Primary

Crumbs # 17: New beginnings. Things to do before the lesson.

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They are growing up. My students are no longer the little babies they were when we said our first ‘Hello!’. Six years is a long time, after all. And because they are changing, the lesson is changing, too. I like to think that, in a way, we are growing together.

An example? For five years and five months my students would wait for me outside of the classroom, in a neat line and we would check the homework and have a little chat, 1-1, with them slowly entering the classroom (more about it here). Well, not anymore. Two months ago we stopped. For good.

Because it turned out that, all of a sudden, the kids like to be in the classroom before the lesson. The choose their seats, take out their books, draw on the board or show each what they do in Maths classes at school. They also like to hide to surprise me (if I happen to leave to get some water or flashcards), walk around to inspect what I prepared for the day or just sit down and read they books.

And because over those six years we have managed to establish what’s OK and what’s not OK in terms of behaviour and because they have grown up and become more mature, I just let them do it and take over the classroom during the break. Plus, let’s be honest, they seem to be enjoying it a lot and I just don’t have the heart to forbid them and to continue to impose lining up.

Instead, I had an idea: how about a before-the-lesson activity for the early comers? It turned to be a very good idea indeed!

Ingredients

  • A whiteboard and a set of markers.
  • An activity that can be prepared on the board before the lesson for the students to work on potentially unsupervised (although in real life it differs, depending on whether I can be in the classroom during the break or not)
  • A set of easy instructions written on the board and an example
  • A longer break before the lesson – not obligatory but highly recommended
  • It might be necessary for the teacher to hint that there is something on the board that needs dealing with, at least when this part of the routine is introduced. It is quite likely that the kids would just not approach the board if there are any notes on it.
  • Ghost letters, focus: pronunciation. Students underline the silent letters in the words written on the board
  • Letter snake, focus: reading / writing. Students divide the chain (or a snake of letters) into words. Each snake can be made as challenging as necessary ie only the words themselves, the words with letters-distractors, the words in a sentence.
  • Letter stories, focus: reading/ writing. Students divide the very long chain (or a snake of letters) into words and sentences. I used a different colour for each line of the story and neat breaks between the lines, too, not to overwhelm the kids. Forgot to take a photo:-(
  • To rhyme or not to rhyme, focus: phonemic awareness. Students put the rhyming words into pairs. Again, colour-coding is supposed to be make is a bit more achievable and visually appealing.
  • Messed-up, focus: vocabulary revision. Students put the halves of words together.
  • Angrams (and Secret Messages): These are just silly anagrams which are a nice task, more necessary for the Starters students but fun for everyone. It can be a set of random words, connected by the topic (or not) or sentences, especially if there is an especially important message that the teacher needs to pass on to the students. The message below appeared on the board before the second lesson with the mock Movers test, in an attempt to praise the kids and to motivate them. It worked!

Why we like it

  • Those who come early can wait for the lesson doing something in English.
  • They provide additional practice and revision in different areas and skills: reading, writing, vocabulary, pronunciation
  • Different kids come early on different days so they get to work in different pairs and teams which seems to strengthen the sense of community in the group
  • It seems to have become ‘fashionable’ to arrive early for class (not that it has even been a problem) but it is obvious that they have already developed the habit of walking in and checking what’s on the board
  • The teacher is applying all her creative powers to come up with more and more pre-lesson activities

Happy teaching!

Rewards charts and young learners

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This is not going to be a post on the advantages and disadvantages of using a rewards’ chart in the EFL classroom. If you are interested in one or the other, please, scroll down to the bibliography with some pieces to read.

Instead, I am going to tell you a story about a period of six years of using a rewards chart with my kids, successfully and where it has got me. Or where it got us. Consider it a case study.

The group

There are eight of us, in the group, one of me, two boys and five girls and at this point (January 2021), we are in our sixth level together. On the one hand, it is a bit scary, that so much time has passed and so quickly, too, on the other hand – six levels together, pretty much with the same children, from the first words, literally, to Movers.

The first rewards chart

Once upon a time, when my kids were still very very young, in our first year together, the day came when I realised that I needed a rewards chart, badly, with a set of rules and a system.

