Another resource that has been updated for 2024 and Zappli.

My Town 2024 is a powerful printable resource I highly recommend for anyone still teaching in a regular classroom. You can use this resource to discover, practice and review anything to do with towns, cities, getting around etc. Students can build towns, trade and modify, it’s a lot of fun for people of all ages, which means you can use this with children and young people because the town building idea is a lot of fun for them, as well as adults because there are enough elements to make it actually interesting. Attention: There are three 18+ cards with warnings on each of them. Be sure to take them out if need be!

As for a Zappli activity, all the place cards have been given a digital counterpart, which means you’ve got 90 images to play with! How could you use this with Zappli?

Here are a couple ideas:

City planner

Play this as a class. Display a random number of images, let’s say 12. These 12 cards will make up the first iteration of your town. Decide on a final number of places your town can handle. For our example let’s say 9. Students will then take turns either REPLACING an element (its replacement will be made at random) or deleting an element (for good!). Once everyone has had a turn and you’ve reduced the elements to 9, give students some time to describe their city in written form. Then they can present their responses to the class, in pairs or in small groups. They can answer the following questions (or questions you’ve come up with):

1. Describe your city.
2. What is there to do in your city?
3. What is your city missing?

The perfect city

The game mechanism is the same as city planner except now your students have a goal. For every action they take they must explain themselves. Build a city that…

• is ecologically friendly,
• is super fun,
• is ideal for families,
• is very unhealthy,
• would be great for young people,
• etc.

Game show

Display a random number of images, let’s say 15. Your job is to come up with questions related to the images displayed (you can do this on the fly, since you’re not the one learning English today!). Ask a question, and the first student to answer correctly earns a point. Then, erase the card from the game board (or replace it to keep the game continuous).

Teacher: Where can I buy eggs?

Student A: There’s no supermarket in this town, though…

Student B: No, but there’s a farmer’s market!

Random town

Display a certain number of cards on the board, for example 9. Leave them completely random. Students will describe the random town individually by writing an assessment, or in pairs or small groups orally. Be sure to present and compare responses. How does each group see the town differently?

Of course, if you’ve got a better idea, we’d love to hear about it! Leave a comment with your own game or activity down below.