interactive and playful activities-10

8/12/2019 Interactive and Playful Activities-10

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Yarn Web

Teaching Materials

A colorful yarn ball

Getting Ready

1. Prepare a basket with different colored yarn balls. Put it on your desk tocall students attention.

2. Decide on a color as a group and hold that colored ball while you aregiving instructions.

3. Arrange your classroom to leave enough space to form a circle on thefloor and ask them to sit criss cross apple sauce .

Instructions for Students

1. (Talking to one student) Hold this yarn ball with one hand and its loosestring with the other hand.

3. Introduce yourself. Say your name, age and place of origin.

4. Once you are done, throw the yarn ball at another student without

letting the loose string go.5. Keep on sharing until you all make a yarn web.

Suggestions

1. I would suggest working with naturally dyed yarn balls to remindstudents of the richness of indigenous cultures and the power of nature.

2. Using different dyed colored yarn balls can help you reinforce contentsrelated to colors, fruits and plants.

3. Once your students have formed their web, you can also review othercontents such as shapes. Students will quickly find triangles, squares,diamonds and others.

4. While wrapping the yarn around your fingers at the end of the activity, you can say sequential contents out loud, for example, the alphabet,numbers, days of the week or months of the year. Try to do it fast!


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5. Challenge your students to guess what letter, number, day or monthwill be reached when the yarn is over. Students will feel motivated to hearthe final result and check if their guess was right.

6. If students are already seated in a circle, they can still carry out the

activity while sitting at their desks or they can stand up if the floor is toocold or dirty. They can also ask them to bring a cushion or a blanket.

7. Try to remember your students personal information. This way, you canuse it at the end of the activity for asking students to go back to their seatsas a classroom management strategy.

Source: Recommended by Elementary School teachers from InstitutoTecnolgico del Sur, Valdivia, Chile.

when students are taught using techniques consistent with their learningstyles, they learn more easily, faster, and can retain and apply conceptsmore readily to future learning. Most students, with a disability or not, enjoythe engaging variety that multisensory techniques can offer (Logsdon, 2007,

para. 4).

DRAWING

Students Comments:

Me gust caleta. Ojal que se repita. Me encant.

Muriel

Muy linda la actividad. Se pas bien. Ojal que se repita porque hicimosalgo nuevo .

Jacqueline

7mo bsicoEscuela N 39 Las AnimasValdivia, Chile, 2011


3/21

Hot Potato

Teaching Materials

Any musical device (radio, mp3 player, etc), music, ball.

Getting Ready

1. Enter the class with your magic bag containing a ball inside. Pretendverbal and non-verbally that you feel uncomfortable with it.

2. Have your students guess what you have inside. Encourage them to sayas many words as possible. You can give them some clues. E.g . it is small,round, soft, etc

3. Once students have guessed the object is a ball, tell them that it isreally hot and that you can get burnt if you dont pass it around.


1. Stand up.

2. Lets pretend this ball is a hot potato.

3. Remember that since the ball is hot, you can burn your hands. That is

why you must pass or throw the ball quickly at another classmate while tj

he music is playing.

4. If you have the ball when the music stops, try to answer the teachersquestion.

Suggestions

1. The ball should be soft and medium sized.

2. The music should be of the students interest.

3. Depending on the physical space and students behavior, classroomarrangement can vary (in their seats, in a circle, in a line, etc.)

4. If you dont have a ball, you can play with a teddy bear, a ball of yarn,crumpled paper, among other teaching materials.


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5. Make sure that different students have a turn so that you can assess asmany as possible.

6. If your students would like to compete, you can gently ask students whocannot answer or recognize pictures to sit.

Source: FLES Teachers (2004-2007), Loudoun County Public Schools,Virginia, USA.

Suspense and surprise are acting skills that can contribute directly toimproved classroom management. (Tauber & Mester, 2007, p.157)

DRAWING

Students Comments:

Este juego es muy divertido y lo pas muy bien. Catalina

Me gust mucho el juego de la ball porque me ense muchas cosas eningls.