To be honest, it was a bit of a heartbreak and it did feel like a total defeat. Until then, I had never (as in: NEVER) had to resort to it with children so young. Not once in my entire teaching career (of 10+ years). Rewards charts were for the primary and teens, not for the babies. Sigh.

I was thinking and pondering and wondering, approaching it with a lot of trepidation (in Polish we say: to come up to something like a dog to a hedgehog) and really, stubbornly, putting off the D-day. But, the group was a big one, with ten kids, some of whom were six, some of whom were barely three and they were just rowdy (even for my standards) and ‘my traditional methods’ (or whatever they were back then) were just not working. As in: at all.

Reluctantly and very un-enthusiastically, I took a deep breath and introduced changes: a set of rules and a rewards chart.

The class rules: How to.

  • Think of your group, the kids sitting in your classroom. What are they struggling with? What is the unwanted behaviour right here, right now? Choose the most important three behaviours that you would like to eliminate. There is no point in constructing a set of ten commandments as there will be too many to revise, to remember and to focus on.
  • Formulate the rules and try not to use negatives. ‘Sit nicely’ sounds much better and is more positive than ‘Don’t run’.
  • Yes, there might be situations when a clearly formulated ‘Don’t‘ is the only solution. In the group that I am describing here, we did have some issues that the kids decided to resolve with fighting so for some time, this was our rule number 1.
  • In general, it would be better to refrain from using imperatives altogether and go for full sentences, for example, instead of ‘Sit nicely’ we were using ‘I sit nicely’, together with ‘I don’t run’, ‘I listen to the teacher’, ‘I don’t fight’. These are great language models and, over time, they become a part of everything that the kids can say, even early on, in the first year of primary or pre-primary. Investing in the rules is also investing in the language.
  • Think how you will introduce the rules. I prepared A4 flashcards, with the rule written down (for me to remember and to be consistent and for the kids, to expose them to the written word, although, of course, back then they were not able to read these), with an appropriate picture (thank you, clip art) and with an accompanying gesture for each of them.
  • The first time I introduced them slowly, using the gestures, drawing the kids attention to the pictures and repeating the rules a few times. They did get the idea pretty quickly. After all, they learnt how to behave and how not to behave. After all, they are familiar with the concept of rules. They are rules in the kindergarten, in the art classes, at the swimming pool. Naturally, there will be some in their English class, too.
  • How was I sure that they did understand? Because, of course, one brave volunteer quickly translated them into Russian and all the kids started to discuss the rules. I went over the rules a few times and I encouraged the kids to repeat the gestures.
  • Put the posters up, in a place where everyone can see them. In my case, the best place for that was the door, on the classroom side:-)
  • Revise the rules in the beginning of every lesson. I would go over the rules, ‘reading’ them out loud, while pointing at the sentences and later, once more, I would ICQ everyone, this time with gestures. ‘Do we sit nicely?‘ ‘Do we fight?‘ and so on.
  • Keep an eye on your students and when a rule becomes redundant (because, hey, it worked and your students’ behaviour has improved), change it or replace it with something that is necessary and relevant at the moment.
  • In our case, in the first year, after a while we could replace ‘I don’t fight‘ with a very general but also very broad ‘I am a good friend‘ which we used to signal that we basically behave well because a good friend will not fight, will not take someone else’s pencils or books, will not say unkind things about other children and will not always try to go first and so on.
  • It is also good to have a rule that models and acknowledges the behaviour that is even better than good, something exceptional that we all should strive for. In our case, it was the rule number 4 ‘I am fantastic‘ which I chose because it sounds similar to its Russian equivalent and it is a positive word.
  • Make sure that you refer to the rules throughout the lesson, to remind the students about them when you notice some examples of the unwanted behaviour. I do it using a question form, while using the gesture or pointing at the posters, for example ‘Are you a good friend?‘, ‘Are you fantastic?‘, ‘Are you sitting nicely?‘

The rewards’ chart. How to. A case study.

