Help: Activities for children in non classroom situation

[Brett]

I teach ESL in France in private lessons. I currently work with two young boys (ages 3 and 5), whose mother is American but does not speak English at home. I am constantly looking for more activities and games to do with them but seem to find only classroom oriented games. Are there any fun games that work well that do not require more than 2 students? So far, we have worked with flashcards for alphabet and animals, story books, legos (where they have to use specific colored blocks to build), Simon says and 'exercises' to learn body parts, etc.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can help out!

[mesmark]

You can play:

Concentration

Go Fish (a little difficult for the 3 year old)

Make your own snakes and ladder type game laying the cards out board game style and have the kids roll a dice and move along saying/using the vocabulary.

Old Maid

Bingo

Karuta - lay the cards out. You say one of the vocabulary words or use it in a sentence and the children race to slap the card first.

Songs are good as well, especially songs with actions: Ring Aroung the Rosie, Wheels on the Bus, not really enough people but London Bridge is Falling Down, Hokey Pokey, the Farmer in the Dell (again not enough people,) the Itsy Bitsy Spider, Row Row Row Your Boat, Baby Bumble Bee, and you can just make up your own actions for other songs.

I teach small groups of kids the same age and these games work pretty good with small numbers. Just be careful about competition as the older child will probably win most games. Bingo, Old Maid, and the board game are pretty much luck oriented and help give the younger children a fighting chance.

I hope that helps.

Mark
www.mes-english.com

[Sally Olsen]

YOu can also play tag, hide and go seek, peek a boo, Mother May I?, catch, baseball, soccer and so on as long as you talk the whole time. Just tell them what they are doing and where they are. It is what parents do in any language but you will be doing it more. It is great for their learning because you are actually describing what they are doing at the moment and they will catch on quickly. Try dress up clothes as well and describe what they are putting on or wearing - colours, textures, etc. You can put on little plays with puppets, or role plays after you read the stories. You can play trains or cars, again describing everything that they do. It will sink in eventually.

[Sally Olsen]

Forgot to mention that you don't have to do everything together. You can get the older child doing some worksheet activities while you practice with the younger one. Are you teaching them British English or American English?

[musica5]

Hi
Finger rhymes and action songs are also great. There's a great selection of free finger rhymes and nursery rhymes, both mp3s and lyrics with instructions at

http://www.pamseslclassroom.com

There are also lesson plan ideas.

Hope this helps.

[Brett]

Thanks all for replying. In response to your question, Sally, I am teaching American English. I have tried some of the activities mentioned and found that they work quite well.

Also, for others in the same situation, I found an activity that is great for teaching and that children love. It involves coloring and you need a bunch of markers or colored pencils of different colors. I get the kids to draw specific shapes on their paper starting with one and going to ten. Each time I say, 'I want you to draw one circle. Under the circle we are going to draw two squares. Next to the squares we are going to draw three hearts' etc. I do this along with the kids, so they can hear the English and see what they have to do. Then, I tell them what colors they have to use to color in each shape. Although I do not do this in the same order as we drew the shapes, they seem to catch on quickly and find the right color and shape.

For those who can already read and write, I have them, then, write sentences about each shape such as, 'These are squares. They are blue. There are two blue squares.'

Then, I do the same with animals. The kids draw animals color them, and then write sentences about them.

Anyway, thanks again!

[iditb]

You can try to find easy picture books in the library and look into it with them. For example-five little monkeys jumping on the bed. It's funny and you can learn new words.

edit

[Sally Olsen]

I imagine that you could expand the exercise with squares and shapes endlessly by asking them to make something out of the shape - a present out of a square or a rocket ship from a triangle and then write a story using all the things they drew. Good exercise.