two |
three | four |
five | six |
seven | eight |
nine | ten |
eleven | twelve |
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PDF for easy saving and printing: Stacking races game
Related pages
Stacks of fun: EFL blocks games (TEFLtastic classics part 32)