Games for illiterate students

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Games for illiterate students

cookingongas

Games for illiterate students

Hi everyone, can anyone help me with ideas please? I �m teaching illiterate students, and that puts limits on what activities I can use with them. So far we �ve played Memory, Charades, Happy Families, Bingo... but I �m getting really tired of them, and I don �t want the students to, too! Can anyone suggest a new game or two? I use pictures a lot to introduce vocab - hence the games I �ve mentioned.

Thanks for reading, at least! All the best,

Charles.

16 Feb 2009

Pinky Makus

Have you tried large picture dice? You can put large images onto dice that you have printed on paper and laminated or covered in clear tape. Somewhere on the internet I saw a great way that you could cut milk cartons and turn them into dice.

Have you tried using fly swatters? Put images onto a large sheet of paper or lightly stick them to a board. Students look for the right image and then rush to swat it or smash it with the fly swatter. Kids love it.

Hope that helps.

16 Feb 2009

nebo_Londona

A cool game to revise vocabulary. You ask two students to stand in the end of the classroom and ask different words in their native language (or vica-virsa). If they tell you the translation, they can make a step towards your table. If they don �t know, they stay at their place. The first student to come to your table is the winner. I really love this game and use it very often!BTW You can vary it - you can show cards to them or ask questions, even their fellow students can ask questions too. In this case, all the class participates. Good luck!

16 Feb 2009

Ivona

Try this site:

http://www.eslkidstuff.com/Classroomgamesframe.htm

16 Feb 2009

Daidougei Dave

How about putting bulldog clips on the bottom of the cards, standing them up, and doing bowling? Or put the cards up on the board and throw magnetic darts (or suction cup balls) at them? Hot potato? Clip pictures to the children �s backs and have them have a contest where the child who says the other child �s picture first is the winner (they race around each other to see the other child �s picture without showing their own.) You can have a race where the students have to pass the card over their heads to the next person in line, who then passes it under them to the next person... over, under, over under. If you are teaching target language with two variables (such as Do you play tennis on tuesday) you could put Days of the Week at the top, and sports on the left, make a grid, and play battleship! Most of my kids can �t read English words (they �re Japanese) so 99 percent of my games use picture cards!

16 Feb 2009

littlesara

I use a lot of guessing games with pictures, you or one of the students chooses a word and the others have to guess it. Students can use just plain " Is it ...? " , or for clothes, " Are you wearing....?", for professions " Are you a..... ? " for past tense and activities "Did you go to the cinema?" etc. etc. Then you can also use " 20 questions " with diferent categories. For example, you think of an animal and students can ask you 20 yes/ no questions to guess it, eg. Is it big?, Can it fly? Does it live in Africa? etc.
You could also try chain memory games using all kinds of vocab and language; First student says I like chocolate, 2nd student I like chocolate and salad, 3rd, I like chocolate, salad and rice.... etc. this is just one example, can also be used with: At the weekend I went to the cinema, ate an ice-cream....etc, In the toy shop there �s a doll, a robot, a ball...etc. the list is endless.
You can also get them to act out little scenes, like shopping or in a restaurant.
I spy with my little eye something beginning with......... ( using the sound the word begins with rather than the letter)
Picture dictations. For example a monster: It �s got two heads, one is round and the other is square......... etc.
Except for the picture dictations I´ve used all of these ( sucessfully) with adults too.

16 Feb 2009

Dianasuzuki

I had a challenging experience similar to yours. So, I tried some activities such as:

1) Blindfold your students! During a lesson about food I brought an apple, an onion, a potato, among others to class and made him repeat the names while touching them. I also taught "do you like it?", "what color is that?". After that, I blindfolded the student, he had to touch the food and remember the names. There �s also another possiblity: make them try the food while blindfolded and guess what it is, describe its taste. Is it spicy/ salt/ sweet?

2) Bring your favorite clothes! Teaching clothes, I asked students to bring some of their favorite clothes to class and learn how to describe them and I also brought mine. We mixed up the clothes and had to identify the owner by asking "Whose .... ?" The owner would say "it �s mine". Everybody would wear their clothes and describe them "I �m wearing a black wool jacket!", "He �s wearing a white wool sweater"....

3) Use a �magic bag �! Teaching verbs, I used a bag with many objects inside that were related to a verb. For example: a book, a spoon, a comb, a toothbrush, a lipstick, etc. Then I asked students to take an object from the bag. If they took the book, they would say: I am reading (pretending they were reading). For the spoon (I am eating) and so on.

Hope that is useful for you!!

16 Feb 2009

aftab57