Anibal

2ndo bsicoInmaculada ConcepcinValdivia, Chile, 2011


5/21

7-up

Teaching Materials

Flashcards

Getting Ready

1. Ask seven students to stand in front of the class and give them aflashcard.

2. Replace the name of the seven students chosen with a name of aflashcard. Encourage the rest of the class to greet them by using their newnames.

3. Tell them that they will each have to pick only one classmate by puttinghis or her thumb down and then come back to the front of the classwithout telling or showing others who they have chosen.


1. Put your head down; close your eyes and put one thumb up.

2. Wait until your teacher asks you to raise your head.

3. Stand up if someone put your thumb down.

4. Take turns and guess who picked you by saying the name of theflashcard, not the name of the students.

5. If your guess is correct, you trade places. If your guess is incorrect, yousit down.

Suggestions

1. In case your class is too noisy, this game is perfect for calming yourstudents down. You can even turn the lights off to give the classroom aquiet atmosphere.

2. Teach your students not to fold or wrinkle flashcards when they standin front of the class. Students usually tend to do so when they feel excitedor nervous.


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3. Make sure that different people have a turn by advising your students topick different classmates, or by encouraging them to be good friends andshare flashcards with those who havent had a turn.

4. You can use flashcards with images and/or words.

5. Instructions are not easy to understand at first. Make sure the first time you use lots of body language.


One of the popular methods for quick fact learning is the use of flashcards. (Marten, 2008, p. 1)

Estuvo muy entretenido y es una bonita forma de aprender y reforzar lo que sabemos.

Mariana

5th gradeEscuela AlemaniaValdivia, Chile, 2011

I liked the activity because I think its very good to learn more vocabulary Valentina

2 nd gradeMeadowland Elementary School.Sterling, VA, USA, 2007


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The Magic Finger

Teaching Materials

Flashcards, magic accessories (magic wand, rattle, music, etc.)

Getting Ready

1. Have flashcards ready on the board.

2. Pretend you are a magician and give power to your students through anabracadabra magical spell that goes this way: Abracadabra, please look atme, you can be powerful, yippee, yippee!!

3. Ask for a volunteer and call him/her the magician apprentice. Tell thestudent he/she will have to guess a flashcard that they will pick.

4. Ask the student to leave the classroom for a couple of minutes.

5. Tell the class, that while you are outside with the apprentice, they willneed to pick one of the flashcards and keep it as a secret.

6. Leave the room and share the magic trick with the apprentice:If the finger is pointing at the top of the flashcard, he/she is supposed to

say: Yes, it is . If the finger is pointing at the bottom of the flashcard,

he/she should reply: No, it isnt .

Tell the apprentice student to keep the magic trick a secret.

7. Now, return to your classroom and quietly ask the students to tell youwhat flashcard they have chosen.

8. Call the magician apprentice in.

Instructions for students

1. Ask the apprentice questions such as Is it an apple ?2. (Talking to the apprentice) Answer Yes, it is or No, it isnt .

3. We will continue playing until you guess the magic trick.

Suggestions


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1. Promote an atmosphere of suspense and surprise by using a magicwand to give power to the magician apprentice, by using a rattle or byplaying sounds; that will keep children focused and highly motivatedtrying to figure out what the magic could be about.

2. When leaving the room, leave a responsible student in charge of leadingthe classroom to select the flashcard and its corresponding word. Sharingpower with students is highly recommended for students to becomeindependent learners.

3. As a classroom management strategy, encourage them to keep quiet sothat the student who is outside cannot hear any sounds.

4. Stop the game when most of them have understood the magic. Avoidhaving just a few people puzzled and surprised to avoid frustration. In that

case, it is much better to share the trick.

5. Remind students who know the magic to keep the secret so that you cancontinue playing the game with the same or a different class.


DRAWING

when students are taught using techniques consistent with their learning

styles, they learn more easily, faster, and can retain and apply conceptsmore readily to future learning. Most students, with a disability or not, enjoythe engaging variety that multisensory techniques can offer (Logsdon, 2007,

para. 4).

Aprend, fue un juego bastante divertido y mgico. Lo mgico fue queaprendimos mucho .

Consuelo

Fue muy genial y uno puede aprender a hacer preguntas y respuestascortas .

David6th gradeInmaculada Concepcin, Valdivia, Chile.


