13 Fun Superlative Practice Activities
This article gives thirteen ways of using competition to help students thoroughly learn “tallest”, “the most difficult”, “the furthest”, etc. There are also ideas on combining this with comparative adjectives in another article on this site.
1. Superlative drawing challenge
One student makes a description with a superlative like “the scariest teacher” or “the most fun garden”, and students all attempt to draw that thing. They then vote on the best with “I think this one is the coolest bedroom (because…)”
2. Superlative adjectives bluff
Students choose a superlative at random, and make a personal sentence with it as quickly as possible, using their imagination if they can’t think of anything true. After follow-up questions, the other people guess if “I have the longest hair in my family” etc was true or not.
3. Superlative boasting game
Students try to make true personal statements with superlatives like “I think I’m the tallest in the class” and “I think my father’s beard is the longest”, then ask questions to check if it’s true. This works well as a mingling game, with students going around the class asking “How many books do you have?” until they find that someone else has a bigger book collection than them, in which case they start again with another idea for a personal superlative. If they have checked with everyone else and found they are the most extreme, they can sit down.
4. Superlative recommendations competition
Students ask for recommendations like “What is the most romantic restaurant in this town?” and “What is the healthiest lunch near here?”, the other students give different recommendations (with reasons), then they choose which one sounds best. Note that you’ll need to prepare some example things to ask about, as it doesn’t work if students ask questions which only have one answer like “What’s the biggest park in this city?”
5. Superlative problem solving
Students choose problems with superlative adjectives like “I’m the worst soccer player in this class” and “My handwriting is the messiest that I have ever seen” and ask for and respond to their partners’ advice. They can then make up similar problems to ask about from suggested superlatives like “weakest”.
6. Superlative design competitions
In groups of three or four, students take turns choosing different abilities for their superheroes like “He can see furthest” and “She is the strongest” until time is up or they run out of ideas. They then vote on which of the other people’s designs is best. The same can then be done for other designs like robots, camper vans and offices.
7. Superlative extended speaking
Students speak as long as they can on topics with superlative adjectives like “The best ways to learn English outside class” or “The hardest school subjects”, then answer questions. If you want to score, you could give one point for every 20 seconds that they speak, and one point for each relevant question. You could then test their memories of the superlative adjectives in the topics. They can also make up their own presentation topics with suggested adjectives like “unhealthiest” and “most useful”.
8. Superlative tennis
Students drill superlative forms as they send a ball or balloon back and forth (or just pretend to if using a real ball could be too babyish or could break something). I do this most often as they serve with “Big” and return with “Bigger” and then “Biggest”, but is also possible with just superlative forms by them using opposites like “Biggest” “Smallest” and “The most interesting” “The most boring”.
9. Superlative experiences games
Students ask each other questions with the structure “What’s the …est/ most… that you have ever…?” with topics like “spiciest food” and “scariest rollercoaster”. If you want to score, you can play with one point for questions that their partner can answer (with no points for “I’ve never…” etc), or the opposite game of one point for each time they say “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember” (but no points for any other answers).
This can also be a bluffing game with students giving actual answers even to questions like “What’s the strangest bug you have eaten?”, then their partner guessing if they have actually had that experience or not.
10. Superlative physical challenges
Students try to prove that they can “make the loudest (fake) sneeze”, “make the ugliest face”, “stand on their hands for the longest”, etc. If you want to score, they get five points if they claim it is them and it turns out to be true, but lose one point if they claim it is them but it turns out someone else is more extreme (with no points if they don’t claim it is them, even if they turn out to be top).
11. Uncontroversial superlatives
Students get one point everyone else agrees with statements starting with “In my opinion…” and including superlatives like “In my opinion, Mount Fuji is the most beautiful mountain in the world” and “In my opinion, muesli is the healthiest breakfast”. Make sure they don’t say things that aren’t opinions, like “In my opinion, this is the biggest window in this room”.
12. Superlative adjective property tours
Students pretend to be potential buyers of the classroom and have dialogues like “Everything in this classroom is the best in the world” “What’s so good about this whiteboard?” “It’s the easiest to clean whiteboard in the world” “Great! And what’s so good about this floor?” “It’s the hardest floor you can buy” “And…” They can then have similar completely imaginary conversations about an office, a home, etc. Note that this activity takes quite a lot of imagination and vocabulary, so they will probably need some help such as suggested adjectives to help.
13. Superlative must say yes
Students ask about their partner’s position in their family with yes/ no questions like “Are your feet the biggest in your family?” and “Is your room the coolest in your family?”, to which they must always answer “Yes” even if it isn’t true. Perhaps after follow-up questions, they then guess if that “Yes” was true or not.
Related posts
- Superlative adjectives (EnglishClub)
- Superlative adjectives quiz (EnglishClub)