The main criteria to the activities

•The activities mustn’t be too complicated, they can be easily explained to children and needn’t much equipment or extra-space. •They must address different learning preferences, each young learner is unique and the teacher must find the combination of strategies that suits them best. •They must be developed to provide practice in all the four language skills - listening, speaking, reading and writing, but a good balance of the skills must be considered. •The activities must be motivating, interesting to children and meet their needs. •The activities’ vocabulary and grammar contents can be transfered to the teaching process needs if desired, while the body or main idea of the activity must be left without changes. We under- stand that some activities can be fulfilled only with YL or pre- teens, but we have done our best in thinking about this possibility. •The activities should have been tried at the lessons before (not obligatory), because the teachers’ experience is appreciate contri- bution to discuss the activity.

Most the activities we thought about refer to interactive technology, which we think is the best way to teach a foreign language not only

English to different aged children. The interaction supposes that all the children are involved into the teaching process, there is a

strong motivation to communicate and cooperate, there is a variety of interactive activities to suit every visual, auditory and

kinaesthetic learner, the activities can teach communicative skills and meet different

vocabulary and grammar.

The activities which make our assignment have been arranged in separate posts, so you can reply any and give your own opinion on them. We would be grateful for any remark

from you. Thank you in advance.

Introduction: It can be used for all VAK learners.

The vocabulary (grammar) can be changed if desired. There is a possibility of using this activity for different age groups. The material you need is vocabulary (grammar) flashcards.

Activity

1. The children sit at their desks. They pass the cards quickly to each other. All the flashcards are face down and some music is played.

2. The teacher stops the music. The children turn up the flashcards they are holding and look at them. If they know the word on the flashcard they jump up in turn, call out the word and clap. Then they sit down again. If they don't know the word they have to stay seated.

3. Extra-idea If not separate words, but grammar structures are practiced, the next task can be given, for example: make up the sentences or ask questions with the words on the flashcards.

Learners reaction

As my learners like any game with flashcards they get interested at the very beginning. They try to do their best in listening to others and be very attentive during this activity as they don’t know what flashcard they can get. Also they like doing the activity with music because it makes the activity more effective as young children like music at the lesson a lot. All children are involved into the process and they usually ask for more.

Reflection

It’s a good way to learn, to practice or to check new vocabulary , developing listening and speaking skills. This activity can also be used for developing reading and writing skills: children can write their own additional words to the unfinished sentences on the flashcards they get. You can use this activity with different age groups (practice the words with beginners or ask to make the sentence/questions while working with elementary). The possible problems the teacher can face are the noise and weak /shy students. In the first case the teacher should set rules against making too much noise such as penalty points. The second problem is much worse but can be solved this way. If you have a few weaker children in the class you could do a second round where they will perform the role of a teacher showing their cards and asking the class to tell them the words, then everyone jumps up and calls out the word together. That way they will feel the part of the class and very significant in their roles.

This activity meet auditory and kinaesthetic learners more than visual ones, but if flashcards are used instead of objects, the visual learners will have an additional helpful hand. The required materials are a schoolbag, a set of school belongings ( if you need to practice another vocabulary, use flashcards and a big box). This activity is highly motivating as it has the competitive element.

Activity1. Show the objects to students and ask them repeat the

words in chorus.2. Pack the bag yourself naming each object you put it

loudly.3. Ask students to make a line.4. The students have to unpack or pack the bag calling out

the names of all the objects (The first student in the line has to unpack the bag, naming all the objects loudly. The next student in the line has to pack it and so on up to the end of the line).

5. The teacher marks the time spent by every student and scores it in the blackboard.

6. The winner is the one who is the quickest to name all the objects correctly and put them in the bag or take them out of the bag.

7. Extra-idea The activity can be used to practice such grammar structures as I have/ I don’t have…in my bag or even more serious grammar as Present Continuous and Present Perfect or as the contradiction between them.

Learners reaction

Children like playing this game. They picked up the vocabulary easily while playing. During the activity the speaking and listening skills have been improved. As the activity addresses all three styles of learners all students are involved. The kinaesthetic learners have pleasure of moving around the class, touch the cards or objects. The visual learners see the cards and work with them. The auditory learners can name all objects orally. The atmosphere is friendly. We played this game several times and the children didn't get bored and asked for it again. It helped them to practice and review vocabulary.

Reflection

The teacher can change the rules of this game and sometimes use cards with pictures instead of objects. It is possible to adapt this activity for different levels of the students. The teacher can choose different topics with different vocabulary. If the topic ''House'' is taught the teacher can give some cards with pictures of different rooms and the task is to name as many words related to the word ''living room'' as possible.It is possible to change this activity every time to make it fresh and entertaining. We can play this game individually in front of the class or dividing the class into two teams.

Introduction: This activity because it has

the contact, visual, conversation and artistic abilities. During this activity students are allowed to move around the classroom, which is very good for kinaesthetic learners, they communicate to each other (ask and answer).

