Listen & Learn with: Thanksgiving Guess Who?

Click here to download the printables.

Thanksgiving Guess Who? can be used for a wide range of listening and language targets such as auditory memory, auditory processing, deductive reasoning and expressive language goals. For the game to work, both players must listen, comprehend and reply to each other’s questions accurately.

To Play: First, you will need to print out the game cards.

Number of players: 2 (more players can compete as teams)

•    Description: Each player has a one set of 20 different Pilgrims and Indians. Both players select one small Pilgrim/Indian card. Do not let your opponent see it. Put remaining little cards away.

•    Lay out your big cards face up in 4 rows of 5.

•    Take turns asking each other questions about the cards to deduce which small Pilgrim/Indian your opponent has. Turn big cards face down when they don’t have characteristics you are asking about (i.e. “Does your person have a hat?” “No”...turn all people with hats face down, etc.).

•    Once every card is turned face down but one, you can ask your opponent, “Is your person ______?”

If it is, you win the game!

Suggested Listening and Spoken Language Targets:

1. Describing Salient Features:

If your child often communicates by pointing or uses a lot of non-specific vocabulary like that, this, or thing, playing Guess Who? can contribute to using more specific descriptions. It is a good idea to look at the cards together beforehand and warm up by discussing the characters’ distinguishing features.

2. Question Formation:

Forming yes/no questions involve inverting the subject (e.g., your Pilgrim) with either the main verb (e.g., Is your Pilgrim a girl?) or the auxiliary verb as in  (e.g., Does your Indian have two feathers in his headband?)

 3. Is/Does Question Forms:

When using Thanksgiving Guess Who? for this purpose, require the child to ask all questions using one of two forms:

•    Is your pilgrim wearing a bonnet_____?

•    Does your Indian have a vest _____?

•    Expect your child to answer using full sentences, not a simple yes or no.

4. Have/Has as well as Negation and Contractions:

There are four typical forms of an answer:

•    Yes, my pilgrim has _____.

•    No, my Indian doesn’t have _____.

•    Yes, my pilgrim is _____.

•    No, my Indian is not _____.

5. Using “Clear speech”:

Producing accurate /s/ and /z/ and other speech sounds can be highlighted in spontaneous speech For example: is, has, does, etc. Thanksgiving Guess Who? is a great exercise in self-monitoring and using clear speech.

Have fun!