Once a week - games?

[TheBroad]

I am volunteering at a primary school in China where the English teacher doesn't speak English. I go in 3 times a week for 40 minutes - one day each with 1st, 2nd, and 5th grade.

Due to illness and traveling, I've only met the 1st and 2nd grade students (once each) and did some pretty BORING lessons! Since the school people can't communicate with me well and there's no book for the 2 lower grades, I did alphabet/phonics stuff with the 1st graders (they're working on alphabet), and made simple sentences using animal and fruit names (their current vocab list) with the 2nd grade.

I think I might just scrap any effort to integrate with what they're teaching and do tpr/games/songs with them. I hope that they can learn something useful rather than the lists of vocab they are currently getting.

The 5th graders are another story. They have a book, and it actually teaches useful sentences. They might be learning months and birthdays now.

I'm pretty sure the regular teacher teaches them on other days, so I'm a supplement not a sub. Any thoughts here? Any communicating with them has to be through a translator (usually my husband) and it's rather frustrating.

[shelleyvernon]

Hi there "The Broad",

How about trying really simple vocabulary games which can be demonstrated without need for the native language.

For example, this one (from my games book):

Jump the Line
Draw a line down the board and put two pics up that the kids already know either side of the line. Stand in the middle of the board, name one of the pics, point at it, then jump to that side. Name and point at the other pic and jump. Get the kids to stand up and jump with you. Then add in more pics.

The first time you play use only known vocab, as the kids are learning the game. In the next lesson use this game to introduce new vocab.

Only play for 5 minutes max or it will get dull right away! That's where you need loads of games.

If it's too difficult having the children stand up and jump then they can use their arms instead, or right hand and left hand. You get the benefit of some movement here, which as you know engages them more in the learning process too.

There are loads of games on this site, or check out my book, which has good stuff for large classes like the game above.

http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/4-12.htm

All the best
Shelley

[Sally Olsen]

You can also check out the forum for Activities and Games. There are a lot of ideas in the Sticky messages at the top of that forum. Good for you.

[clayton]

I have found that the games gets everyone energized and puts everyone in a better mood. Kids are naturally competetive and while they are focused on besting their classmates, they are actually getting some good practice in. My younger students love to play "go fish" or "war" or "slap-jack" with a basic deck of poker cards. It reinforces their numbers, and the shy ones always come out of their shells once the game gets going.

[Patty Schuler]

With my adult ELL's I've played BINGO. I don't think BINGO was a part of their culture, but they enjoyed it! We'd go over simple words, animal names, friuts and vegetables, whatever the topic was. Then next week I'd have photos of the words, printed from my computer of course. I used a website called Teach-nology to create a BINGO template with the written words on it. The site automatically scrambles the words on each template. It gave us a fun way to practice vocabulary and introduce BINGO. Prizes were simple, pencils, chap stick, key chains, etc.

[karineESLstudent]

From what I have seen in my practicum in elementary school, kids like being at the front of the classroom. Once the teacher did a mimic game and they really enjoyed it. They had to mimic a vocabulary word that had been taught, for example animals. You can also do it with verbs such as "walk", "climb", "crawl". It is probably something you can also do with secondary students. Another thing is singing with the youngest one. You present the song and then some gestures. At the end, you can have them color the pictures related to the song or even modify the story line with their own ideas.

[mesmark]

There are all kinds of games you can play with students. As Sally said, try the Games forum here. There's a post with 60 games for kids and then a bunch of people have added to that list:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewtopic.php?t=4201

You can also check out the Games section on MES English, ESL games. There are printable games, card sets, bingo games, worksheet activities, and general games that don't require any materials.

[lip420]

There are a variety of games you can use. Games that can be incorporated into your lesson as part of the teaching plan and games that you can use for a "game" day.

Here are 3 ESL games and activities that you can watch and learn now on Youtube.