Korean Job Discussion Forums

[camel96]

Sometimes I wear clothes that are covered in lint into my kindergarten class and give candy to the kid who can pick off the most pieces.
Usually takes them a while and I can read the newspaper while they're distracted.

[matthews_world]

[some waygug-in]

I would have trouble with some of the games mentioned because I can't seem to get my students to understand any kind of complicated rules. I don't know if they really don't understand or if they are just trying my patience, but I agree with rapier that simple is best.

Here are some: aphabet bingo simple

Phonics bingo same as above but with 2 or 3 letter combinations.

What color is it? sing using "are you sleeping?"
at the end of the song the you say a color, the kids have to run and touch something that color. After you go through the colors, you can do "what thing is it?" similarly.

Spelling target game: draw a giant target on the board.
Write the alphabet across the target, divide the class into teams, roll up a piece of paper, each team takes turns trying to hit different letters on the target. They have to record their hits on a piece of paper and then try to spell words with them. 1 point for every word correctly spelled.

You can do the same thing with random words. Choose about 5 sentences from whatever page you are studying, write the words in random order on the board, the teams have to hit enough words to make proper sentences. 1 point per sentence.


Students like to play hangman, if they are in charge. But often they don't know how to spell the words so they can't play properly, so what I like to do is hold a copy of the textbook up for the person at the board. They choose the word they want, but this way it will be correctly spelled.


Card games, Crazy 8's can be bought in a store or can be made yourself.
If you buy the original, you will see how to make your own afterwards.

Cheers

[camel96]

[The evil penguin]

[shawner88]

A really easy one is to make 2 or 3 teams. Give each team a letter and they have to make as many words as they can. You can have them do this on the board by making columns or on their own paper sitting down. Change letters every 5-10 mins. Works like a charm.

[Medic]

There is a drawing game to test their creativity, which works well. Start by drawing an A then add some lines to it so that the A becomes a pencil. ( Draw two long lines from the legs of the A downwards and paralell etc etc). Then draw a B and ask a student to come and draw a picture so that the B becomes something else. Most students convert the B to a butterfly. Do the same for all letters.

Not too much speaking with this activity, unless you make them make a sentence about their picture.

Found with this that the artistically inclined students are always volunteering to draw. You have to watch this and make sure everyone has a go even if you have to put the chalk or marker in their hand, and force them up to do it.

Now and again you'll find an artistically talented group of students who'll convert the letters into things you never in your wildest dreams would have thought possible. Doesn't hapen too often though.

[tomato]

Hello, Matthew's World!

I hope this page on my Website helps:

http://eslideas.hypermart.net/games.html

[Medic]

Another game I picked up at a camp is the cider,chicken,french fries,hamburger game. You stand up in front of the class put one hand on top of your head and one under your chin saying this is a hamburger. Then you grab your elbow with one hand and raise the other arm up with it's finger pointed at your mouth saying this is a cider. After that you wave both hands at the level of your neck saying theses are french fries. Finally you balance on one leg point both arms to the right or left, and the other leg in the opposite direction saying this is a chicken. You practice first counting out loud one,two,three and then say one of the above three with the appropriate gesture. Do this for all of the gestures for a practice, making sure you always count 1,2,3 chicken or 1,2,3 hamburger etc. Students don't say anything. You do all the talking.

To get the game going you tell your class that they now have to do a different gesture from the one you do. If they do the same as you they are out. Start slowly then speed it up. If you can't explain the doing a different gesture bit, don't worry some bright kid in your class will do it for you.

What I usually do after a few times is let some of the students be the teacher and lead the class. They love it. helps them get rid of some of their frustrated pent up energy

[tomato]

I erroneously posted a message on this thread which I intended for another thread.
Moderator, how can I delete a message?

[Zyzyfer]

[dbee]

You should check out askGARI, the Games and Activities Retrieval Interface for a whole load of games and activities for Kids and adults.

http://www.englishteachingkorea.com/askgari/gari_form.html

[dbee]

mistake, ... moderator please delete me

[italianstallion39]

I usually think of carnival type games. They are easily adaptable to the ESL classroom. I separate the class into teams. One team has to ask a question and someone has to answer. Then the questioning team gets to take a shot.
Two that took little preparation:
Get a plate or small disc and a 500 Won piece. Smaller is better. Put it at the end of a table. They stand at the other end, asking, answering and tossing. If they get the money directly on the plate, they can keep it. I've never lost any money yet...give them some distance to make sure (and to keep it challenging:)) As far as explaining the directions, it's pretty simple to do a pantomime or draw a picture of a circle with 500 inside, and write "OK!" or "X!" if it's not completely inside.
2:Wall bowling: Take 4 paper cups. Write the numbers 1,3,5, and an X on the bottom of the cups. Line them up against the blackboard or at the end of a table. Get a soft ball or wadded piece of paper. Same as above, Q,A,Turn..They throw the ball and the cups they knock over is their team's score. The X can be "lose a turn," tweak your friend's head, 10 points or whatever you want.
They get so involved in the "games" they forget they are practicing and repeating so much English.
Of course, as has been stated elsewhere ad nauseum, girls v. boys never fails to generate enthusiasm:)

[sylvevl]

Here is a link to some great games. Descriptions are on the page. Ignore the paid versions unless you want to buy the editable file. http://valerieandgriffin.com/free_esl_resources/