9/21

Fly Swatting

Teaching Materials

Flashcards, Tak, Fly Swatters,

Getting Ready

1. Show your flyswatters to your students. The first time you introducethem to your students; they will certainly feel very curious and will payattention to you till they get to know what they are for.

2. Ask for two volunteers.

3. Place a few flashcards on the board.Instructions for Students

1. After hearing a word, swat the appropriate flashcard and say the wordout loud.

2. If you are the first one to identify the flashcard in a correct way, you cancontinue playing with another classmate.

Suggestions

1. You can place small laminated paper flies on the pictures to make theactivity more real and more entertaining. However, if this can causeviolent reactions among your students, just avoid placing them on theflashcards. In such a case, do not use fly swatters. You can find otheroptions such as hand pointers. You can also look for flyswatters ofdifferent shapes.

2. Fly swatters can have different colors to make a clear difference betweenteams and to reinforce knowledge on colors.

3. Always remind students flyswatters cannot be used to hit otherstudents but flashcards on the board.

4. You can also form two groups and have your students compete againsteach other.


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5. This is an excellent listening activity! However, you can also encourage your students to produce words when they swat the pictures. Otherstudents can also help say the words.

6. Depending on the level of English, you can also play with dialogue

exchanges or definitions.

7. Students love to compete against the teacher!

Source: FLES Teachers (2004-2007), Loudon County Public Schools,Valdivia, Chile.

Everywhere on earth in all languages throughout history, there is noinstance of infants acquiring speaking before comprehension (Segal, 2006,

p. 7).

DRAWING

We loved your teaching

Austin4th GraderMeadowland Elementary SchoolSterling, VA, USA, 2007

Lo encontr entretenido y una buena tcnica para aprender sin aburrirse

Catalina6th gradeInmaculada ConcepcinValdivia, Chile, 2011.


11/21

The Telephone

Teaching Materials

Flashcards, small paper cards

Getting Ready

1. Cut two sets of ten small rectangular pieces of paper.

2. On one side, write a word, a phrase or a sentence depending on yourlesson objectives and on the other side, write a number. Write exactly thesame content on both sets of cards.

3. Prepare a set of flashcards that stand for the messages on the pieces ofpaper.

4. Introduce your flashcards.

5. Ask students to form two groups, to stand up and organize their chairsin two rows.

6. Place two sets of small paper cards at the end of the rows and tellstudents that only the last person of each row is authorized to look at thecards. Numbers should be placed face up.


1. (Only for the last person of each row) Look for number 8. Once youhave read the information in silence, whisper it ONLY in your classmatesear. You are not allowed to stand up and share the information withothers!

2. The information must be shared in English. Not in Spanish.

3. The first student of each team, who receives the message, can stand up

and try to share it by pointing to the correct flashcard. If he/she says thecorrect answer, he/she will score a point for their team.

4. When the round is over, everybody stands up and moves one spotforward. The people in front of each row will have to move to the back.


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Suggestions

1. Always tell your class that the information must be given only to thestudent who is just in front of him/her. Normally, it takes a long time forstudents to understand this instruction.

2. In case none of the groups is able to provide the informationappropriately (which is absolutely normal during, at least, the first tworounds), ask students to start sharing the message from the verybeginning.

3. Play this game with flashcards and/or mimicry to make messages morecomprehensible, to help students to feel more confident and thus, ensurehigh levels of motivation.

4. An interesting cross-curricular objective to be met through this activityis to trespass information in an appropriate way to ensure an efficientprocess of communication.

5. If you realize your academic expectations have been too high, quicklychange and/or reduce the information on the cards. For example, I amswimming can become swimming .

6. Avoid students who know the language better to pressure students whoneed more time to think and act! It happens that students get reallyexcited about winning and start forcing others to perform faster.


The higher the level of interest, the higher the intake, the higher theattention, the higher the retention, and thus; the higher the acquisition(Hastings, 2005).

DRAWING

Aprendimos hartas cosas. Jugamos y nos divertimos mucho, como nunca, fue como un ingls entretenido

Abigail6to bsico.Escuela Mexico, Valdivia, Chile.


