Practical Activities
Songs
The use of songs, rhymes and chants is a great and very essential way to make younger learners’ classes fun, and at the same time for the students to learn. There are some excellent ‘catchy’songs that come with the books that specifically help teach and recycle the book’s target language, and there are some great songs and videos such as those on Super Simple Songs that help engage the students (a selection of which can be found in the young learner section in Active’s resource sharing box). These songs and videos can be used as part of routines, rewards and also the videos can be used to settle the students when they enter or if there is a day when the students are very distracted as a whole (especially with VYLs I1, I2, I3) – a short Super Simple Songs clip can be used to refocus the students and help get back to the lesson aims.
- Activities to do with songs
Many young learners love singing and dancing with actions, and this can be great fun in itself. However there are other activities or adaptations we can do with too:
Faster or slower or animal?: students sing a known song such as the classes ‘hello song’. The students then get to request whether to sing ‘faster’ or ‘slower’ (the student who puts up their hand or touches their head the fastest etc gets to request the speed). The students then sing and act out the song at that speed. This can be expanded by the students requesting different animals that they have to act like while singing the song.
Class vs teacher singing competition: Teacher or music monitor pauses song, while the rest of the class has to continue singing the song. If the students sing it correctly the class gets a point, if not the teacher gets the point.
Musical statues: (this is better to use more as a reward activity at the end of class). When the teacher or music monitor stops the music, the students need to stop still like statues, teacher goes around trying to make the students laugh. If the students move they are eliminated. Elimated students can help they teacher trying to make others laugh, but if this is done teacher has to set rules that the new helpers cant touch other students etc., as this can cause problems such as arguments and even tears.
Rhymes and chants
Rhymes and chants like songs are very useful to have in a younger learner classroom, they are very ‘catchy’ and therefore help stick in the students’ (and teacher’s) heads. Rhymes and chants are different to songs, as they are shorter or repetitions of a sentence in a tuneful way which help students learn a language point, indicate (transition to) the next task , or are used to gain attention. Some CDs that come with coursebooks have chants on them, and chants can be found on the internet too. On the Captain Jack CD chants can be found at the beginning of the CD, and a website where colleagues and I have found useful rhymes and chants (and other activities) is https://vanessareillytelt.wordpress.com. Or another option is to make up your own, by chanting a sentence to the rhythm of a nursery rhyme.
Language teaching/recycling rhymes and chants
Weather chant
What´s the weather like? What’s the weather like? It’s sunny, it’s sunny, it’s very very sunny
Days of the week chant 1 (sung to the tune of ‘The Munsters’)
There’s Monday and there’s Tuesday, there’s Wednesday and there’s Thursday, there’s Friday and there’s Saturday, and then there’s Sunday. Days of the week (clap, clap), days of the week (clap, clap) days of the week (clap, clap). (Students use their fingers to show the days)
Days of the week chant 2 ( ‘Happy Days’)
Sunday, Monday… Happy days,
Tuesday, Wednesday… Happy days,
Thursday, Friday… Happy days,
Saturday-y-y,
What a day-y-y,
Groovin’ all week with you!!!! ( students twist to the floor )
Oooooooooooooooo!!!!!
Feelings chant
Who looks very happy? Who looks very happy? Who looks very happy today, today? (Students try to smile the widest they can, and teacher tries to measure their smile) (Can repeat with other different feelings, sad, hungry, angry, sleepy)
Transition rhymes/chants
Table time chant
It’s time for the tables, it’s time for the tables, sit, sit, sit down, please
Stationery chant (to the tune of ‘London Bridge is falling down’)
Can I have a pencil please, pencil please, pencil please? Can I have a pencil please? Here you arrrrrre! Thank You!
Can I have my book please, book please, book please? Can I have my book please? Here you arrrrrrre! Thank You!
Tidy up chant
Tiiiiiidy up, (clap, clap) tiiiiiidy up (clap, clap).
End of class chant
(Teacher):It’s time to finish now and say goodbye. (Students): Goodbye! (Teacher): It’s time to finish now and say goodbye. (Students):Goodbye! (Teacher): It’s time to finish now, it’s time to finish now, it’s time to finish now and say goodbye. (Students):Goodbye!
Leaving the class in an orderly fashion.
