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[go_ABs]

Hi,

This is my first post, so be gentle!

I teach English to young students, aged 3-9. I like my lessons to be fun, and games and activities are necessary to keep their interest.

I know Dave's ESL Cafe has a games board, but what I'm asking for is the BEST game(s) that you have used with success.

In my humble opinion, a good game:
Is fun
Requires minimal preparation, and
Can be adapted to lots of different kinds of language.

So what do you think? What's your best game?

Mike

PS The Wallabies were lucky

[Multilingua]

One game I have had success with is a vocabulary game that can be used with any group of letters, words, phrases, or even pictures if you are more of an artist than I am! The game is somewhat active, lets off a little steam (mostly) non-destructively, and can be adapted for different skill levels by adding more rounds or different rules. A drawback is that using it for groups of students larger than 20 causes a bit of disinterest in the students who are not playing at any moment. The game requires a board and a couple of flyswatters and can last anywhere from 5 minutes to .

1. I write the words/phrases/pictures on the board.
2. I divide the students into teams. I have only played with two teams but that is a function of my occasional inability to tell which of three or more people hit something FIRST, which can cause arguments.
3. I call out a beginning letter/ word/ category/ definition depending on the skill level of students.
4. The students playing have a flyswatter each. They attempt to hit the board where the word is written BEFORE their opponent does. You can add rules such as--only hit the board once, subsequent guesses don't count --no help in Chinese allowed from the teammates --no help at all allowed from teammates --students must stand a certain distance away from the board and RUN to hit their target, ETC..
5. I usually give each player pair two words then yell "new players, new players!" to keep the pace going.
6. I keep score for them, or I draft a reclusive student in an effort to involve at least one more kid actively, since most of them can count as high as necessary. If the score is lopsided, I mix up teams for Round Two.

From my perspective, a tie is as good as a win, because nobody goes home feeling bad. From their persperctive, they have a teacher-sanctioned chance to HIT something in class, and when they beat the other person to the right word, their team usually cheers them on.

Some people do this game with pens/chalk for the kids to circle the words, but that requires more materials....I tried it with pictures on paper or card held up with magnets, but they fell down too often. At least with words on the board it takes minimal effort to rewrite them after the flyswatters erase parts of the words.

I hope this suggestion is helpful.

[cimarch]

Simon Says is always a good one, you can increase the difficulty as they get better too, simply 'up' the language level or put in a time limit like "Last person to do it correctly is out" as well as anyone who does it wrong.

Sparkle is another very popular one with the kids. They all to stand up and the first person says a word and the first letter (ie. Apple, A), the second person says the second letter (ie. P) and so on. Anyone who makes a mistake has to sit down and you continue on. The person who says the last letter also has to say 'sparkle' (ie. E, sparkle). If they do so the next person has to sit down and the person after them chooses a new word, if they get it wrong or forget to say 'sparkle' then they have to sit down and the next person chooses a new word. Continue until there's only one standing. All words must have at least 3 letters except when there are only 2 people left when it must have 4 or more.

And they always love Hangman, especially if you change it 'round so that your 'man' (you can say he's one of the students) is hanging from a parachute with about 9-10 cords above either a pool containing sharks/crocodiles or a giant toilet. Remove one cord for each wrong letter. They go crazy for this but you've gotta be careful they don't use it to victimise any one member of the class, deliberately getting letters wrong to dump them in it.

[kev7161]

I found a verb conjugation game that may be a huge success. My SENIOR kids loved it, but it may work for younger kids if they are able:

1. Line up 3 or 4 rows of seven chairs each (depending on how many students you have - must have at least 14) in front of the chalkboard.

2. After you have studied a certain conjugation rule (let's say "present tense" - I read, you read, he reads, she reads, it reads, we read, they read), you will give each row a pen and a notebook.

3. When you say "go!", hand the notebooks to the first child. He/she writes the correct conjugation for "I", then passes back to the next student who does it for "you" . . . and so on. The last student, after conjugating for "they" races it to the front student who then writes all the conjugations on the chalkboard CORRECTLY. The first student who sits back down in their seat wins that round. Keep track of points on the chalkboard.

4. Then rotate the kids so everyone has a chance to do different "persons". If you have extra kids, switch them out with team members from time to time.

I've done this a few times with different groups of students. They have so much fun and get so competitive (and, naturally, try to find ways to cheat). This game is flexible and you can adapt it for any number of uses (such as vocabulary spelling - use seven letter words and each student has to write one letter of the word - works great with -ing and -ed words).

[go_ABs]

Hi,

Thanks for your replies! Keep them coming!

I've got a small collection of games that I've stolen from various sites on the internet (any recommendations for sites with good games???). It's growing just fast enough to keep up with the kids' demands for new and exciting games. My favourite so far is this:

Soldiers and Kings (stolen from GenkiEnglish.com I think):

Bring a few hats/swords/soldierly things with you to class, and a crown. You, the teacher are the king (naturally) and choose a few students to be your soldiers who protect you from the unruly mob: the rest of the students.

Put the mob in a line. The first in line comes to the first soldier.

Each soldier poses an English challenge to the student; for my younger students I just have the soldier hold up a word card from a pile, and the other says what's on it. They do paper, scissors, rock. If the student beats the soldier they move on to the next. If they lose they go ALL the way back to the start.

If anyone makes it up past the soldiers to the king, and then wins the paper, scissors, rock, they become the new king/queen and the teacher goes and joins the line at the start. This always gets a few laughs.

I like this game cos it's fun, lets the kids laugh at the teacher, reinforces the vocabulary well, and allows you to check on the pronounciation as they go.

My kids like it... the only problem might be over-playing it!

byebye!

[Roger]

Age 3 to 9? You mean you get classes mixed of pupils that should go to kindergarten and some to primary school? A little unprofessional, isn't it?

Anyway, the younger the more open their minds are; how about instructing them on how to use their body? Doing calisthenics is very welcome (from a pupil's point of view, but check first with your superiors, most of whom take a rather conservative if not parochial view...).
Engage them in activities that involve running, walking, lifting feet, touching noses, knees, shoulders, whatever.

Draw things with them. (Instruct them to draw while you watch them without drawing yourself...).

Musical chairs...

Numbers are always good. Arithmetics! Phone numbers... Without translation!
Yesterday, I played a game with a twelve-year old; we used a die; spontaneously I announced the numbers in Italian - the girl picked up Italian without any trouble, guessing at once that it wasn't English! We were switching from English to Mandarin to Italian for half an hour...

[go_ABs]

I get students with mixed ages in a class, yes. Unprofessional? I don't know. That's how the school organised it. This is their first year with foreign teachers, but not the first year English has been taught. There a very few students under 5, most being in the 6-8 range.

But, the mixed ages doesn't seem to be a big deal... they are all the same level, and many of the older ones (particularly the girls) like helping out the smaller ones.

But anyway, keep the suggestions for games and activities coming!

[oprah]

This term I tried Chain stories with the senior middle school students. Out of 6 classes one class was brilliant and wanted to do chain stories every class. They were very creative. All other classes were horrible, not creative at all.

[tarzaninchina]

I have my own thing in a classroom, but with lower-level students, I always do the following thing for my first class. Most of them know their ABC's. So I write Z on the board and ask them what it is. Then the same for Y and then X. Then I move the chalk to the space beside the X and say "hai you", asking them what the next one would be, W. Once the alphabet has been completed, I then give them a chance to say it backwards as fast as they can. It doesn't take too long to do either.

[matthews_world]