  • I decided not to use the board as it was too far away from our little circle and I did not want to get up and walk away from the kids a few times during the lesson as it would be too disruptive. Instead, I got a clipboard and prepared a table with their names, written in different colours and accompanied by little icons, ten different ones, so that the kids, who were pre-literate at the time, could recognise their names easily. I put the table into a plastic sleeve, sealed it and pronto. Laminating it would do the job, too. I used a whiteboard marker and so I could easily clean it and re-use it in the following lesson. I was also able to carry it around the classroom.
  • A few times during the lesson, I would take out the chart and check out, with all the kids, asking everyone the same question ‘Are you fantastic?’ (or any other question relevant to our rules, but this one was the most common one) and, if they answered ‘yes’, I would add one more star to the chart, next to their names.
  • Naturally, if the student did seriously ‘misbehave’ (inverted commas here because it really does happen rarely), first would come a warning and then, possibly, if that didn’t work – a tiny little bit of a star might get erased. Which happened on a few occasions and usually the warning itself was enough.
  • In the beginning, I did do it after every single stage and almost after every single activity. It did take time but it was worth it. With time, I was able to cut down on the frequency and the number of stars, extending the length of the stage that could earn them a star.
  • Eventually, we got to the point when each child would get only one star at the beginning of the lesson. It was their job to make sure that it stays whole until the end of the lesson.
  • There was also a point, in year two, when we started to invest more time into our stars because at the same time, we started to talk about other people, and the stars gave us a perfect opportunity to do just that, ‘My star is…’, ‘My star has got…’ and, of course, it was then even more important to keep all the stars intact.
  • It is also very important to remember that the kids should be given an opportunity to get better and to be acknowledged when their behaviour improves. It should not be a problem since the teacher is in charge of when the new stars are awarded.
  • Also, whenever we ask the question ‘Are you fantastic?’, I always start from the well-behaved students, mainly in order to give the ‘not-so-fantasic’ ones a chance to calm down and to think about life so that, when it is their turn, they could be ready to be fantastic, too.
  • ‘Are you fantastic?’ is a very powerful question in itself, too. On the one hand, it serves as a reminder of our aim and our rule (‘We are fantastic’), on the other hand, it is another chance for the students to confirm that they are fantastic AND to make a conscious decision and to make a promise that yes, they will be, from now on, even if there have been a few issues with it.
  • Eventually, by the time we got to our level 3, the rewards chart became almost completely unnecessary. We had the rules on the wall (a new classroom) and I still kept the rewards chart grid at the ready but I would only take it out and use it, when someone needed a reminder that we are, in fact, fantastic. Which, in year 3, happened perhaps once a month.
A slightly different rewards chart or What the kids care about

Today aka the Outcomes

Today, in our 6th year together, we have long forgotten about the rewards’ chart and the rules. My students are now seven, eight and nine and, after all this time, it is no longer necessary to keep such a strict routine and such an elaborate system. The last time we did come close to anything resembling a rewards chart was a collage (an example of which you can see in the photo above), which we made on our Miro board, at the end of each lesson. Everyone could choose an image, google or icons, that they wanted to add. This, in a way, was some kind of a reward for everyone.

Looking back, I think it was a good decision, to introduce the chart and the rules all these years ago and even a better decision to ‘waste’ time on drawing all these stars and asking all these questions. And, dear teacher, if you worry that it takes six years to reap what you sow, don’t. The effort made and the time spent did start to pay off already after a few weeks.

I cannot guarantee that we are going to stay in that bliss forever (fingers crossed that I don’t jinx it with this post) but so far, so good.

My kids have never been very quiet (apparently it’s because I am loud, I am told) but they do behave. Today, after all these years, we all know what is OK and what is not. Most of the time, that is.

They have become more talkative and for that reason a new ‘poster’ appeared on the noticeboard. ‘When I speak, people listen. When people speak, I listen’. It works. Especially that we did specify that by ‘people’ I mean both, teachers and students present in the classroom.

On some days, I have to bring Pasha, our invisible student, one some days I call them using their first name, in full, and their patronymic, sometimes I have to use my serious face but that’s it. I want to believe that it all started with a simple rewards chart a long, long time ago…

Happy teaching!

Something else to read

  1. Rewards charts: how to use them to change the child behaviour at raisingchildren.net.au
  2. Are rewards charts actually bad for our kids? at healthymummy.com
  3. Why you shouldn’t reward kids all the time? at sleepingshouldbeeasy.com
  4. Rewards for kids: Maybe all they want is time? at kiddycharts.com
  5. 20 classroom rewards to get students motivated at englishteaching101.com

Bête-noire aka my least favourite conversations.

