Using Garfield’s Scary Scavenger Hunt in EFL classes

Garfield’s Scary Scavenger Hunt is a great game for practising the language of rooms and household objects, as well as prepositions of position and imperatives. Not only is it fun enough to be used as a “treat”, but you can make it test a variety of skills and there is another version of the game that you can use for revision or as a motivation for good work from the moment you play the first one. The game also ties in well with the topic of ghosts or Halloween.

Preparing to play the game

The first thing you will need to do is play the game yourself and make sure you know how to finish it so that you can give the students hints if they get stuck. The easiest way is to follow a cheat guide, which you can find by googling something like “Garfield Scavenger Hunt Tips”. One example is http://gamewalkthrough.blogspot.com/2007/02/garfield-scary-scavenger-hunt.html. There are also videoed versions on YouTube.

How to play the game in class

Unless you have a class who are very good at not speaking L1, it is probably best to play the game as a whole class with the students shouting out what they want you to do, explaining where things are, describing what just happened, listing the things they still need to find, explaining which rooms are next to which others, reading out and discussing the text that appears on the screen, volunteering to control the mouse, etc. To make that manageable and add as much language as possible, below is a list of useful phrases, things that the students will read on the screen and useful vocabulary that you might want to emphasize or preteach.

Teacher questions

• “What room do you want to go in?”
• “Which direction (do you want me/ Garfield to go next)?”
• “Shall I touch that?”/ “Do you want me to touch that?”
• “What do you want me to do (next)?”
• “Who wants to control the mouse/ be teacher next?”
• “What things do we still need to find?”
• “What’s this?”
• “What do we need here/ to do that? (Where do you think we can find it?)”
• “Be careful, if something scary happens the game will finish!”
• “How did Garfield feel?” “Why?”
• “Have you finished in this room?”
• “What room do you think the… is in?”/ “Where do you think we can find…?”
• “What just happened?” “Why did that happen?”
• “What will happen if you… (do you think)?”

Things for the students to say

Scary things

• The knight dropped his axe
• The armour dropped its axe
• A spring came out of the sofa
• The green monster/ dinosaur was under a sheet
• The skeleton was under a sheet
• The head/ man’s head was under a sheet
• Frankenstein’s monster was in the box (at the end of the bed)
• The spring was in the green bed
• The sea monster/ The green monster with red lips was in the toilet
• The screaming man/ The naked man was behind the shower curtain/ in the bath
• The green clown was in the loft/ the attic
• The eyeball is on the plate (in the dining room/ on the dining room table)
• The candlestick/ The candles on the table lift up
• The ghost was in the grave
• The eyeballs are in the oven/ cooker
• The monster with many eyes is in the right cupboard
• The scary mouse/ the rat with red eyes is in the left cupboard

Positions

• The front door key was in the box/ chest
• The cheese was in front of the mouse hole/ under the safe
• The green key is in the painting/ in front of the painting
• The blue key was under the pillow (in the bedroom)
• The secret entrance was behind the (chest of drawers) in the (master) bedroom
• The red key was on the plate (on the dining room table)
• The code in on the gravestone (outside the window)
• The safe is behind the (round) painting
• The secret staircase is behind the bookshelves
• The sour cream donuts are in the grave/ underground/ under the mud
• The flashlight is in the middle cupboard
• The muffin is in the fridge/ refrigerator
• The cell with the muffins in is under the leaves

Other useful vocabulary

• Musical instruments
• Furniture
• Rooms
• Spider’s web/ cobweb

Things the students will read on the screen

You might want to preteach some of the vocabulary and phrases below, think about how you are going to explain it, and/ or prepare a postgame worksheet where they can revise that language.

• “The front door is locked”
• “You found the front door key”
• “Listen very carefully to the music in the music room”
• “Garfield! Stop giving cheese to the mice”
• “Lyman loves to eat muffins”
• “The code for the safe is outside”
• “Talking to Lyman will unlock the door”
• “The books in the library are a mess. Can you put them in order?”
• “You unlocked the front door with the front door key!”
• “That was close! But you have the cheese!”
• “The red door is locked”
• “You found the green key”
• “That fire is nice and warm”
• “You unlocked the green door with the green key”
• “Congratulations, you found the bag of…”
• “Hmm, I wonder what that switch did”
• “Bats can’t spell. Can you help them?”
• “Stop bothering me!”
• “I’m so hungry. Do you have any muffins?”
• “Thank you. Have you looked inside the fireplace yet?”
• “This cell seems to be locked from the inside”