Teacher Discussion Forums

I have to organise a large event for kids aged 6-10. Each group of between 200 and 400 kids has half an hour to take part in a variety of games that will lead to an eventual group of winners (kind of Olympics-style), oh and their English level is really low. Aaaargh.
Any suggestions for games we could play very greatly appreciated and worth a beer if you ever come to Hanoi.

I'll take some Kimchee.
Do you have some help in the form of older kids or teachers to man some stations? You can divide the kids into teams with colours - something they can stick on easily - pieces of paper or paper hats or stickers. I would recommend 8 in a team with that many kids.
In half an hour they could probably make it to three stations with 10 minutes each and you can signal the change with lights switiching on and off or some creative noise.
For our English Olympics we did various things:
List as many sports, transportation, English bands, food, or clothes, etc. as possible. They could work in pairs and write the words on prepared sheets with numbers. The supervisor at the station could be as strict or leniant as you want in awarding points. Leniant goes more quickly. Add up the scores
Make sentences with 8 words that are given, one to each student , each person adding to the "story" that must make sense.
Put a picture story in order, telling the story as best as you can.
Draw something that the supervisor tells you to do. (Have a master copy and the supervisor tells them - draw a sun in the right corner and so on.
Hide 8 objects under a cloth and show them for 15 seconds and the students have to name them in English.
Give the students pictures of animals, and they must make the noises or say something about that animal. You can make it into a story if want to make it harder or they could get more points.
Spelling Bee
Sing an English song

Any team finishing a task early can work on decorating their paper hats with a team name and logo or a team chant which you can give points for.

Teams can have a point card and supervisors can give extra points for good behaviour, good sportsmanship, etc. to encourage students to behave.

You can have an English cup (we had a tea cup with their names painted on the side).

Thank you, some good ideas there! Not much kimchee in Hanoi, plenty of Pho noodles though (yum!)

Idea One: I had to do a whole school event once and I got a hold of some stats about Japan, America, and England. I asked the kids questions like: "In which country is a loaf of bread more expensive?" "Which country is the smallest?", "Which country has the most people?" and so on. We did this in a gym and I had the children move to one of three points depending on which they thought was correct.

I told them the answer and the children who answered correctly advanced to the next level. You can also have a bonus question from time to time for the losers, to give them a chacne to get back in the game and also to hold their interest.

This is not an ESL activity, but a good international understanding lesson. I think it will be very hard to teach 200-400 students anything in 30 minutes.

Idea Two: I've always wanted to do this, but never had the crowd. If you're up for a little prep and a challenge. I have some cards I made for comparative practice. They are three teams and it's played like a childrens trading card game. Only, with 200-400 students the students could each be a card (cards player) and they would actually trade/play themselves moving from team to team battling each other. I'll save you some reading time. Please look at the cards and see if you're interested. The page also has an indepth explanation of the game. www.mes-english.com/games/eigomon.html If you think you might do it, e-mail me and I'd be happy to run through it more thoroughly.

- Mark Cox
www.mes-english.com