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Let me introduce you, dear readers. This is my Bête-Noire, a tiny little bundle of unhappiness.

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Most of the time, it is fast asleep, lying peacefully somewhere in the attics of my heart, covered in dust bunnies. Until, all of a sudden, it is rudely awaken because I find myself in the middle of one of the following conversations…

And that’s not everything. There’s more, lots more. Sometimes there are no (silly) questions but what happens is a rather intensive listening / lip watching event, in order to evaluate my presumably low level of proficiency in English or to detect some serious issues with pronunciation which, potentially at least, could justify the VYL-ness or YL-ness of me.

Why? Who knows.

The funniest thing is that, usually, it is not the parents, the students themselves, the HR or the admin of the schools but our own EFL nation, the fellow teachers, the colleagues who initiate these threads in the conversation. And it is not even the trolling on the social media or remarks whispered behind one’s back, no! More often than not, these are the things that people just throw right into your face…They have just met you, you have just been introduced, they don’t know a single thing about you, apart from ‘Anka, I teach VYL and YL‘ and yet, here we go…

Although, really, it would be very easy to turn the tables and start asking questions such as those ‘What?! You are NOT teaching YL?’ or ‘So you only teach (insert any non-YL area of ELF)? Doesn’t it get extremely boring and repetitive?‘

Only of course, I would not do any such thing. Because it is rude and/or unnecessary…And, no, I do not want everyone to be passionate about teaching children. We all have our own preferences and areas of expertise, things that we like and things that we hate, things that we are amazing at and things we’d rather not do.

Guess what? People choose to teach kids.

It is 2021. Out there, in the big, wide world, there are fully-educated, native speakers or non-native speakers teachers of English, male and female, mums and non-mums, private language school teachers and state school teachers who choose to focus on and to specialise in teaching English to children.

Because it is… more interesting, exciting, creative, inspiring, rewarding, fun…Despite the fact that ‘you can’t really have a conversation with them‘ or despite the fact that ‘you can’t ever teach Present Perfect Continuous Passive‘.

Even as I type these words, I can see a long list of names, my friends, colleagues, mentors, trainees who I have had a chance to meet and to work with, people who are amazing professionals, able to work with any level and any age group but who have found their true calling in working with the youngest of the EFL learners.

Many of them have already build their professional portfolio and, on the way, have grown a thicker skin. Comments and questions, as those quoted above, annoying as they are, will not really cause much damage to the system. ‘Sticks and stones can break my bones...’and all that. These teachers will be able to come unscathed by casually mentioning the years in the classroom, the feedback from their students or parents or maybe also a DELTA, an MA degree, Cambridge exams passed, IELTS bands received, publications, conference presentations and what not. Thus signalling that there are some alternative conversations to be had. With some alternative interlocutors, perhaps.

These experienced teachers I am not concerned about. They are and they will be fine. More than fine, in fact.

What worries me is that somewhere out there, there are novice YL teachers or newly-qualified teachers or, indeed, some would-be teachers, having been exposed to this kind of narrow-mindedness, will get into thinking that an English teacher first of all has to choose only one area of specialism and that a choice between ‘a teacher of English to adults/exams/IELTS/Business’ and ‘a teacher of English to YL’ is also a choice between qualifications, professionalism, respect and the lack of them. Which it is not.

Dear colleagues, dear amazing VYL and YL teachers! Thank you for being in the world! Thank you for your enthusiasm, dedication, ideas, creativity and energy. Thank you for caring.

And don’t forget – you rock!

Happy teaching!

P.S. What a rant, hey?:-) If you want to read some more positive notes on being a VYL teacher, check out this post on the hidden perks of working with the little people.

‘Dear Sasha’ or About journaling with YLs

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created with Miro

It is the middle of one heavy-duty reading for the theoretical background for my first classroom research. I am already a bit tired because it takes time for a rookie scholar (if we want to use big words, if not – just a humble MA student). The eyes are struggling, the brain is struggling, even the spine is struggling because it’s been quite a few articles on the Zone of Proximal Development since the day broke. And, sadly, not all of them exciting. Alas.

