Any games for beginners?

<b> Forum for discussing activities and games that work well in the classroom </b>

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alice.l
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Any games for beginners?

Post by alice.l » Wed Oct 29, 2003 12:36 pm

Hi everybody, I've strarted teaching a group of beginners and I find it dull to work just with the textbook :( Have you got any ideas :idea: what games I can use in my lessons? It's difficult because they don't know much.

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Lorikeet
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Post by Lorikeet » Wed Oct 29, 2003 3:19 pm

I'm sure lots of people can give you neat ideas, but don't forget regular Bingo. It's a nice way to practice numbers. I used to do it occasionally, and give out erasers and pencils as prizes. I know there are a lot of other ways to use bingo (having them write the words from a list in any order on a blank card is perhaps the most common.)

october
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Post by october » Fri Oct 31, 2003 3:48 pm

wow! there are so many games to play.
here is just one idea and if you like i'll post more.
it's a catagory game. the class is divided into 4 groups (depending on the size of the group). the teacher says or picks a catagory from a hat. the first group to say a word from the catagory called gets a point.
second version: the teacher starts saying the abc, a certain student stops her. for example the teacher was stopped on 'm' the students must find a word from the catagory chosen at the beginning of the game starting with 'm'. This can also be done in writing, the students get a chart with different catagories and they have to write them depending on the letter called. (food/country/name of girl/ name of boy/nature/nouns/verbs...)

hope this helps.
have fun :D

hepkat
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Joined: Sat Nov 01, 2003 7:40 pm

beginner games

Post by hepkat » Sat Nov 01, 2003 7:44 pm

in addition to bingo with numbers i find bingo with minimal pairs (words that sound the same, but differ in one phoneme eg. sip/zip) to be alot of fun. i do this with my beginner class and they love it! good luck.

rusmeister
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games for beginners

Post by rusmeister » Thu Jan 29, 2004 7:17 am

2 games that I get a lot of mileage out of are Simon Says and Mr. Wolf.
Simon says: The children perform various actions (which must be initially modeled) by command, but only when you say "Simon Says". For the littlest ones (5-7) start with walk, jump and run. Slowly build up from there, adding slowly, quickly, quietly, loudly and other adverbs, as well as verbs. Point to/go to/jump to... a (noun) will serve to build your noun collection. Play it at least once a week, for 6-10 minutes.
Mr. Wolf: Choose a child to be "Mr. Wolf". (eenie meenie miney moe...)
Then (model everything!) get everyone else to shout in unison: "What time is it, Mr. Wolf?" The first few times "Mr. Wolf" says, "It's 3 o'clock", etc... (only o'clock, maximum 12). All of the children march around the class or play area in a circle a number of times, counting out loud, equal to the number said by Mr. Wolf. After one of these rounds, Mr. Wolf responds to the question by saying, "It's time to eat!", and chases the other children, who run like crazy. For the littlest ones, have Mr. Wolf catch one pupil and then stop. For older (8-11), Mr. Wolf must catch as many of the children as possible in 60 seconds. This is a great way to break up a longer lesson or end a class and leave them a little tired! Make sure to clear the play area, push in chairs so no one gets hurt.
Hope these help! :D

sita
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Post by sita » Fri Jan 30, 2004 5:40 am


Ali
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Games for beginners

Post by Ali » Sun Feb 01, 2004 9:25 pm

I've got a small beanbag that I use with beginners. Whenever things seem to be getting a bit slow, I get them to stand up, I throw the bag to one of the students and I say, maybe, Monday. The students then throw the bag to each other and follow on. Other times I practice cardinal numbers, ordinal numbers and months in the same way.
When they've got used to the game, I make it competitive so that if they get it wrong or hesitate they have to sit down - the last one standing's the winner.

marybeth11
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games

Post by marybeth11 » Wed Feb 04, 2004 5:49 pm

I have a very low level class as well and like to do a similar activity as Ali. I have a stuffed chicken that is actually a dog toy and whenever the class needs to move around we form a circle and toss the chicken. We practice what ever point we have been covering- asking and answering questions like "Can you drive a car". The students love it and they love the chicken! A lot of chicken jokes have been created in the class and it is a lot of fun.

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