13/21

I think that it is a very funny game to practice the contents... I like it verymuch, the game is very exciting and it is very good to know better your

friends and to have a time to laugh

Valentina

8vo bsicoWindsor School, Valdivia, Chile.


14/21

Bingo!

Teaching Materials

Boards, Chips.

Getting Ready

1. Print or create your bingo cards and chips.

2. Distribute flashcards and ask for helpers.

3. In order to share the power with your students, ask students what kindof game they would like to play in their first, second and third round:black-out, top row, bottom row and/or four corners, among otherpossibilities.


1. Place your chip bags on the desk.

2. (As an example) Listen to the letters I say and look for them in yourboards. If you happen to have the letter, place a chip on it.

3. When the board has been completed, say BINGO and share theinformation with the teacher so as to prove your answers are right.

Suggestions

1. Distributing chips in big classes could take a long time and could,therefore, impede the teacher to have a full control of the whole group.

That is why, a good option is to ask your students to make their own chipsat home, bring them in a small plastic bag and keep them under the desk.Plenty of time will be saved!

2. Since children are usually interested in manipulating small objects, theycould eat them, throw them, or intend to put them in their ears, aspossible examples. Paper chips are strongly suggested.

3. As a way to maintain your students alert and focused, you can allowthem to exchange cards before a new game starts. Students highly enjoythis kind of social interaction for they add a touch of suspense thatincreases their levels of interest.


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4. Pretend you are all participating in a real school Bingo event by asking,for example, students how many extra letters, numbers, months, etcthey need in order to win.

5. Since bingo game is related to being lucky, have a look at the boards

while playing. If a student feels frustrated because the information he/shehas not been called out, the teacher can discretely help him/her by callinghis/her needed letter or number out loud. From a pedagogical point ofview, this would be fair since you are avoiding frustration.


Communicative language teaching makes use of real-life situations thatnecessitate communication. The teacher sets a situation that students are

likely to encounter in real life (Galloway,1993, p. 1).

DRAWING

Si, es muy bueno y muy entretenido; uno aprende las palabras muy rpidocon juegos as

Sergio

Si, porque a los chicos les gusta jugar y as uno se entusiasma msteniendo ms aprendizaje

Franco8vo bsicoColegio Balmaceda, Futrono, Chile


16/21

Go for a Seat!

Teaching Materials

Chairs, small flashcards

Getting Ready

1. Depending on the number of students, prepare 4 to 5 sets of smallflashcards to be distributed among your students.

2. Arrange your classroom hopefully placing chairs in a circle.

2. Give each student one flashcard of each set at random.

3. Be ready to participate and sit when you first call out a word/phrase orsentence so that there is always one student standing.


1. When I name the word or picture in your flashcard, please stand up andchange seats.

2. Be ready for surprises.

Suggestions

1. When starting playing, do not tell students that you will also sit. Justperform the action and let them realize what will happen. This surpriseeffect will help you start the activity in a quiet way.

2. In order for students to know which seats are available to sit on andensure that there will always be a student standing up, you can ask themto place their schoolbag on the back of their chair.

3. If you do not want to change your classroom arrangement, you can ask

children to place the back of their chairs facing the desks. However, thecircle is a better option since it creates a reduced empty space in which you can control every single action.

4. You can also prepare sets of realia such as fruits or school objectsinstead of distributing flashcards. Thus, this activity will also benefittactile students and not only auditory, visual and kinesthetic ones!


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5. You can ask several students to stand up and change seats by callingmore than one word. Depending on your class behavior, you can also callall of the words. This option is an excellent way to end the activity, but youwould have to stay up and allow all students to find a seat.


If there is harmony between (a) the student (in terms of style and strategy preferences) and (b) the combination of instructional methodology andmaterials, then the student is likely to perform well, feel confident, andexperience low anxiety . (Oxford, 2003, p.2-3)

DRAWING

Me gust mucho y aprend mucho !

Natalia

Me gust porque era muy entretenido!

Michelle3ro bsicoEscuela Angachilla, Valdivia, Chile.


18/21

Lets Go Fishing!