But then, somehow, I opened a piece by H. Nassaji and A.Cummings from a few years back *) and, all of a sudden, I was wide awake and excited!

Why? The article is an account of a small-scale but very interesting research based on the dialogue journals that a primary school teacher set up for one of her young students – a 6-year-old boy from an immigrant family who already spoke English at the point of their arrival in Canada but he still struggled in comparison with his peers at school. The journals were a supplementary homework task and their main aim was an opportunity to develop the child’s literacy skills, catered to his immediate needs. The article is fascinating account of the nature of the Zone of Proximal Development and how it was changing in relation to the child developing langauge skills. Highly recommened!

This is how my researcher’s brain reacted. My teacher’s brain only sighed ‘I WANT ONE OF THOSE!’

And I got one. It’s been three years now and this is one of my favourite teaching projects. This is how we do it.

Ingredients

The main aim of this project is the development of young learners’ literacy skills, reading and writing. I normally start this project with my Starters students (that is the children who have finished the YLE Starters level and are about to start preparing for Movers, or, in other words, are at the start of the A1 level). The reasoning behind that timing is the fact that, most of the time, children can deal with simple tests, write single words or simple sentences within a specific structure (from among those that they are familiar with such as I like, I’ve got, I can) but cannot be considered to be fluent readers or independent writers. Not yet, anyway, but keeping the journal is definitely going to help them become these.

The journals are kept in simple notebooks which I buy for my students. I do not really introduce the idea to the students, apart from a short note, in the kids’ L1, glued into the notebook in which the journal introduces itself. It goes, more or less, like that: Hello! I am your new project – a journal! Please open me, read the notes from Anka and, if you want, write something and bring it back when you are ready! Anka will read it and write something to you!

This time round, since we are all on whatsapp, it was also followed-up by a note to parents which explained in more detail what it is and how I would like to run it.

In each notebook, on the first page, there was the first entry, from me. All of them consisted of only a few lines and said:

Hello student!

How are you? What’s your favourite subject / food / sport / colour / toy?

Write to me!

Anka

Procedures

Everything is super simple and straightforward: I give out notebooks, kids take them home, read, reply and bring them back. Then I take them home, read their notes and reply. Afterwards, I take photos of all the entries to keep the record, to be able to reflect on their progress and to save all the data. After all, travelling notebooks are in a grave danger of getting lost in-between the school and the house.

I do not correct any mistakes in the notebooks themselves, not to discourage the kids and not to destroy their entries with my scribbles. Instead, I focus on the delayed error correction and on the extensive input and additional practice based on the mistakes I spot.

It is very important to highlight that I really do not want the journals to become an additonal homework task. The kids are supposed to take part voluntarily and as frequently as they are ready to. In our everyday lesson procedures, whenever we check our regular homework, I also ask ‘Have you got the addional homework?’. I do not keep track of who brought what and when. There are no marks or points involved.

That means that each child is in charge of the journal and of how involved they want to be, they can write a little or a lot, they can write every week or every two weeks, they can draw or not. And, last but not least, they can opt out of being involved altogether.

Reflection

The journals are an amazing opportunity for the kids to develop literacy skills outside of the classroom. Each entry means additional opportunity to read a bit and to write a bit.

All of the entries are highly personalised and unique. The conversations that started from the same ‘What’s your favourite…?’ have taken different routes and turned into conversations about hobbies, families, books, food, sports and pets. Some of them are accompanied by drawings, some of them turned into scrapbooks that both the teacher and the student contribute to. What is more, although there is some scaffolding (ie the questions asked by the teacher), the students have a lot of freedom as regards the topic, the vocabulary and the structures that they want and will use.

They are perfectly suited to the needs of a mixed ability group. I have students who take time to read and to plan what they want to write and later to produce an entry for two pages. I have students who write only one sentence answer and their own question. I had students in the past from whom, at one point, it was easy to supplement the text with simple drawings in order to limit the number of words that they had to write but I was and I am extremely grateful and excited about any, even the smallest contribution.

Regardless of the volume of the text, it is obvious that the kids also learn from the experience as sometimes they write about the topics that are not included in our course curriculum, such as some unusual hobbies, less common although useful verbs etc, and this makes them look up the words in dictionaries which proves that the project also works towards expanding their vocabulary.

