Zoo Animals / Zoo Animals: Don’t say it! for English lessons

“Don’t Say It!” is a guessing game about zoo animals for primary school English lessons. One team member describes a zoo animal in English without using the forbidden words on the card, while their team tries to guess the animal.

What’s Included

• Game Instructions: the rules of the guessing game with example cards
• Description Cards: zoo animals from giraffe and elephant to penguin and sloth, each with an illustration, English name, and forbidden words

Tips for Using the Material

• Divide the class into two or three teams; the person describing comes to the front.
• It is helpful to clearly explain the rules beforehand: in addition to the forbidden words, gestures, variations of the words, and translations are also not allowed.
• For scoring, award one point for each correctly guessed animal, provided the team figures it out before time runs out. After one minute, it is the other team’s turn.
• It is a good idea to decide on the number of rounds beforehand; the team with the most points wins at the end.

These Skills Are Developed

• Vocabulary: English names of zoo animals and terms related to their appearance, habitat, and behavior
• Speaking: describing an animal in English without using the obvious words
• Listening Comprehension: following the English descriptions as a team and guessing the animal being described
• Creative Thinking: finding alternative ways to describe something when important words are forbidden

Organizational Notes

Before the game, the cards are printed, cut out, and laminated if necessary.

Other materials on the same topic include the Zoo Animals Drawing Game, a guessing game where drawing is used instead of describing, the Zoo Animals Smalltalk Cards for further speaking activities, and the Zoo Animals Reading Domino, where English descriptions are read and matched.