(Teacher): In a line, in a line in, in a line (students): we are! (repeat)
Attention gaining chants.
1,2,3 – Look at me.
(Teacher): 1, 2, 3. (Students): Look at me (touching eyes) (Teacher) 1,2,3. (students): listen to me (touching ears). (Repeat twice or more changing speeds)
Sitting nicely on the carpet chant
Cross your legs, cross your legs, cross your legs, cross, cross.
The Class Puppet
Having a classroom puppet in the younger learner classroom is a key element to help provide a positive and secure environment, especially with VYLs (older students at S2 level start to need and relate to the puppet less in general, but some may still respond to them). The students love the puppet, the puppet can be used to comfort them when they are sad, can be used to express themselves if they are feeling shy, it can be used to encourage English as it only understands English, and it can also be used to engage students more in activities, such as story telling and routines. At Active Language most of younger learner course books have a puppet; Captain Jack for I1 and I2 and Pip and Squeak finger puppets for S1 and S2. However Find Out 1, which I3s use does not have a puppet. If you are an I3 teacher, check with your co-ordinator to see if there is a spare Captain Jack you can use, if not there are other puppets at the academy such as Robby the Rabbit and The Little Elephant that can be used.
Activities with the puppet.
Wake up sleeping puppet
As part of the opening routines, students wake up the puppet, which is sleeping in a box or bag (teacher makes sleeping noises). Students are encouraged to ‘listen’ with their ears, then they are encouraged to ‘look’ with their eyes, and finally ‘touch’with their hands. Teacher then encourages them to shout “wake up Captain Jack!” When the shout is sufficient and the teacher is happy that the students are engaged, the puppet wakes up (teacher acts out the puppet being startled)
Pass the puppet
Teacher or music monitor plays one of the songs, and students pass the puppet as the music plays. When the music stops the student with the puppet has to ask the person next to them a question, e.g ¨What’s your name?” “How are you today? “How old are you? etc.
What’s the puppet thinking of?
Teacher draws a thinking bubble on the board and sits the puppet on the board. The puppet’s helper chooses a flashcard from the pack and puts it in the bubble. The class has to guess what the puppet is thinking of . Teacher encourages full questions as much as possible “Is it a …?” (More support may be needed with infant students but they are able to do it). The puppet helper is encouraged to answer, “Yes it is” if correct or “ No, it isn’t” if not. When a student gets it correct they can pick another card and do the puppet helper’s job.
Throw the puppet’s smile (A game to review feelings and keep concentration for VYLs)
Teacher elicits how the puppet is feeling? Is he feeling sad? No! Is he feeling angry? No! Is he feeling happy? Yes! Then the teacher makes a happy smile sign with their hands, and says, “Oh, who is going to catch the puppet’s smile?” Teacher exaggerates taking the puppet’s smile and then throwing it to one of the students. The student then is encouraged to throw the smile to another student, and so on until the smile gets sent back to the puppet.
The puppet says
Same as Simon says, but the puppet is used to whisper in the ear of the teacher or helper (with teacher support), who communicates what the puppet says, eg. “Captain Jack says touch your head.” VYLs (especially I1 and I2s) may not get the element of trickery is this game at first, so may need practice and patience, and exaggerated whispering of the puppet as a sign to when the students do the action.
Action games
Total Physical Response (TPR)activities, such as ‘Simon says’ are an engaging, fun and effective way for younger students to learn. As mentioned above VYLs may find ‘tricks’ a little difficult to grasp, but primary students can understand these tricks a lot more quickly and thrive on them. Action games such as charades are popular amongst younger learners too, again VYLs needing more support at first, as the element of guessing may be too difficult for them, especially I1s and I2s, and therefore just encouraging acting to vocabulary – be a dog, be a parrot, etc. can work well with them.
Attention gaining/showing TPR
As mentioned previously in the Dealing with Difficulties section, younger learners have shorter attention spans and may become unfoccussed. If this does happen, TPR instructions such as ‘Touch your head’ etc., can be used to gain attention. It can be also used to choose volunteers if there is no person assigned for a ‘job’ for a specific purpose. A Trick element can be added with primary or cognitively stronger infants to make this more fun and thus engaging. The teacher touches a part and says, “Touch your head/tummy/eyes etc.” The students need to do what the teacher says and not copy the action, as the teacher will not always do what they say. If a student does the action wrong, they are eliminated. They can then give the instructions (with teacher support if needed).