What is more, it has been obvious from the very beginning (with different groups) that the students really do enjoy taking part in this project to the point that at one point it even interrupted our classroom routine. As soon as I would give out the journals back to their owners, the kids would grab them, open them and start reading, completely engrossed in it and not paying attention to what was happening in the classroom. Did it upset me? Of course not! I know the feeling – when the book that you are reading is so interesting and so good that you don’t want to put it away. Only this time, it was not a book but our journal and our conversations. I was happy. But I had play with the routine a little bit – on some days I check the homework at the end of the lesson and on some days, we check the homework in two stages, first the homework for all and the journals at the end of the lesson only, depending on the day.

One more lesson learnt is that Kids Can! I am all for challenging the students and hoovering on the outskirts of the ZPD, stretching it gently and carefully but stretching it nonetheless, but since I started this project I have been surprised, time after time. For me, for a long time the main indicator of the students’ writing skills has been the YLE Cambridge tasks and writing assessment scales. While I still consider these to be relevant and useful, thanks to this experience, I was able to see that children, even at the age of 7 and on the level of A1 are capable of a lot more. If given a chance to produce and if the conditions are perfect.

Sample aka a few quotes

‘I’m happy because big holidays.’

‘My favourite food is pasta. I don’t like pasta’

‘My favourite toy is Lego. I like making cars, houses from Lego. I like teddy bears, too. What’s your hobby?’

‘I like to draw magic animals.’

‘I can cook, a little.’

‘I have got many, many, many toys.’

‘I love sharks because they are big and interesting’.

‘My favourite city is Moscow because Moscow is very good and has a lot of big houses.’

The beginning of a beautiful adventure

As I have mentioned above, I have been journaling for three years now, with groups and with individual students, primary and a bit older, too. It has been so successful that I started to use journals in the other areas of teaching and teacher training. More on that soon!

What about the students who don’t want to take part? Nothing. It is their choice and I have respect it. After all, I am this girl who has kept journals since since she was 13 (yes, there are still a few notebooks in my parents’ house, filled up with words, sketches and memories) but not everyone might like writing. Instead, I will encourage, I will praise and I will be completely over the moon when a journal comes back but that’s it. And I will be happy when they do their regular homework and I will absolutely melt when a five-year-old sister of my student also attempts a letter, inspired by our exchanges.

So, how about a journal for your students?

My youth in journals)

Happy teaching!

*) H. Nassaji and A. Cummings (2000), What’s in a ZPD? A case of a young ESL student and teacher interacting through dialogue journals, Language Teaching Research, 4 (2), p. 95 – 121.

A Brand New Class. Volume 2: Primary

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September is upon us. It is a joyful month, what with all the new books, freshly sharpened pencils, markers that have not lost 50% of the caps yet, storybooks and flashcards that are still as God intended (in order!) and all the new adventures because ‘The kids are back!!!!’. At the same time, my favourite tune of the month is …Green Day and when they sing ‘Wake me up when September ends…’ Every single year. And this year more than ever.

Until we have all survived yet another autumn rollercoaster, spiced-up by the pandemic-related uncertainty, here is a tiny little something: activities for the first lesson of the course, today something for teenagers: 5 ‘sandwich fillers’ and 5 activities in their own right.

All of them are and have been my favourite start-of-the-course activities but they can be adapted to different topics and used throughout the year.

Most of them require only the basic resources and little preparation.

Some, although admittedly not all, will also work in our online classrooms.

None of them are how-did-you-spend-your-summer-themed because I never do it in my first lessons (and definitely won’t do this year since a) we did spend the summer together studying English and b) other than that we were stuck at home or at the dacha, growing cucumbers and carrots and feeding birds…) but they can be made so, if needs be.

You can find them HERE.

And if you also teach teenagers, you might find these useful, too!

Happy New Academic Year!

Happy teaching!

Your 10 basic flashcards games

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One hundred.

It is the number of things in which you can manipulate the set of flashcards during the lesson and call it ‘a game’. That means that to teach, to introduce and to practise, to have fun and to change activities fast not to lose kids attention you really only need a set of flashcards and a table or a carpet. No more.

