[Cary Dillen]

One of the activities I usually use for spelling warm ups, past tense verbs, or anything to do with words is to have a pile of the alphabet letters cut outs. I add several more vowels and the other letters that are double used in a word. Each group gets a pile of these letters.
You can divide the class into how many groups you want, even by ones. You say the word you want them to spell and the first group to finish spelling the word shouts "stop".,if its not correctly spelled, they continue until a group gets it. The students really learn and enjoy it.I´ve used it from 3rd graders on to highschool.
you can add several "rules " to this activity . for ex: if the children are loud, you can tell them to whisper, if not, they loose 1 point, and so on.
I Hope it helps!
Cary

[cabst90]

I don't think that anyone mentioned this, but it is great for large groups of children. The game is called zoo keeper (as far as I know); it is a tag game. Split the class into two halfs (not teams though). Each team lines up shoulder to shoulder facing the other team. "It" is in the middle. Tell all of the students to think of an animal but not to tell anyone. "It" will then ask questions about animals, for example "Does your animal have fur? Can your animal fly?" Anyone who answers "yes" to the question must run to the other side while "it" chases them. The people who are caught must stay where they were caught. They can now tag others, but only by moving their arms.

I have adapted this to practice can, various uses of have, animals, food, clothes (if your students don't wear uniforms), past tense (did you do homework last night), etc.

[dearscotty]

Quote Eric

I'm struggling with the same thing. I have one idea that I am going to try today and I'll let you know how it goes.

Name: Back to the Board
Materials: None
Useful For: Reviewing vocabulary and producing short structures

basically divide the class into 2-3 teams. one person from each team comes to the front of the class and sit with their backs facing the board. then you write the vocab/stucture you want them to say on the board. then the teams try to get their team member to say the word on the board.

it activates everyone and is exciting. i've played it with smaller, unenthusiastic classes and they went crazy. now to test it on some older students.

other than survey style exercises i don't have any more ideas.

if you use this activity, let us know how it goes.

eric

Do you write one word on the board, or a word for each team? If there is one word that the teams share, then I assume a player might pick up on other clues from the other team. I'm also guessing that it's easier to come up with just one word or target for everyone. Let me know how you do it. thanks!

[Eric]

Quote dearscotty

Do you write one word on the board, or a word for each team? If there is one word that the teams share, then I assume a player might pick up on other clues from the other team. I'm also guessing that it's easier to come up with just one word or target for everyone. Let me know how you do it. thanks!

i guess that wasn't too clear. you just write one word on the board and both teams compete to get the same word. yes, a team ends up giving the opposing team clues. that way it's still a group effort (the whole class is yelling clues).

i've never played with 2 different words on the board but i imagine it might be cool, too.

if you play with 2 words, let me know how it goes.

later
eric

[dearscotty]

I had four first year middle school classes today. The JTE told me to create a game plan geared to review "be" verbs. For the first round I tried out the soccer game listed at MES-english.com. That game worked pretty well, I printed the game board and created two sets of cards; one set had pronouns, the 2nd set had adjectives and some were article plus noun. The students had to link the two cards together using is, am, or are. The kids had a great time with it, especially when I threw question mark cards in so kids had the opportunity to read "??" : "ugly" as "Scott is ugly".

After that lost its steam, I tried the 'no look' activity. In the first three classes students raised their hands to give the clues to the students at the front. It was pretty organized, and at first I thought this way was great because the kids' English levels weren't that great. It was nice clean fun, but maybe too easy and simple.

For the last class I told the JTE to allow all the students who are sitting to shout hints to their teammate standing at the front. This proved to be quite fun for the kids as we played the "last" round about 5 times. I was also able to tie this game into the soccer game because nobody scored a goal in the soccer game. So, the no look game became the Penalty Kick portion.

Fun was had, thanks for the tips!

[Motivated]

'How did your parents meet?' is always an interesting activity for 5th-11th grades. Simple as asking each student in turn this question then asking different follow up questions - 3 or 4 questions for each student. Then just correct their verbal answers. The nice lil bonus for me is that students are usually quite interested in hearing stories about their classmates and will usually pay attention!

