Creative Ideas for Young Learners

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Creative Ideas for Young Learners

• Presented by
• TEFL Peace Corps Volunteers

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Classroom Supplies

• Scissors
• Glue Sticks
• Markers, Coloured Pencils, Crayons
• Pencil Sharpeners
• Rubbers (Erasers)
• Rulers
• Paper (plain and coloured)
• Stapler
• Stickers

• Flash cards
• Pictures
• Alphabet letters
• Alphabet puzzles
• Books with pictures

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Language Focus

• Vocabulary for imperatives
• Cut
• Paste/glue
• Colour
• Erase
• Write
• Draw

• Vocabulary for things in the classroom and asking
  questions
• May I have the scissors?
• May I have the glue?
• May I have some markers/crayons?

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Alphabet Pages,Create Supplemental Material

• www.kindergarten.com
• www.learningpage.com (free clipart)

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Make a Book

• My Alphabet Book
• My Book of Colours
• My Book of Numbers
• My Book of Shapes
• My Book of Opposites/Adjectives

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Arts Crafts

• Alligator
• Frog
• Spider
• Bookmarks
• Cards

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Puzzles

• www.bogglesworld.com
• Make your own crossword
• Word Find
• Word Discovery (e.g. snowflakes)
• Word Shapes

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Total Physical Response (TPR)

• Alphabet
• Numbers
• Role playing / drama
• Charades

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Games Songs

• Bingo (colours, numbers, shapes, etc.)
• Hangman (vocabulary, spelling practice)
• Charades (flash cardsadjectives, adverbs, verbs,
  jobs, etc.)
• Songs (Hokey Pokeyvocabulary for the body, Old
  MacDonaldvocabulary for animals, alphabet
  songmilitary style)

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Why Teach Using Games?

• Games keep life interesting for the students and
  the teacher. They allow the students to interact
  more with the material and with each other in
  real language situations, making class time more
  productive and making the material more memorable.

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Myths Realities

• Myth It takes too much time to plan and prepare
  for games.
• Reality It takes a little bit of extra time, but
  only in the beginning. Put your students to work.
  Often they can do the work in one class hour or
  for homework and use the material in the next
  hour for the game. After that, recycling is key.
  Once you build up a stock of games, you can
  modify them for many situations.
• Myth Theres too much textbook material to
  cover, so theres no time for games.
• Reality There is too much textbook material to
  cover, but it can be covered at a deeper level
  and in a more interesting way through adaptation
  to games. Many textbook activities are better
  given as homework. Focus on planning games, not
  planning homework let the textbook do that for
  you.
• Myth Its more important for students focus on
  grammar drills and mastering certain grammatical
  structures.
• Reality At the elementary level, its more
  important that students have a good experience
  with the language and that they learn to be
  comfortable speaking.

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Fundamentals of Using Games

• Remind students that games still involve learning
  write the topic on the board, as well as a
  textbook page number. Give homework based on the
  game. Make the game part of their learning, not
  something outside of it.
• Teach students the basic procedures of
  game-playing.
• a. Explain and demonstrate the game.
• b. Have them tell/show you how to play.
• c. Each member of the group must participate.
• d. Each group will be expected to demonstrate
  some aspect of the game.

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• 3. Make sure the games are content-based and that
  the students are producing something with the
  language. The important thing isnt the game
  itself but how the students use the language.
• 4. Monitor the whole process checking in with
  each group once is not enough.
• 5. Save time at the end of the class hour for a
  summary of the topic have groups demonstrate
  use of a grammatical structure or word.
• 6. Noise and chaos are part of group work. The
  best way to keep the noise level down is to stay
  close to the students by moving from group to
  group, checking on their process.

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Ideas For Games

• 1. Vocabulary
• a. Ball (also works for sequences numbers,
  days, months, alphabet, etc. also verb
  conjugations or tense changes)
• b. Bingo (can give words in native language or
  give definitions)
• c. Charades (works best with verbs)
• d. Group races (works best for reviewing
  categories of vocabulary)
• e. Im going on a picnic ...
• 2. Grammar mostly verb tenses
• a. Tic Tac Toe
• b. Five in a Row
• c. I Know Everything (for questions)
• d. Board game
• e. Time game

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Motivation

• Games are a good way to motivate students -- use
  them more often and find other ways to motivate
  students
• Sticker charts Reward/penalize students
  individually. This works better with younger
  students. They get a sticker next to their name
  on a chart if they are on time, have complete
  homework and arent disruptive in class after 10
  stickers they get a little reward stickers, an
  eraser, etc. You can do it without stickers and
  without material rewards the reward could be
  library/reading time, or a special game, or
  having class outside.
• Points plan Reward/penalize students as a
  group. This works better with older students.
  Heres an example A class starts with 20 points.
  When they reach 250 points, they get to watch a
  movie during class time. Write the points on the
  board each day (but also keep track of them in a
  notebook).
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Resources

• Websites
• www.kindergarten.com
• www.learningpage.com
• www.bogglesworld.com
• www.eflcub.com
• www.enchantedlearning.com
• www.abcteach.com
• www.btinternet.com/ted.power
• www.englishbanana.com
• http//iteslj.org/links/
• http//www.LessonPlansPage.com
• www.theholidayzone.com

• Interactive Websites
• www.lisaexplains.com (website for kids for web
  design)
• www.discovery.com
• www.starfall.com
• Song Book
• Old Favorites For All Ages
• by Anna Maria Malkoç