The future tense is one of my favorites to either teach or review. Besides, there are lots of ESL games to play such as Fortune Teller –the game we are going to show you today. The preparation is quite simple and There is a video on how to make your own fortune teller in the class.
In the class elicit the word fortune teller. Teach months of the year (or days of the week) and future tenses including will, be going to, past continuous.
Choose a student to ask you “What will happen in January? or ” What will happen to me on Saturday?” then the student gives you a number let’s say 4. and you start using the fortune teller paper. As you moves get to four, ask the student again to choose between the numbers which future answers are invisible (but don’t show them the answers).
After he or she chooses the number, read the prediction out loud to the class using the future tense.
For students with better English try to add more questions or challenges for example ask them if the prediction is likely to happen or not.
You can prepare the fortune teller before the class or together with students during the class. Watch the below video on how to make a fortune teller
We never suggest teaching complicated grammars such as future tenses, to kids less than 5 years old that’s why today’s ESL game is suitable for intermediate students over five years old.
The most appropriate class size would be the one with 12 students or less in order for everybody to participate without wasting lots of time. However, you can adjust the game to the number of students you have and let us know in comment below on how to teach future tense using Fortune Teller ESL game for larger classes.