Good games for larger groups of 7 year olds (Japanese Elem)

[fred99]

I am new to teaching larger groups of Elementary kids

I have been asked to teach some kids (7 year olds) during their lunch hour ... so it is not an actual lesson. More for fun but with some English thrown in of course!

What are the best (tried and tested) in your experience for a groups of about 40 to 50 kids?

many thanks in advance

[EFLwithlittleones]

With this group size some kind of TPR (Total Physical Response) should work. That is, 'Simon says...' (with variants). Organise the children in lines so you can see them easily. It would also be a good idea to establish a routine of different moves in sequence so they can have some structure in the language delivered and then over the days you can add to it to create greater complexity. You'll need to think about what actions you want them to do. Things like, 'touch your ear' sounds terribly simple but can easily be turned into 'touch your left ear' or 'touch your left ear with your little finger on your right hand'. You decide, and make it slightly silly. I like to end with the tune, 'Heads, shoulders, knees and toes' which I repeat three times going from super slow with stretched out vowel sounds and physical movements, to super quick. The children usually lose track by the end and disolve into giggles. Another finishing tune is 'Hop Little Bunnies'...

Children lie on the floor pretending to be asleep. No noise. Teacher sings quite quietly (the melody I use is a generic variation on 'Dingle, Dangle Scarecrow')

See the little bunnies
Sleeping til it's noon
See if we can wake them
with a happy tune
oh how still, are they ill?
sssshhhh (teacher pauses...and suddenly claps hands)
Wake up soon! (children jump up and with hands like rabbit ears, bounce around the room like er, rabbits)
Hop little bunnies hop, hop, hop!
Hop little bunnies hop, hop, hop!
Hop little bunnies hop, hop, hop!
Hop little bunnies hop aaaannd stop! (children must instantly stand stock still)

You could probably find plenty of TPR ideas by typing the same into an EFL website.

Sallam