EFL Teaching Recipes » Children

Heads Down, thumbs up!

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:34:00 +0000

This game is also known as 7 up.

Select 4-5 students and give them a flashcard/picture.

All other students put their heads down and one thumb up. The other students go around the classroom and gently squeeze one student’s thumb. They return to the front of the class.

The student’s whose thumbs were squeezed stand up and guess who did it by stating the vocabulary on the flashcard “Did a “bear” squeeze me?”. If they guess correctly, they get a flashcard and can go to the front.

A fun game!

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

Alphabet Chain

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:44:48 +0000

If you are teaching children, you’ll need to put up an alphabet chain above the chalkboard (that’s the perfect place and allows you to use for all kinds of games etc…).

It is very easy and the BEST by far is by Jan Brett and incredible artist, teacher and sharer. Get the alphabet cards here in easy to print pdf. Just print and post up on your wall. Maybe get the children to color them first and invest a little into their classroom! Then maybe try an alphabet song! Get many alphabet helpers on the Elementary page of EFL Classroom 2.0. You could also use some of these alphabet ppts, print and post up on the wall.

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

Show n’ Tell

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:51:44 +0000

This is a very basic everyday lesson starter and icebreaker.

A learner brings an item from home and talks about it in front of the group.

Give learners enough advance notice to prepare and remind them again before their turn. Have a back up plan in case the learner forgets to bring an item. Beginners may only be able to share the name of an item and where they got it. Be sure to give beginners specific instructions about what information you want them to tell.

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

Zip Zap

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 05:32:26 +0000

Get them to play zap! Loads of fun and once they know how to play, you just sit back and relax.

Get them in a circle standing. One student starts in the middle. The student in the middle is the boss, what they say goes. Object is last person standing.

The “boss” spins around pointing and saying , zip zip zip……when they stop, the person they are pointing at ducks. The two on either side have to draw and shoot the other person. The boss calls the winner. In the ESL / EFL variation, instead of saying zap, the boss says a letter. The two students shoot each other by drawing and saying a word beginning with that letter. The loser dies and must sit down. Continue until 2 students left. Stand them back to back. They pace 3 steps and then draw. The winner, the last person alive goes to the middle as “boss” and you start again……

Lots of variations. The letter is the simplest. But you can do ending in the letter, word association (boss says food, they say a food or associated word), verb – noun , noun – verb. Country / city or language or nationality etc……

Fun game and the students really concentrate and get into it. Zip – zap. Sounds complicated but anything but. My grade 4s would play this all day if I had let them…..

This post was submitted by Dmitry.