Heart, Gun, Bomb is one of the newest and most fun ESL games in the world. This game is specifically for ESL teachers who want to help their students learn faster and have fun at the same time.
Heart, Gun, Bomb can only be played on the board, but I’ll explain how to play a variation of this game using cards.
The rules for playing Heart, Gun, Bomb are as follows:
Divide the class into two teams.
Write all of the students’ names below their team name and assign each student three hit points.
Team 1
Barry OOO
sally
mitch
Suzanne
bill
team 2
Susan COOO
Jerry
be
Amy
jill
Then draw a grid on the board with the number 1 – 10 at the top; and write the letters A – J on the far left. Now the students will be able to choose which box they want to choose.
Then ask each student to stand up; after answering a question in English, they can sit down. After each student has answered a question in English.
A player from team 1 chooses a box and then always switches to the other team; for the game to be fair.
In Gun, Heart, Bomb
— a weapon can shoot one hit point at the player of the opposing team.
— a Heart can give an extra life point to someone on that player’s team.
— a bomb will explode and destroy a hit point of whoever picked it up.
The game ends when one team has no more life points; so the other team would win.
To play this card game, the ESL teacher would first write on the board:
A = 4 guns
K = 3 guns
Q = 3 hearts
J = 1 weapon and 1 heart
10 = 3 bombs
9 = 2 bombs
8 = 1 pump
7 = choose another card
6 = choose two cards
5 = 2 guns
4 = 1 gun
3 = 2 hearts
2 = You lose your turn
When it is a student’s turn to choose a box on the grid; he/she will pick the box and then pick a card from the top of the deck. Whichever number you get, the teacher will write the gun/heart/bomb in the box.
Play until there is a winner. And of course this is just a guide. Feel free to get creative and add new elements, twists, or feel free to change the meaning of each card.