Teaching Materials

10 different colored cardboard medium sized fish with numbers printed onthem and 2 hand-made fishing rods (2 rubber hooks, 2 pieces of nyloncord, velcro to be placed on the fish and on the rubber hook, and 2 woodensticks).

Getting Ready

1. Create and decorate your 10 fish and fishing rods.

2. Form your circle and have students sit criss-cross apple sauce.

3. Place your fish on the floor in the middle of the circle.

Instructions for students

1. Listen to the number I will say and look for it. The first one to fish theright number becomes the winner of the round and gets a point for his/herteam.

Suggestions

1. You can sit students differently but make sure all students can see whatis happening. If t hey cant see well, I can assure you they will try to seebetter by standing up, walking towards the board and/or pushing others.Fishing is definitely a very funny activity every student wants to be part of.

2. You can have different pictures on the cardboard fish depending on yourlesson goals. Having numbers is just an option.

3. Depending on your students age, level and interest, you also reviewother content areas such as additions.

4. You can bring a small plastic or paper pool to place fish inside andmake the activity seem even more real.

5. Encourage students not to move the fishing rod too much because thecord could keep on moving for a long time, making catching a fish verydifficult.

6. Always remind students fishing rods are not meant for hitting others.


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El milagro de la formacin a lo largo de la vida slo ser posible cuando lossistemas de aprendizaje se aproximen a la vida (Pastor, 2010; p. 27).

DRAWING

Muy divertido porque es fcil

Nicole

Es una manera divertida de aprender ingls

CatalinaKinderEscuela El LaurelValdivia, Chile, 2011


20/21

Four Corners

Teaching Materials

4 pieces of plastic bag, markers, 4 flashcards.

(Getting Ready)

1. Look for a big plastic bag and cut it into 4 equal pieces.

2. Place each piece of plastic in the four corners of your classroom. Youwont need any kind of glue. The plastic bag should remain stuck on thewall due to electrostatic principles; which will au tomatically help studentsto keep focused, interested and quiet.

3. Show students four flashcards with pictures.

4. Challenge them to find out what each card means or suggests. With amarker, write a different word on each plastic piece. Then, place theflashcard with the picture next to the piece of plastic with the written wordon it to provide students with comprehensible input.

5. Ask for a volunteer to come to the front of the class.

(Instructions for Students)

1. (Talking to the volunteer) Turn around towards the board, close youreyes and count up to 20.

2. (Talking to the rest of the students) While student X (your volunteer) iscounting, choose a corner and stay there. Make sure you walk quietly sothat the student who is counting cannot guess which corner you havechosen.

3) (Talking to the volunteer) Do not open your eyes. Choose a corner andsay it out loud.

4) (Talking to the rest of the students) If you are standing in the cornerstudent X has just named, please sit down.

5) Lets continue playing until we have a final survivor.

Suggestions


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1. Before children enter the classroom, try to place the pieces of plastic onthe wall to make sure the magic will work. It may happen that walls donot have enough static. In that case, I would recommend that you playwith flashcards only or bring the written words ready.

2. You can introduce vocabulary in many different ways depending on yourpersonal skills, preferences and students interests. However, the use ofmagic is highly recommended because it can have a positive impact onstudents motivation and attitudes towards the EFL lesson.

3. Many students will raise their hands to count after the first round. Iwould, therefore, suggest that you pick one of the students who has lostand is sitting down. This decision will help you to keep all students activeand happy.

4. Tell students that they can change their minds while choosing theircorner. However, make sure they understand that when student X hasfinished counting, everybody should be in one of the corners. If your classis too noisy, you can tell your students that if they do not have a definitecorner when student X is ready, they will be out of the game.

5. Instead of counting, student X can also say any sequential contentsuch as the days of the week, the months of the year or the ABCs. Makesure students speak slowly so that other kids have enough time to move.


Teaching no longer means imposing information from the outside but gettinginside the experience of the learner . (Ferguson, 1990, p. 115)

DRAWING

Entretenido y podemos aprender con un juego creativo

Nelson

Me pareci muy buena forma de jugar y as se puede aprender muchoingls. Es una divertida forma de aprender. Very good!

Kimberly

Escuela Angachilla5th gradeValdivia, Chile, 2011

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