Another lil ripper is Strange Facts: True or False. Write up a list of say 15 statements (just on your own paper). Get each student to write True/False for each statement on a piece of paper as you read them aloud.

some examples:
US president George Washington had a dog named Drunkard. TRUE

On average, there are 333 sheets on a roll of toilet paper. TRUE

The kids always get a great laugh, and the teaching lies in the explanation of vocabulary. Going through each question for marking is the best part, with all the kids yelling TRUE! FALSE!There are numerous websites where you can find all sorts of bizarre facts, just make sure you make roughly half true and half false. I usually give a prize for the winner, snickers bars work well

[DaveESL]

I'm currently teaching large groups (50 or so) of college students, and I've had a lot of luck with roleplays. I pre-teach some of the grammar patterns they will need (making requests, etc.) and we brainstorm some content ideas (a list of requests one might make in a hotel, etc.) and then I give them about 10 minutes to do a roleplay with their partner.

Afterwards, I ask for volunteers to show the roleplay to the class and I write down grammar / vocabulary points that I think are relevant. For me so far, it's worked better than group discussions. I'm interested in trying some of the games mentioned here, though, especially the one Eric suggested about groups writing the questions for answers given by the teacher.

Take care,
Dave

ESL etc. - Bringing global issues and activism into language teaching.

[WendHong]

Quote Eric

I'm struggling with the same thing. I have one idea that I am going to try today and I'll let you know how it goes.

Name: Back to the Board
Materials: None
Useful For: Reviewing vocabulary and producing short structures

basically divide the class into 2-3 teams. one person from each team comes to the front of the class and sit with their backs facing the board. then you write the vocab/stucture you want them to say on the board. then the teams try to get their team member to say the word on the board.

it activates everyone and is exciting. i've played it with smaller, unenthusiastic classes and they went crazy. now to test it on some older students.

other than survey style exercises i don't have any more ideas.

if you use this activity, let us know how it goes.

eric

Eric,
I think this game is fun, but could you explain it in details.Give me some examples. Thanks!

[koots]

Quote WendHong

Eric,
I think this game is fun, but could you explain it in details.Give me some examples. Thanks!

I play a version of this game with my middle schoolers too. It's very simple. My class is divided into 6 teams of 6. I place two chairs in front of the white board. I ask for two student to come to the front and sit down in front of the whiteboard. I write a word/phrase/sentence on the board, for example, "I'd like a cheeseburger please."

Students then have to give the two students, who are sitting, hints. For example, "You say this at Mcdonalds." And, "It's about food" and so forth. The first student to guess correctly what is written on the board is the winner and gets to stay for the next round.

[EngliPatrick]

uummm...I hate to bounce people off to another site, but there was an article on this at Dave'sESL. And No, I'm not Dave and I don't advertise for him.

Teacher Discussion Forums :: View topic - Some Advice on Large Classes

[Eric18]

Thank you for sharing so many good ideas. Personally, I just found the huge classes a nightmare. Breaking students into smaller groups, and assigning the more advanced students as group leader helped. Sometimes I also held vocabulary contests between "teams". Write down 25 pairs of opposites. Find 10 words starting with the prefix "dis". Then have students write the answers on the board. You can give points for quality or speed. The basic point is to make the students work together, share their knowledge, and teach each other. You circle around, share tips, and monitor progress.

You can also, as previously mentioned, have them complete surveys.

[srcnsnmz]

Quote erinjk

I have the book "101 Word Games" and have not had much use for it. I've went through the book a few times for different ideas or have tried to think of variations for larger classes, but usually there is not enough time to play the games in the class since they are quite large.

it is a very good book I used before
you can adapt the games according to your objective
the games include very enjoyable ideas which they can be improved.
love from TuRkEy

[MichiganKc]

Eric,
I used your Back to the Board activity in my Japanese elementary schools. They were learning classroom vocabulary (pencil, eraser, blackboard, etc..) and "Whats this?" The students had a lot of fun with it. They used a lot of gestures rather than English though which gave me the idea of making word webs for the target language. Hopefully it will help build up their vocabulary. Thanks again for the idea.

[Eric]

Quote MichiganKc

Eric,
I used your Back to the Board activity in my Japanese elementary schools. They were learning classroom vocabulary (pencil, eraser, blackboard, etc..) and "Whats this?" The students had a lot of fun with it. They used a lot of gestures rather than English though which gave me the idea of making word webs for the target language. Hopefully it will help build up their vocabulary. Thanks again for the idea.

That's Great! Thanks for posting your experience.

[bread_baker]

I teach adults ESL, and I like to divide the class into groups of 4. Then they can play board games or card games. 4 is a great size for groups. If the groups are larger, people don't stay focused and they start talking in native languages. ESL Lounge has some board games.

[shauna_brooke77]

I dont sorry look for some one else.