‘Duck, duck, duck, goose’ adaptated game – Carmen Plaza
This is a high energy, physical game that can work really well with YLs but also adapted (with support) for VYLs. Students sit in a circle. The original game is that the children go around the circle saying a word each. One says ‘duck’, the next ‘duck’, the next ‘duck’ the next ‘duck’, the next ‘goose’. The student sitting next to the goose has to stand up and run a round the circle and sit back in their place. We can adapt this game for language purposes, and to practise lexical sets. For example, students have to say a type of food each, but one student says a toy. The student sitting next to the student saying the ‘odd one out’, has to stand up, run around the circle and sit down.
Flashcard games
Flashcards are very visual ways to learn vocabulary, and there are lots of games we can use to make the learning fun, and kinaesthetic too. The flashcard games could be labelled or separated into certain categories (or even mixture of categories) such as those that use memory, prediction, physical races and finding, and trickery.
A word of warning, (trying to avoid rips and tears)
Although learner autonomy (where we get the students doing the activities themselves) in activities is encouraged as much as possible for reasons mentioned in the Classroom Management section, the reality of this with flashcard games is that it can lead to flashcards getting ripped and damaged. This can be due to years of handling and general wear and tear. It can also be due to students’ careless handling of the cards, for example trying to roll the cards up to look through, or fighting with a classmate in a flashcard game. Or it can also be due to curiosity or a lack of understanding (this is more seen with infant students than primary), for example, if there is a little rip in the card some students may wonder about it, and start to rip the card more to see what happens. What can we do as teachers? Firstly, I would advise not to get too stressed out about it, and worry too much, it does happen. I’ve known teachers who are really strict about not ruining the flashcards that only they can handle them, which does keep the material pristine – great, but seems a shame that the students are missing out on the kinaesthetic learning opportunity and basic fun of handling the cards. However what we can do is: 1) try to prevent careless ripping of the flashcards by predicting how it could happen in flashcard activities and setting up the activity to prevent this, for example having one student look for a hidden flashcard instead of all the class together which can eliminate fighting over a flashcard. 2) Make looking after the materials part of the classroom rules, and have visuals for this in the classroom posters.
Now lets share:
Guessing the flashcard
Simple guessing the flashcard games can work well with VYLs, especially if it is learner autonomous, with the student volunteers holding the cards to their chest, moving another piece of card with a hole over the flashcard or turning the flashcard. By adding elements such as turning the flashcards faster or slower, or with noise (making a woosh sound with their mouths), an extra element of fun and variety is added, which is simple but effective with little ones. The rest of the students have to raise their hands and guess when chosen, using the target language and “Is it …?” (The action of holding hands out can help students to remember this question). VYLs can do this with teacher support, stronger ones can achieve it with minimal support and weaker ones will progress over the year to use this language chunk with less support too. If correct, the student shouts, “Yes, it is!” and the student who guesses correctly gets to choose and hold the next card.
The Missing card – Laura Hickson
Teacher or flashcard monitor elicits vocabulary, and the lexis of flashcards are either on the whiteboard or on the floor (with students sitting around them in a circle). Teacher says “close your eyes, please”, students close their eyes and count to ten. (They will often try to peek, so in good humour teacher can try to cover their eyes, and even laugh saying “no peeking/looking, please”). Meanwhile, the teacher takes one of the cards away and after ten says, “open your eyes, please”, “What’s missing?” Teacher insists students raises their hands and not shout out (can do this by raising their own hands). The fastest with their hand up gets to answer first, “Is it …?” First student who guesses correctly gets to then say, “close your eyes please” and take away a card, and so on.
Hide and seek
The age old game of ‘hide and seek’ (or Spanish ‘escondite’) can be adapted into a flashcard game that all the younger learners (from I1 –S2) enjoy. It can played in teams, with one team hiding some flashcards, and the others looking for them, or (with smaller classes) individuals, or pairs hiding a card and the rest of the class looking for it, or more controlled one student hiding and one student looking for the card and the rest of the class counting and even saying ‘hotter’ or ‘colder’. With S1 and S2s this game can be used to practise preposisitons too, as well as recycling the vocabulary. As mentioned in the ‘word of warning’, flashcards can get ripped and this game, although one of the most loved and popular amongst younger learners, is one of the most prone for this to happen as two or three students can find a card at the same time and have a tug of war. Therefore ground rules need to be set beforehand, or with boisterous groups or young infants, teachers can opt to do the tighter controlled version.
