Games for Children Everybody knows how difficult it is to make lesson of English interesting for children in the primary school. Pupils will like the lesson and will do English with enthusiasm if the material is interesting and bright for them. And the content of the lesson will interest children if the material is corresponding to their age and interests as well.
Many of you will say that it takes much time to organize a game, and children take the lesson as a game, not more. In addition you can say that it takes much more to get everything prepared for fun at the lesson.
I will say a game is a kind of work as well. If you know the psychological aspects of this very age you should see that game is an activity, which is very close to all children. While playing, you can make children really work effectively.
It is impossible to make children learn words and rules by heart, do exercises, and only drill mechanically. A game is a certain stimulus to learn something. It�s a real education aim � to learn the material for the purpose of playing.
A game is a social experience for children, which teaches them to live, to help each other, to sympathize, to win and to lose, and to respect others� feelings. The players often try to change the game, to invent some new elements, heroes; they have their own idea. Don�t be afraid of it. It�s a kind of partnership, of help. A good game must teach children to find solutions to problems, to try out variables and make decisions.
In conclusion I would like to say that a game is full of emotions which will make your lesson interesting and productive, not only for your pupils, but also for you. Don�t be afraid to play, believe in games and you will succeed!
The aim of these games is to help children to memorize words in a fun way. VARIANTS OF GAMES I. Lexical Games 1. What is missing? Materials: a number of thematic cards or toys (their number depends on the age of the pupils).
How to play: put the cards or toys in a row on the desk or blackboard. Let the pupils have a look at them, or you can revise the words together. Then ask your players to close their eyes and take one of the objects away. Then the children must open their eyes and answer your question �What is missing?� You can also change this game a little bit: don�t put the cards or toys away, but change their order. 2. Mouse Game Materials: a blackboard
How to play:
Draw a house (a square) on the blackboard and a little mouse in the middle square. The teacher tells the pupils: �Mouse is in her house. But it is very dangerous outside, a big black cat is hungry and it wants to eat our little mouse. Let�s help her. When the mouse is out of its house � clap your hands.�
With the help of instructions (mouse up, mouse down, mouse left, mouse right) teacher makes the players follow the mouse. 3. Dominoes Materials: thick paper and pencils to make domino cards of a suitable size (their number depends on the age and level of the pupils)
How to play: you can make the cards not only with numbers but also with the alphabet and words. Children should join the cards according to their meanings: colours, animals, parts of the body, actions and etc.) This game can be played in pairs or with the class divided into two teams). 4. Find the words. Materials: printed forms with selected words (the number of the words depends on the age and level of the pupils)
For example: How to play: the teacher reads the definitions of the words from each line and the players must cross these words out. In each line there must be one word left (in our variant there are 4 words left � a nose, an eye, a mouth, a neck). At the end of the game the pupils should guess why these words were not crossed out (in the example � the words mean the parts of the body).
The aim of these games is to help pupils differentiate the sounds of English and Russian words. II. Phonetic Games 1. Funny Sounds How to play: the teacher explains to the pupils: �In the English alphabet, there are a lot of little funny sounds. Sound [ei] is a very funny sound, it likes to play. Its favourite game is hide-and-seek. Let�s play with it now. The sound [ei] will hide and you will seek it. When you hear it � clap your hands (jump, sit down, etc.)�.
Then the teacher reads the list of words. 2. English Teacher How to play: the teacher tells the pupils �The English teacher is going to learn Russian. It is very difficult for him. Let�s help him. Now listen attentively. When you hear the Russian word � clap your hands.�
The teacher reads the words both English and Russian but using only English sounds. For example: [qkx�t], [sqbaCka] and etc. 3. Find the house. The aim of the game is to help the pupils to learn the letters and the sounds they have.
Materials: the forms with pictures of the houses (house A, house E, house I) [pic] How to play: teacher explains that every letter has its house, and asks the pupils to help the sounds. The children must draw the roads from each sound to a certain house. III. Grammar Games The aim of these games is to revise some grammar rules, to help children to realize and memorize the material. It is a kind of the situation for using some rules in speaking or writing.
Materials: a blackboard
How to play: you should draw the field for the game and fill the squares with the material you want to work with. For example: CAN The teacher should divide the class into two teams: �X� and �O�. The members of each team should put their marks (X and O) to the squares they want making up the sentences according to the scheme: �+� means declarative sentences, ��� means negative sentences, �?� means interrogative sentences. On the blackboard you can write different signal words for children to use the tenses (yesterday, tomorrow, etc.)
Plural form of the nouns: Pupils can come to the blackboard and write the plural forms of the nouns.
You can also practice degrees of comparison of the adjectives, tenses, modal verbs and etc. 2. Where is it? How to play: you should show several toys (or objects) to the players and then position the toys on the chair, under it, near it, in the bag (the number of the toys depends on the level of the pupils). Ask the pupils to close their eyes and then change the toys and their positions. Ask the players to open their eyes and notice the differences: �The cat was under the chair. Now the dog is under the chair. Put the cat under the chair.� 3. What are you doing? Materials: a blackboard
How to play: write a list of action verbs on the blackboard. Every pupil should come to the blackboard and demonstrate one of the verbs without saying a word, only using gestures. Others can ask him or her: �Are you swimming/running now? / Did you swim yesterday? / Will you play tomorrow?� � �Yes/No�.
These games seem to be of no importance, but it�s not true. It is extremely important to relax and enjoy yourself in class. It helps both the pupils and the teacher to relax, to have positive emotions. These games help to make the lesson extraordinary for children and thus interesting and successful for them. IV. Activities for Relaxation 1. Stretch All the children sit on the floor. They sit with their legs and knees close to their chest. They put their arms around the legs. They tighten their muscles of their bodies, even the muscles in their faces.
They hold all their muscles tight for one minute and then slowly relax their muscles.
They should stand slowly and stretch their bodies. 2. Class Discipline All of the class sit on the floor. One child acts as the leader and begins to make a low sound. And other children begin to make this sound softhy and then the sound gets louder and louder. Then the teacher begins to stand up, and when the all of the class are on their feet they begin to jump, to shout. The class can choose a word or a phrase for shouting.
Then the teacher says: �Stop! Silence!�
The children (about 8 � 9 pupils) stand in a circle. The first child makes a simple movement. The second one should copy him and add his own movement. The others do the same.
The children join hands and stand in a row � they are a long snake. Its head (a strong and active child) begins to move and leads the �snake� through itself � between bodies, legs and arms.
When the teacher sees a complete knot, you or a child should direct what each child must do to sort the knot. 5. Emotions The teacher should say the words expressing different emotions and feelings. The children should mime these words. (happy, angry, sad, excited, tired)
One of the children can mime one of the emotions for the others to guess (it can be in pairs, then in groups). 6. A Funny Letter You can write a funny letter and show it to the children for fun. Then you can role-play.
For example: Dear Wolf! I am sorry you are in hospital. And I am sorry you ate Little Red Riding Hood and then lost her.
I wanted to eat a little Indian boy but he ran away. So I do understand your problem!
Come to my house and let�s have a good dinner! Love,
Lion By Tatyana Skrynnik,
Lomonosov School, Moscow |