Activity

Prepare some simple fruit and vegetable puzzles. Mount each picture of the fruit or vegetables on a cardboard or an index card and cut the card into 2 or more pieces no more than 4. Do not cut the card until you know how many students will be in a group. There must be exactly one piece per student, and each piece should have a matching piece or pieces to complete the picture. Mix the pieces together in a hat or bag.

2. Review the vocabulary and grammar structures. For ex. I have a (red, yellow, green) fruit or I have a (red, yellow, green) vegetable.

3. Each student draws one piece out of the bag. They must not allow anyone to see their puzzle pieces. Then they look for their partners or teammates by walking around the classroom using the above sentence pattern said aloud, substituting the appropriate colour and either fruit or vegetable.

4. The teacher must walk around the room to listen to the students who are only speaking English, not their native language and help them communicate. Winners can be the first ones to complete their puzzles.

The fact that the game is of interest to the children, enables them to express themselves in

a very interesting activity way. They learn to work as a team this leads to more rapid and robust memorizing of the foreign words and

sentences. In the game there is a natural need to communicate with each other it is a competitive game which brings out the desire to win. When they are coached it mobilizes their memory. I use games because games aid learning and in addition they develop the child’s observation skills. It brings life to the lesson and increases the student’s interest to the foreign language.

Learners reaction

Reflection

Although the goal of the activity is to improve listening and speaking skills it can be easily adopted to develop writing and reading ones. The students can write the words on the cards, then cut them into pieces and work on this material, reading the whole words at the end of the activity. This activity can be adapted again by changing the cards to other subjects and choose different topics with different vocabulary. Their pronunciation of the English words is improved by the teacher joining each group and instructing them correctly once one child from the group is pronouncing the words correctly the other students quickly copy them. The teacher should control properly the group and individual work because working in a group can cause the noise and miscorrect pronunciation. It would be better if there will be a leader in every group to help the teacher

Vegetable puzzle (sample)

IntroductionThis activity to practice both

vocabulary and practice. Besides this activity develops imagination and language skills such as speaking, listening, writing. It can be used for different age groups from elementary to pre-intermediate. The material you need is a piece of chalk and a blackboard.

Activity

1. The teacher starts drawing something on the board, the students try to guess what it is. (They begin asking questions with : Is it a…..? The teacher answers Yes/No, it isn’t)

2. If somebody succeeds he has a chance to finish the drawing on the blackboard and write the word to the drawing.

3. Then the student is asked to draw something, others guess.

4. Extra-idea We can also write the sentence with the certain grammar beginning with just one word. the students actions are the same. For ex.: I.... /I h......./ I ha.....(there are thousands of possible answers, so students may ask thousands possible questions)

Learners reaction

As the activity has an intrigue the students feel interest from the very beginning. They don't really know what the teacher is going to draw and make their prediction which are usually fun as I try to elicit as many answers as I can. For each drawing all the students manage to give their answers. It is a big joy to watch how "a ball" at the beginning can transform into "an elephant" at the end. They like drawing on the blackboard and try to do their best both in imagining and speaking. The students at the blackboard are very active in answering "No, it isn't", while the others in turn practice "Is it...?". They treat the task writing the word to the picture as the prize given to the wittest. It is difficult to stop doing the activity because even those who have drawn already want to practice more.

Reflection

This activity can be used as both warming-up and practice for listening, speaking, writing and

reading (if the students are asked to read the words at the end). It meets every learners' type

needs as it has a visual background (drawing and students imagination), speaking classmates (tone and intonation), movements and drawing on the

blackboard. It can also be adapted for pre-teens or teens if the teacher writes the unfinished

sentences with the certain grammar beginning with just one word. In this case students are to make

predictions about the whole sentence or situation. The teacher should control the accuracy of the

students' questions and pay attention to the order to have every student involved. This activity can also help students to feel a team spirit as they

work together to find the correct answer.

IntroductionIt can be used either as warm-up or

relaxation activity, but it can also develop or improve certain language skills. The material you need is a piece of chalk and a blackboard.

Activity

1. On the board there's a ''building'' with letter ''a'' in the middle column.

2. The students come to the board in turn and add consonants in the vacant ''windows''.

3. Then the students read them and translate them.

4. Extra-idea this activity can be played between two teams. The winner is the team which members write more words.

Learners reaction

The children like doing this activity. They do their best to be the winners. They like the relaxing atmosphere, the motivation that

game brings to the classroom. This is because students have a chance to use their

imagination and creativity during the activity, they are motivated to learn. They express their satisfaction after games and many of them want to play more, as they

say that games are fun and helpful for their learning.

Reflection Children usually dislike learning vocabulary, but

learning vocabulary through games is an effective and interesting way that can be applied in any classrooms. This activity isn't only for fun, but it helps to improve learners' writing and reading skills. Besides it can help in speaking and listening, as the students name the words before writing them on the blackboard. This activity also gives the chance to work in a team, to feel the member of a team. It can be played for any age group and can have additional tasks such as making sentences, asking the questions or writing a story with the written words. For pre-teens the vocabulary can be narrowed to the one part of speech or grammar form. Vocabulary is usually believed to be rather boring than enjoyable, but this activity is motivating students to learn the words, as it demands good knowledge on a topic.