(Adapted from hide and seek) Where’s the cat? (or dog or mummy)
Teacher has a cut out of a cat in a realia bag. Students have to guess what is it (by either feeling it or teacher making a sound). It’s a cat! Teacher says, “close your eyes, please”. Students close their eyes and count to ten, while teacher hides the cat under one of the cards (that have been elicited previously). Teacher asks, “where’s the cat?” Students have to raise their hands to answer. Fastest student gets to answer “Is it in the…?” or “Is it under the ….?”. If correct they get to hide the cat. This can be done with any vocabulary set, but works really well with rooms of the house.
Repetition and trick (Class vs Teacher)
This is a flashcard game that can be used to teach a new set of lexis. This game is best used with primary students as the ‘trick’ element in it can be cognitively too advanced for infant students, however I have played this game before with a stronger group of I3s who loved it. Teacher holds up a flaschard and tries to elicit the word (to see if any of the students have a prior knoweledge of the word and can teach the others), if not teacher teaches word, students repeat and teacher can drill for pronunciation. Then teacher (or monitor or student who answers correctly) puts the card (with blu tac on) on the board. This is done until the set of new lexis is on the board. Teacher writes Class vs Teacher (or teacher’s name) on the board. Teacher points to a flashcard and says a word. Students repeat if correct, but if it’s not the corresponding word then they have to shake their heads. If the students shake their heads correctly the class gets the point, if they repeat the incorrect word, the teacher gets the point. Teacher dramatically, and humourously can try to make a student repeat the incorrect word to try to make it fun. I would recommend doing flashcard repeat a couple of times before bringing the ‘tricks’ in, to get the students confident with the lexis.
Prediction
Younger learners respond well to activities in which they need to predict what the item is (primary students, again infants may need a lot of support at first or simplified versions of the activity). This can be the case whether it’s a flashcard game in which the students have to predict what the next card will be for either a reward of an individual or group point, or a class cheer. But it can also be used to make coursebook activities/excercises with S1 and S2 students more fun and engaging, such as listening exercises, in which students have to predict what they think it will be, before listening, and can have the same reward of a point or cheer.
“Rock Paper Scissors/ Left to Right Race” – Lucy Brophy
Flashcards on the board in a line from left to right. Two teams. One team starts at the left, the other at the right. Objective is to reach the other side. Process is that one person at a time from each of the teams comes up to the board and says what they see on the flashcards (this could also be anything else I suppose, e.g a word card or a colour or a shape drawn on the board). When they meet at the same card they have to do Rock Paper Scissors. The winner of this continues from where they were, the loser goes to the back of their team line and the next team member comes up and starts at the beginning again (either left or right depending on the team).
There are so many different levels that this can be used. From simply one word to full sentences, questions, negatives etc. Also if they say it incorrectly the next team member should start again.
Teams can be allowed to help (by shouting out the answers) or not. Sitting down in a line often helps keep order, otherwise they will all crowd round the board in a blob and you can’t really hear the person who is at the board. This can also be made even more difficult by having the flashcards face down and they have to call them out before turning them over – so kind of memory left to right race.
I’ve generally made this increasingly difficult for example with my M1s I had them saying, ‘I’d like to hike across a rainforest’ (the flashcard was a rainforest) or with S2s stressing that they have to say ‘She is eating an apple’ or the question “What is the weather like?” or the negative, ” I can’t swim” (do this by placing ? + – above the cards). To make it even more difficult/good revision I’ve also mixed up the flashcards by unit and practised all of the questions negatives etc …
S2 Lesson 1 Memory game – Lucy Brophy
Another idea I’ve done recently with my S2s is getting students in pairs to come up to the board and follow the ‘footprints’ by drawing a connecting line between flashcards – this is for lesson 1. I thought it was a bit boring for them to always have them in the order they were said in the book. So what I do is drill the vocab then place the cards randomly on the board, then get students to come up in pairs to draw a line between the cards they hear on the tape, on the board. Once one pair have done it, I move the cards so they can’t just ‘remember’ the order. They enjoyed this – anything where they are up writing on the board I think is easier to keep them happy than using the book or a worksheet.