That means that you can mix and match, engage the kids and keep them involved for hours on end. Almost.

But before I take on the challenge of typing all those 100 up, here are the staple ten. The basics of the basic, the everyday. Five to practise receptive skills and five to focus productive skills.

Imagine that you have drilled all your words already (this will be another post, too!)

1. Finger up! (group)

Put all the flashcards face up on the table. Ask the kids to show you the indicative finger and put the hand up. This will be your punctuation mark here. Say ‘Finger up’ and all the kids and the teacher put their hands up, with the indicative finger out. Say ‘Touch the banana’ and encourage all the kids to lower their hands and put the finger on the banana flashcard. Then again say ‘Finger up’ and repeat with other words.

It is a great game especially for the beginning of a new unit or the beginning of the course as the kids will be basically following what you are doing and doing the same thing at the same time.

Variations: You can include different verbs i.e. pat the bananas, scratch the bananas, knock, stroke, etc.

Production: After a while, regardless of the variation, you let them lead the game and they are…producing!!!!

2. Yes and No (group)

Put all the flashcards face up on the table or on the carpet. Use your favourite punctuation mark. Point at one of the cards (banana) and ask ‘It’s a banana.’ ‘Yes?’, when kids start answering, by nodding or using their L1, provide the English word ‘Yes!’ and encourage them to repeat. Don’t forget to nod your head here. Point at another card (grapes) and ask ‘It’s a banana’ Yes?’ when the kids start answering, provide the English word ‘No!’ and encourage them to repeat. Don’t forget to shake your head. Repeat with the other words. The first time you play, it might be a good idea to use only singly words, to make sure that the rules of the game are perfectly clear but you can quickly start using full sentences, in singular and in plural, to model the language. There is no need to make things overtly simple.

Variation: Depending on the topic, it is a good idea to use the structures, too, for example with fruit: I like bananas (and picking up the banana flashcard), clothes: I am wearing jeans (picking up a t-shirt), I’ve got a kite (toys flashcards or pets) etc. This way they are not only going to learn to recognise the key words but they will be practising listening for detail with more challenge and getting a lot of exposure of the target language.

Production: After a while, regardless of the variation, you let them lead the game and they are…producing!!!!

3. Apple, please (group)

Give out all the flashcards, one per child. Use your punctuation mark and say ‘Apple, please’. Reach out your hand, towards the child who is holding the apple (if you can see who it is😊). After you have received it, say ‘Thank you’ and ask for another fruit. After a few rounds, add ‘Here you are’, too.

Variation: If you have a big group, you can ask for two words at the same time. Using a full question form is a good idea, too ‘Can I have an apple, please?’ All the flashcards on the carpet or on the table, and with calling the kid’s name to ensure that everyone gets a chance to play and that they don’t fight over cards.

Production: After a while, regardless of the variation, you let them lead the game and they are…producing!!!!

4. The duo (individual students)

Sit in a circle, put two cards on the carpet ie a banana and an apple, in a place where everyone can access them. Say ‘Masha, it’s a banana’. Masha picks up the banana flashcard and puts it away. Add another flashcard so that there are always two ie an apple and a pear. Say ‘Katia, it’s a pear’, Katia picks up the pear card and puts it away. The teacher adds another card etc.

Variation: You can change and vary the structures, even with the same set of flashcards i.e. with fruit: it’s a pear, I like pears, I don’t like pears, pears are green and so on. You can also ask the students to leave the flashcards that corresponds with the sentence and take away the incorrect one.

Production: After the kids have learnt how to play the game, nominate two students, they make simple sentences for each other. Then, another pair etc.

5. Get up! (pairs or trios)

Give out the flashcards to students, one per person. Go around the circle and call out all the words, one by one, slowly. Use your regular punctuation mark for starting an activity* and play the game. Call out two of the words (‘banana’ and ‘apple’) and motion the kids to stand up in the circle. Praise them and ask them to sit down. Call out two other words, wait for the kids, praise and ask them to sit down. Repeat with any combination you see fit. Then start calling out three words or even four. Kids listen and get up.

Variations: If it is a revision activity and they know the vocabulary, they can be holding two or even three cards.

