English Sensei Spirit: Bag of Tricks
There are quite a few games in my bag of tricks, but here are a few of the most successful. . .
PICTIONARY (on the chalkboard) always works, for every age, for whatever words they know. CHARADES, same deal. Both of these also help them get over their shyness issues, so it’s great. I often combine them, so if they’re not so great at drawing, they can mime it, and vice versa. A lot of students also love the opportunity to show off their skills and comedic side. I’ve made a bag of vocab words for the students just in case I need a quick game, but you can also do it on the fly.
FRUIT BOWL also works for every age group. You can change it up to be easy or difficult, focus on vocab or grammar, or whatever you need for the day. You probably know this game, maybe by another name, but I think it’s pretty popular. . . For 1st and 2nd grade elementary, I had them say “I like BANANA!” and if any student liked banana, they had to stand up and run to another seat. One seat less than the number of students, and the one left standing in the middle says the next sentence. In middle school, I had them say something like “The girl who rides a bike to school,” and that way they were focusing on grammar. Both were great.
It usually takes some prep time, but KARUTA works for every age as well. You probably heard about it, but if not, you just have sets of cards (vocab words, days of the week, animals, etc. –these can be words on the card, or pictures of the things), and students sit in small groups, put their hands on their heads (I also use this part as a body part review, changing it up from head to elbow to shoulders, whatever), then you yell out a word, and the first to tap the card keeps it. Person with the most cards at the end wins. It’s best used for vocab in the elementary school, but it’s good.
Also a good body parts review is SIMON SAYS, which you don’t need any preparation for.
BINGO is awesome, and they especially love it when you let them draw little pictures in the spaces on their own. It also takes up a little more time, if you need. In my experience, they tend to calm down and focus when they draw.
I’ve played the TELEPHONE GAME with students from 4th grade up to 9th and it is usually pretty good. From 6th to 9th grade, I like to just whisper letters, which always throws them off a bit (R instead of I!?). Then, I have the last person in the line write the letters on the chalkboard. You can use just small vocab words or whole sentences. If you use just vocab, you can have the last person draw a picture of it on the chalkboard.
In Kindergarten, I play a game cleverly called CIRCLE GAME where I have things in a circle (like colors). I stand in the middle, close my eyes and they all run to a random spot. I yell out a thing, color, whatever, and if they are on it, they have to come to the center and sit. The game goes on until one is left, and they win. I have the older student winners then take my place in the center, as it helps them try to memorize the vocab and speak independently of the others.
Another easy fun one is COLOR search, where I yell out a color and they go find it somewhere in the room. It gets them out of their seat and moving around which is IMPORTANT for little ones. Good times, works like a charm.
When my little 1st and 2nd graders are learning vocab, I have them play a simple RACING game with the flash cards. Everyone line up (2 lines) and the first two in each line have to race to see who can say what’s on the card the fastest. If they are first, they can stay in the lines, go to the back, and the loser sits down. Last one standing is the champ. They love it and I pretty much do nothing but hold up a card quickly. I made it more advanced once they got better at the vocab by holding up 2 cards and having them say x AND x (ex: tiger AND pineapple). Somehow it never gets old for them. . .
I hope something in this list proves useful for you! You’ll learn what does and doesn’t work pretty quickly just by trying it.
~Stephanie Stoner
ALT, Yasuda-cho, Kochi-ken
