Group Hello’s October 1, 2007
Posted by serenden in introductions.add a comment
This has worked well for the really young kids – 1st-2nd graders, to practice “Hello, my name is …, nice to meet you!”
Have the students sit in a large circle on the floor. Each student takes their turn one at a time.
The student stands up, says “Hello!” to the group. The group answers “Hello!!!”.
The student then introduces themselves, saying “My name is … Nice to meet you!”
The group responds “Nice to meet you!”.
Next victim.
With the right class, this is a good, positive way to practice the sentences.
Guess that food! October 1, 2007
Posted by serenden in colors, food.add a comment
Vocabulary: fruits, vegetables, colors.
Grammar: “What color is it?” / “Fruit or vegetable?”
The teacher chooses a secret fruit or vegetable.
The students then ask as a class, “What color is it?”. The teacher answers, “It’s red / brown…”
The students then ask as a class, “Fruit or vegetable?”. The teacher answers, then the class guesses what the secret food is.
Reward correct answers as you like!
My family October 1, 2007
Posted by serenden in family.add a comment
A great way to have your students practice the names of family members. Having the students introduce their own families helps them with a sense of ownership of the language.
Introduce the word “family”. The teacher then says to the class…
“My family is mother, father, sister, me!”. (However the teacher’s family is).
The students then can take turns raising their hands and translating one of the English words into Japanese, example, “okaasan”, etc… until the class has figured out what the teacher said! They can get a kick just out of having understood the teacher! If a JTE is present, repeat with the their family too, for more practice.
Formally teach the family names and have the class repeat. Then ask for volunteers to say their family – “My family is…” and the rest of the class can translate.
Then, play karuta or similar group game to help their memory of the vocabulary.
Months: Dice Bowling September 12, 2007
Posted by serenden in months, numbers.add a comment
Materials: Each student’s name on a small placard with magnet attached (or just have them write their names on the board). / 2 large dice / illustrated month cards.
This is a great activity for teaching the months of the year to elementary school students (or likely any age for that matter). As usual, it’s all in the presentation and set-up…
SET UP
Tell the students you’re going to be learning “months”. If they don’t know what that is, ask them their birthdays, then repeat the month they say each time… they’ll get it. Then let them know that since there’s 12 months, it’s a little difficult to remember all of them, so we’re going to use our birthdays to remember.
REPETITION
Start by placing the January card on the board, and having the class repeat after you. Then ask whose birthday is in January. When they raise their hands, have them come up to the board and place their name cards (or write their names) under the January card. Then coach each of them briefly on the pronunciation of the month before they go back to their seats. Continue this process for all the months.
Go through all the months once as a class.
Then go through the months as a class again and have the students stand up and say the month even louder when it’s their birthday. Repeat 2 or 3 times, getting faster and faster, so the kids have fun trying to stand up and sit down really fast, and get used to hearing the 12 months said in order.
THE GAME
Split the class into two teams – split down the middle of the room. Put a score board up. Have the teams huddle up together close to the front, but forming an aisle down the middle of the room between them.
Choose one student from each team to start the game, and come to the front of the aisle with you. Hand each student a dice. When you say go, they each roll their dice down the aisle.
The students must raise their hand and tell you the name of the month corresponding to the numbers on the dice.
For example: 3 and 5 = 8, so the answer is “August”.
Their teammates may help them, as they are likely to have a teammate with a birthday in that month.
One point goes to the first team to say the month, (only the original player can raise their hand and answer), and then play starts again with the next two players. The game ends when everyone has had a chance to play.
THOUGHTS
By having the teammates help each other, it takes the pressure off the individual while handing out responsibility and ownership at the same time!
The dice-rolling turned into a bowling competition in one of my classes, but the dice are soft, so it just made the game more fun for them. This was one of the first games I have played where the students seemed to forget that they were trying to learn a new language, and were able to relax and have fun instead.
If you try this, let me know how it goes!
Make the classroom into city streets July 31, 2007
Posted by serenden in direction.add a comment
A good idea for teaching directions in the classroom is to set up all the desks so that there is a typical street pattern which you then use to direct the students through to a specified goal.
You could also play videos of travel and music or soundtracks of busy places or street corners.
Drawing the Teacher’s Home July 31, 2007
Posted by serenden in direction, directions, listening, places, vocabulary.add a comment
Materials: paper and pencils, a floor plan for each student, a large diagram of the teacher’s home to place on the board afterwards, photos of the house?
The students listen to a description of the teacher’s home and draw in the items on their floor plan.
Afterwards, the teacher pins up the large copy of the actual floorplan with items so the students can compare theirs with the actual one. Note any differences in assumptions based on the different cultures?
Animal sounds July 31, 2007
Posted by serenden in animals.add a comment
Materials: none or stuffed animals from the teacher or from the students
Teach the different animal names and sounds by using stuffed animals, and have the students compare the differences between their own language and English animal-sounds.
As review, the students can practice saying…
A cow says “moo”
A dog says “bow-wow”
etc…
Classroom Baseball July 31, 2007
Posted by serenden in introductions, questions-asking.add a comment
I found this activity in a book I have titled “Practical Handbook for Elementary School English Activities”, published for the JET program.
It goes like this:
Materials: none
Make a baseball diamond in the room and divide the students into 2 teams. The first batter comes to homeplate and the teacher asks them a question like “How old are you?”, etc. If the batter responds correctly, they get to move to first base, and their next teammate comes up to bat. If they don’t answer correctly, they’re out.
After 3 outs for a team, the other team comes up to bat. After the kids get the hang of it, the teacher is replaced with a pitcher who asks the questions. The defense team can listen carefully to the answers from the batter and point out mistakes if they’re made, and help out their own teammates when they’re up to bat.
Match Numbers to their Words July 30, 2007
Posted by serenden in numbers.add a comment
From Banaboo
A graph to help students by matching numbers to their English word equivalents. Go to this activity »
