Procedure
Explain to the learners that they are going to play dominoes and elicit the rules from them as far as possible.
Explain that to match dominoes, learners have to match a reporting verb to a suitable verb on the other side of the domino and be able to think of a sentence including the two verbs combined in context.
Do an example or two as a class. For example, the reporting verb ‘remind’ can be followed by the verb ‘get’ in the sentence ‘Reming me to get some milk on the way home.’
Put the learners into groups of three and give each group a set of dominoes.
One learner deals out four dominoes to each player. The rest of the dominoes (the pack) are placed face down to one side of the playing area. Turn over the top domino from the pack and place it in the middle of the table. This is the starting domino.
The player to the left of the dealer begins. If they can combine one of the dominoes in their hand with the domino on the table they place it next to the side it matches with and makes their response using the relevant reporting verb. If their partners are happy the sentence is correct, the next learner takes their turn. If there is a doubt about the sentence, the teacher can be asked for a second opinion. If the learner makes an incorrect sentence, they take the domino back and their turn finishes.
If a player cannot use any of the dominoes they hold, they pick one up from the top of the pack. If they can use this domino, they are allowed to play it immediately in the normal way; if not, their turn finishes and the next player continues.
The first player to use all of their dominoes is the winner.
Variations
Non-competitive groups may simply like to create a viable chain of reporting verb + verb dominoes. As they add a domino to the chain, encourage them to make up a complete sentence in a suitable context using the two verbs on the dominoes.
There is also a blank version so you can adapt to your own activity.