Realia
It is said that younger students are kinaesthetic learners, and their senses are developing. So the use of realia (objects) which they can touch and listen to (or even smell) can really engage their interest and learning. The use of a realia bag I feel is an extremely beneficial item to have in the younger learner classroom, especially a VYL classroom, which students can put their hands in, touch and guess the object. Often with VYLs, when they are unfocussed as a group I have got the realia bag out, and students have regained focus and really want to put their hands inside. A realia bag can be a plastic shopping bag, but I find using a gift bag or ideally hot water bottle cover, can give the bag more importance as well as it being more aesthestically appealing. The realia bag or ‘touchy bag‘ as I refer to it, can cause problems in a way that the students all really want to have a go at the same time. Therefore rules need to be established before, such as students taking turns to put their hands inside and feel (student who is sitting calmly for example or respond fastest to the ‘touch your head’), be given a time limit (e.g 5 seconds) and not take the object out (teacher demonstates and exaggerates this beforehand).
Storytelling
Storytelling is popular with younger learners, lots of the coursebooks have stories in them and many resource books or blogs have lots of links and suggestions for stories. I personally as a younger learner teacher, actually find storytelling one of the hardest skills. Many guides or videoclips I’ve seen show young leaners sitting around the big story book with the teacher, listening to the story, responding to the guided concept checking questions, and responding to the actions of the story which the teacher is encouraging them to do. The reality for myself and colleagues is that when it comes to the storytelling, the children all want to see the story, some start to move closer, which mean others can’t see, arguments start happening, some students start becoming disengaged and find the other side of the room more interesting etc.
What can we do to limit distractions?
I think before reading the story with the big book or flashcards, the teacher needs to set up the activity well, positioning themselves well where all the students can see the story and not move, ideally storytime is something which happens on the carpet with the children all sitting round, but this may not be possible with some classes, so it may be better to sit on chairs, perhaps around the table. Again using a visual aid such as a poster or even you drawing what you want from them e.g sitting around in a circle may be needed. Using the behaviour system to encourage good sitting beforehand maybe needed. Having a storytime chant “It’s time for a story, it’s time for a story, come, come and listen to me” may help the students to realise what they are going to do and what is expected of them. Using our voice as a tool, such as whispering to gain the students interest beforehand can really help limit distractions during the storytelling, as well as establishing a class page turner, or alternatively, using page turning, or flashcard holding as a reward for good listening.
Other activities we can do with the story:
Story Jigsaws
With VYLs who use the big books, the story page in the book can be used after the story has been told, or in a future lesson to help remember the story and check understanding, it also helps to develop motor skills as gluing and hand-eye coordination is needed. Firstly, photocopy the story, so that each student has got one each (on light copy, so that it can be coloured in too). Cut the page into shapes, and give each student a coloured piece of paper. The students put the story puzzle together and glue it on to the coloured paper, then they can colour it, asking the teacher or monitor for the colours, e.g “Can I have the blue please?” You will need to model an example with the students first, in which you can elicit the story or sing the story song.
Sequencing the story
This can be used with the story flashcards (I3 – S2) and done as a class before telling the story. Or it can be done in small groups, with photocopies of the story page, cut up and without numbers. Students need to put the story in order, thus prediciting the story and also checking their understanding of the story. The element of race can be used for an extra fun element, it can either be a race against time, or a race against each other.
I can see a …
This activity can be done after the sequencing of the story and before the reading, listening or telling of the story. Students have to say what they can see, e.g “I can see Pip” or “I can see a pizza” etc. The students can do this as a team, in a competition style of Class vs Teacher, to make it more fun and engaging. No repetion can be allowed, or teacher gets the points. Students can help each other as they are a team.
Acting out the story
Students are given characters before the story begins, they have to follow the story in their books and copy the actions. Teacher encourages and gives example actions for the students to follow. Highlighting key sentences and related actions (even students deciding on the action together), can help this flow better.