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Enjoy and happy teaching and learning to all,

David
creator of Teaching Recipes and EFL Classroom 2.0

Give each group of students some card board strips of paper. Also some tape. 

Students brainstorm the names of all things in the classroom (in English!). 

Then, ask them to go tape the names up around the classroom. First come, first server.

After, take up the names. Student will learn the words over time, as they see them in class and use them. 

Next: why not give each group a chart sized piece of paper and get them to make a month calendar. Put everyone’s birthday’s on it and use it throughout the year! 

This post was submitted by James.

1. Write numbers or letters on the back of a student/classmate by using your finger.

2. The classmate guesses the number/letter.

3. Make it more advanced. Larger numbers / words. 

You can also do a variation of this by doing the same on the palm of the person. 

Really “visceral” and kinesthetic way of teaching basic content. 

This post was submitted by John.

Take a look – many levels and a recipe for each one

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

This post was submitted by Sarah Martins.

Ask students to think of a word they’ve learned previously. They have to make sure they know how to write it.

Students come to the front of the class and write the word in the air using his index finger. Then, students write down they word and say it out loud. The student who wrote the word in the air gets 1 point for each player who got the word right and the players who get it right get 1 point too. 

This post was submitted by Ana Maria Menezes.

Give students 2 or 3 minutes to write a sentence with all the verbs from the board in the same sequence without adding any other verb except for auxiliaries. Ex: I was running home to eat when I saw a beautiful bird flying.

Students then can mingle and tell each other the sentence they have created.

This post was submitted by Ana Maria Menezes.

Get more flashcards and ideas for more Flashcard games HERE.

This post was submitted by James.

Clear the desks.  All of them.  Make sure the whole room is nothing but a big dance floor.
Start by writing all the significant terms on the board.  To the Left, To the right, to the back,  hop, stomp, left/right foot, hands on your knees, turn, reverse, Charlie Brown, slide left/right, criss-cross, cha-cha, go down low, bring it to the top.  Before you even show them the first clip review all the terms a couple times asking the students if they know what the term means and if they can demonstrate it.  There’s usually at least one or two kids who will demonstrate in some fashion and the others will get the idea.

Once you feel like they’ve been introduced to all the terms effectively show them the music video clip so they have a good idea of what it looks like and sounds like.  The second clip is the song with all the lyrics.  Get all the kids in the best order you can.  Make sure they give each other space.

Round one: Do the dance WITH them the first time with the clip containing the lyrics, emphsizing and calling out important terms as you do the actions. (like if we are moving back i call out “back”)  Tell them to read and listen.

Round two:  No help from teacher.  read and listen only.

Round three:  Listen only.  the music video clip is slightly remixed and a bit more challenging.  It’s your discretion which clip you want to use and if you want to do a fourth round of listening only.

By this time i have between 15 and 20 minutes left in class so for fun I teach them an easy line dance like the Electric Slide, Cotton Eyed Joe, the Chicken Dance, or maybe the Cupid Shuffle just the break the monotony of doing the same dance again and again.  This doesn’t really require explanation as they can copy your motions.

In the final five minutes of class I do the dance (listening only) with the students one more time.  Or you can watch again so it’s pure listening.  Most of my kids have a lot of fun with this and its REALLY good to teach some direction, listening, prepositions etc…  It’s also easy to modify because you can take this at the pace your students are at.  low level students whoa re just learning these terms may do best with reading and listening the whole time.  Reviewing the terms again is ok.

Links

This post was submitted by Joseph.

Divide class in two teams, A and B. Divide the board in the middle. Mark each side of the board for each team.  

On each side of the board draw:

• a river with stepping stones for students to get across the river. The winner is the team that crosses the river first. For every correct word they write, mark a stepping stone.
• a ladder. The winner is the team that climbs the ladder first. For every correct word they write, mark a step on the ladder.
• a mountain with climbing points for the teams  to climb and put their country’s flag up on the top. The winner is the team that climbs the mountain and puts their country’s flag up first. For every correct word they write, mark a climbing point.
• an apple tree with a ladder which the students have to climb and pick the apples from the tree. This is suggested for longer spelling and vocabulary homework since the students first have to climb up the ladder and then pick the apples. The winner is the team that picks all the apples first. For every correct word they write, mark a step on the ladder and then an apple on the tree.
• a daisy. The winner is the team whose daisy is wiped out first. For every correct word they write, wipe out a petal and after all the petals have been wiped out, then wipe out the leaves and the stem until the whole daisy has gone.
• an ice cream with 4-5 scoops of different flavours. For example, brown for chocolate, green for pistachio, red for strawberry, white for vanilla, etc. The winner is the team that eats their ice cream first, the whole of it, even the cone. For every correct word they write, wipe out a scoop until the whole ice cream has gone!
• a basket with basketballs underneath. The winner is the team that puts all their basketballs in the basket first. For every correct word they write, wipe out a basketball. 

Call a member from each team up on the board and dictate a word from their vocabulary to them. The students write the word they hear on their side of the board making sure at the same time that the student from the opposite team cannot see what the other student is writing. So cheating is eliminated.
This has proven a very nice and exciting way to check spelling, listening comprehension and pronunciation in a fun way. It also adds a lot of variety in my spelling and vocabulary games while my students’ motivation to learn English is enhanced. My students love it and look forward to their spelling game every time.
One final tip: In case of a draw, I treat the whole class to cookies, lollipops, or chocolates! 

This post was submitted by Barbara Koziori.