Play Gato (Tic Tac Toe) With the Whole Class- Great Listening Comprehension Activity!

A FRIEND OF MINE FROM COLOMBIA INTRODUCED ME to this version of the traditional game 'Gato' many years ago and I continue to love it! Perfect for my older students (3rd & 4th grade) as well as Middle or Highschool, and a great way to incorporate listening comprehension. Here's how to play:

THE PREP:
*Designate a vocabulary word for each square on the Gato board. In the above picture, you can see I have colors, but you could have numbers, fruits, clothes, whatever is familiar to your students.  *Choose a set of vocabulary (different than what you have on the Gato board) that you have been working on or that you want to practice/ review. Write a clue in the target language describing each vocabulary word to correspond to each square on the Gato board. I like to have the vocabulary set we are focusing on displayed as a support for kids-in this version we are practicing vocabulary from our minibook 'Mateo y el mapa del tesoro'.

*Have markers for x and o ready to place on the board. I put magnets on the back so they are easy to move and place in the squares.

TO PLAY:
*Project a Gato board on your smartboard or draw one on the whiteboard or even on a large sheet of paper.
*Divide the class into two teams, one being X's and one being O's.
*Choose one team to go first and call on a student on that team to choose a square on the Gato board by naming the vocabulary word pictured in that square. So, if he/she wanted the center square, he would say 'rojo' for my board pictured above.
*Read the clue out loud and provide the team with adequate time to name the word being described. If the team gets it right, they get to put their X or O in the square. If they don't get it right, the other team has an opportunity to guess. If neither team gets it right, we move on to another square; we can come back to that square for another try later in the game if necessary. (I call on kids randomly within the team, rather than have a 'team spokesperson'; this makes it more likely that everyone on the team will get a turn to speak, rather than a couple dominating the action).
*Continue until either one team has 'Gato' or there is a tie. (un empate)

Have fun!

Want to play the game with your class but don't have time to make the boards and pieces? Grab ours in our shop! and now we have this resource in FRENCH too!