I �d like to know what your favourite games/dynamics are... 

 

* for the beginning and the end of the year;

* for grammar practice;

* for listening practice;

* for speaking practice;

* for reading practice;

* just to have fun,

* etc...

 

Every idea is welcomed and will help me a lot.

 

***  For the beginning of the year I like to do the game: ARE YOU...? in which SS recive a small card with a new identity.

e.g. YOU ARE: BUSH / FIND: OBAMA  

       YOU ARE: OBAMA / FIND: BUSH.

Then, they mingle and look for their partners, asking: ARE YOU...? When they find their patners they introduce themselves using the vocabulary taught. Finally they sit down and we do the real introductions.

 

***  For the end of the year, we sit on the floor making a big circle, then I give each S a small blank card and they write their names, then I get all the papers, mixture them and give them  back to the SS, then have to describe the person he/she got and the others try and guess who it is... (they love to hear what their colleagues think about them!!!)

 

 

 LET´S SHARE, LET´S HAVE FUN !

 

speaking: everybody has to say 5 things about themselves, 1 of which isn �t true, and others guess what he/she lied (great ice breaker, esp if it �s a new group and they don �t know each other or if they haven �t seen each other whole summer; you can start to break the ice, they love it, they like lying a bit, it �s creative use of language, and people pay attention to each other)

grammar and spelling: soooooooooo many games, but my favourite is to give them mistakes to correct - they love playing teacher and fixing �your � mistakes(esp in RED)

listening: 2 teams, poster for catching pieces of info or fill-ins - they listen and run to the poster when they hear it; or they have to do sth when they hear key vocabulary (like jump or clap - depends on the age)

listening and reading: give them a copy of the text which is slightly different from the original tapescript, and while they listen, they �spot the differences �

 

so much for now (check my ppt for some other games)... I hope this even gets through, because I �m not writing it again (you know that new song �tired of using technology... �)

Anita

 

One of my favourite activities to do in class is running dictation.  If you don �t know what that is it is fairly simple to do.  At the front of the classroom, you put 6 or 7 versions of the same text on the wall in a line.  The textis about one paragraph long.  You put students in pairs.  You tell them that one of the students is responsible for reading and speaking and the other is responsible for listening and writing.  Then you explain to them that the student responsible for reading and speaking must run to the front, read the text and remember as much as they can, and then come back to the other student and tell them what they read.  The student responsible for listening and writing, listens to their classmate and copies down what they are told.  The pair continues this until they have the entire text on their piece of paper.  I have them put their English names on the top of the paper and when they are finished, I tell them to bring it to me.  When they are all finished, I hand out the original text to them that was at the front.  I read each one of the students writings out loud and have them tell me if it is not correct.  It is great fun and the students really enjoy it.

 

Cheers,

 

Fletsch

all of your activities are great fun! one of my favorites is this in the basic level:

 

vocabulary: (better if you handed them a vocabulary bank before) order the classroom in two equal rows, suppose they are 20 then you get two rows of ten each one, of course all of them standing up, you explain that you �re going to say a word or phrase in either your mother tongue or in English. the first student of the row must say the translation of that word or phrase immediately. this helps them think and work their memory if they do not rem

ember the other students are allowed to give the correct answer. then this student goes to the bottom of the row and you continue with the next row this way.

 

it �s very important that the teacher keeps the excitement by looking at them or hurrying them. it �s really exciting not only for the teacher but for them! :)