Mama Mia! Host an Italian Lesson

Benefits

What you need

Postcards with Italian words written on them - Download resource
A table for people to gather around

Intro

Learning and exploring new languages is incredibly good for the brain! So why not host a fun guessing game using Italian words as your base?

You could even give the whole day an Italian twist, by serving cappuccinos with a tasty biscotti or cannoli (for a softer alternative). Lunch could be spaghetti bolognese followed by tiramisu or gelato. And in the afternoon, what about showcasing a famous opera like The Marriage of Figaro or The Barber of Seville?

Top tip

We suggest making it hard enough that people won’t feel silly if they guess incorrectly – but include a few words that we all know too. Ciao and bella could be fun entry starter words, for example.

The Activity

Put the cards face down in a pile on a table
Gather the group together (we recommend groups of about 6)
Encourage people to take turns to pick a card from the pile and reveal it to the group
Ask them to try and read out how they think the word should sound
Collectively, the group should guess what that word might be
This isn’t meant to be a competitive game, but if you’d like to you could score points for correct answers and award a small prize to the winner!

PDF Resource