If they already know a structure, instead of using single words, the teacher can use them in a structure, either very simple and generic ‘I can see a banana and an apple’) or something more connected to the set of vocabulary that you are practising ie I like bananas and apples.

Instead of getting up, the kids can also raise a hand, stamp their feet or clap their hands.

Production: After a while, regardless of the variation, you let them lead the game and they are…producing!!!!

6. Open your eyes (the group)

Put all the cards on the table or on the carpet, encourage the kids to call out all the words. Say ‘Close your eyes’ and make sure that they all cover their eyes, turn over one of the cards. Say ‘Open your eyes’ and call out all the words, in the end point at the card that has been turned over. After they guess, make sure everyone says the word out loud. Repeat.

Production: Let the kids take turns to lead the game.

7. Mime it! (whole class)

Very easy if you start preparing kids for it while introducing the vocabulary and helping them associate each word with a gesture.

Pick up one of the flashcards, say ‘3…2…1!’ and show the word for the kids to guess. Encourage them to produce a full sentence i.e. ‘It is a cat’. Let the kids lead the game as soon as possible!

Variations: If you have introduced some of the simple adjective you can start miming sentences. Pick up two flashcards (differentiated either by colour or size, to make it all go smoothly), say ‘3…2…1’ and mime the adjective and then the noun. Kids produce the sentence ‘It is a funny cat’ etc and it is quite likely that most of the sentences will be a bit ridiculous (but memorable).

8. Merry-go-round (group)

Start with one travelling flashcard. Have the kids sit or stand in a circle. Give the student on your left one of the flashcards, encourage and motion for them to pass the card to the student on their left. Let the card travel, then say stop and ask the student who is holding it to say the word out loud. Repeat a few times for them to get used to the idea.

Start the game all over but keep adding cards so that there are a few of them travelling. Say stop and have the kids call out the word they are holding at the moment.

Variations: There is a lot of potential for producing full sentences as soon as the kids get the idea and the key structure used will be related to the vocabulary, i.e. ‘I like’ with fruit, ‘I am wearing’ with clothes, ‘I can’ with verbs, ‘I’ve got’ with pets or toys, ‘I go to school by’ with transport etc.

This is also a great opportunity to teach the kids the word ‘nothing’.

9. Disappearing words (whole class)

Put five flashcards in a row, on the floor or up on the board, go from the beginning and call out all the words. Ask the kids to close their eyes and turn over the last card in a row. Call out all the words from the first one, in the same order and when you get to the last one, pause and wait for the students to say / shout / whisper the last word. Check quickly if they were right, show the cards to the kids, put it up covered again.

Ask the kids to close their eyes and turn over the last but one card. Ask the kids to open their eyes and call out all the words starting from the first one. When you get to the last but one, pause and wait for the kids to say the word, then the same with the fifth one. Proceed until all the words are covered up.

Variation: To help the kids remember, you can use a different gesture for each card, it can be either something related to the meaning of the word ie by miming the words or something that will help them remember ie knocking at the card, snapping, touching, clicking fingers, stroking it.

If you teach a big group, you can divide the class into two teams, one team will be holding the cards, one each, the other team will be guessing the words.

It might be also a good idea to use a full sentence ie I like to eat bananas, apples, peaches, plums and grapes, instead of single words.

10. Secret word! (whole class, pairs)

Revise the flashcards that you are going to be playing with so that the kids have a chance to become familiar with the images, the set of words and the colours. Then hold the flashcards to your chest. Ask ‘What’s the secret word?’ and model ‘Is it a kite?’ ‘No’. ‘Is it a doll?’ ‘No’ etc.

Variations: When they are playing the first time, they are quite likely to give you only separate words but it is worth encouraging them to produce full questions. You can either use ‘Is it…?’ or ‘Have you got…?’

Production: After a while, the students are given a chance to lead the game, first a student vs the rest of the group, later on in pairs, too.

*) ‘Punctuation marks’ are all the signals that the teacher uses to announce a start of a new activity. It can be clapping of the hands, it can be counting down from 5 to 1, it can be a bell, it can be snapping your fingers, it can be a chat ‘1, 2, 3! Eyes on me!’

Happy teaching, everyone!