Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Guess Who
"Adivinar quien" is also a game known to the students, so it's easy to put it into practice in class. You can use the faces here. Cut up one sheet so that you have 24 face cards. Give each team the sheet with the faces, and then let them pick one of the face cards, face down. (I wouldn't recommend more than 5 teams). The game works by each team asking two questions at a time (is he a man, does he have red hair), and then trying to guess the face-card of another team. Can be chaotic, can be great.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
A Couple of Lessons I liked
- I showed this video, twice, to a tercero class. The first time with english subtitles, after which we just reconstructed the story, and the second time with spanish, after which we discussed it. It's good for class, because it's only 25 minutes long, but interesting (it won an oscar). The humour's quite deadpan, so for people who don't get it it's very depressing. Ask me where I downloaded it if you want, and also where I downloaded the subtitles. One class liked the film a lot, the other found it a bit boring.
- I played La Escondida (Hide and Seek) outside with the students, and then, afterwards asked them where they were hiding. This is not a lesson infused with learning, granted, but it's fun, and they learn words like 'behind', 'near' and 'in'.
- Divide class into groups of two or three. Give each group a sheet of paper and ask them to entitle it 'a story'. The then write two sentences, and fold the paper so only one sentence is visible, and hand it to the next group. This is then repeated and till you want to stop. At the end of the lesson, unfold the page and read the whole story. This works if you want to do storytelling but students baulk at writing a whole story by themselves.
- I played La Escondida (Hide and Seek) outside with the students, and then, afterwards asked them where they were hiding. This is not a lesson infused with learning, granted, but it's fun, and they learn words like 'behind', 'near' and 'in'.
- Divide class into groups of two or three. Give each group a sheet of paper and ask them to entitle it 'a story'. The then write two sentences, and fold the paper so only one sentence is visible, and hand it to the next group. This is then repeated and till you want to stop. At the end of the lesson, unfold the page and read the whole story. This works if you want to do storytelling but students baulk at writing a whole story by themselves.
Target Sounds
Hey guys,
this is an activity i got of www.eslcafe.com there it is called soundswatter (but I unsed paper made 2 colored balls rather than fly swatters):
Split the calss into 2 groups and have them sit in huddled groups int he back of the class. Have them send up one volunteer to be the "thrower."
The two "throwers" stand at an equal distance from the white board with small colored ball in hand.
I write two words on the baord and put a circle around the word (the targets). These two words rhyme and or start with difficlut sounds to pronounce i.e. "lice" and "rice".
with the "throwers" facing the white board and targets, i write one of the two target words on a piece of paper and show the teams (big enough so they can see it). the teams job is to shout the word as clearly as possible so their "thrower" can hit the target word first.
this activity works really well for high energy classes and pronunciation.
enjoy!
this is an activity i got of www.eslcafe.com there it is called soundswatter (but I unsed paper made 2 colored balls rather than fly swatters):
Split the calss into 2 groups and have them sit in huddled groups int he back of the class. Have them send up one volunteer to be the "thrower."
The two "throwers" stand at an equal distance from the white board with small colored ball in hand.
I write two words on the baord and put a circle around the word (the targets). These two words rhyme and or start with difficlut sounds to pronounce i.e. "lice" and "rice".
with the "throwers" facing the white board and targets, i write one of the two target words on a piece of paper and show the teams (big enough so they can see it). the teams job is to shout the word as clearly as possible so their "thrower" can hit the target word first.
this activity works really well for high energy classes and pronunciation.
enjoy!
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Winter Camp Ideas
Hi peoples,
Ideas from the winter camp:
- Pictionary, in which students have to draw an action that the others have to guess. I did this in class with differing levels of difficulty. First, simple words like 'dancing' or 'crying' and then more complex, like 'studying in my room', 'waiting for the bus'. I also added a round which was describe a movie in English, which the class has to guess. This has a lot of potential, but people cheated a lot in my class (mostly by using gestures). Remember to put the actions and movies on cards beforehand, to make it better.
- Twister. Marginally to do with English, but fun. We used cardboard to make the board, and cur up erasers for the dice (spinning wheel) but I'm going to go out and by some plastic for my class here, as cardboard gets dirty quickly.
- Putting emotion into sentences. Write three-four neutral sentences on the board, and explain what they mean. Write different emotions onto cards (e.g. happy, sad, excited, afraid). Students have to convey the emotions while their team guesses. This is quite embarrassing at the start, so do a few yourself, and help them get into it.
- Who am I? - Tape signs to the back of each participant, that state a famous identity. Students have to ask questions like 'am I an actor', 'Am I old' to work out who they are. It may work better with groups of ten than whole class sizes.
Karaoke - massive hit. Here are the karoake files to download: http://www.4shared.com/dir/VPeuYChm/Karaoke.html
Jeapardy - not as much of a hit, but it looks cool, and the questions can be easilt modified. Check it out. - Download here: Download Art Jeopardy 1.ppt for free on uploading.com
Music Challenge - they have to guess the song, and for more points, sing the song. Your music - savvy students will run away with this one, but it's pretty fun, and easily adaptible. Download here: http://www.4shared.com/dir/WAdQJ8Ci/Music_Challenge.html
Ideas from the winter camp:
- Pictionary, in which students have to draw an action that the others have to guess. I did this in class with differing levels of difficulty. First, simple words like 'dancing' or 'crying' and then more complex, like 'studying in my room', 'waiting for the bus'. I also added a round which was describe a movie in English, which the class has to guess. This has a lot of potential, but people cheated a lot in my class (mostly by using gestures). Remember to put the actions and movies on cards beforehand, to make it better.
- Twister. Marginally to do with English, but fun. We used cardboard to make the board, and cur up erasers for the dice (spinning wheel) but I'm going to go out and by some plastic for my class here, as cardboard gets dirty quickly.
- Putting emotion into sentences. Write three-four neutral sentences on the board, and explain what they mean. Write different emotions onto cards (e.g. happy, sad, excited, afraid). Students have to convey the emotions while their team guesses. This is quite embarrassing at the start, so do a few yourself, and help them get into it.
- Who am I? - Tape signs to the back of each participant, that state a famous identity. Students have to ask questions like 'am I an actor', 'Am I old' to work out who they are. It may work better with groups of ten than whole class sizes.
Karaoke - massive hit. Here are the karoake files to download: http://www.4shared.com/dir/VPeuYChm/Karaoke.html
Jeapardy - not as much of a hit, but it looks cool, and the questions can be easilt modified. Check it out. - Download here: Download Art Jeopardy 1.ppt for free on uploading.com
Music Challenge - they have to guess the song, and for more points, sing the song. Your music - savvy students will run away with this one, but it's pretty fun, and easily adaptible. Download here: http://www.4shared.com/dir/WAdQJ8Ci/Music_Challenge.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)