Archive for the 'Activites' Category

Dec

Halloween 2011

So it’s almost Christmas. Just a small detail. I was going back over some older posts and realized I never put up the Halloween pictures. I don’t have too many because I was too busy manning the craft zone. We made door knockers. I took a template and added clip art. As the kids were coloring, I was laminating and cutting. It was a crazy day. Not too many kids dressed up this year.

posted by Kathryn in Activites,Arts and Crafts,Celebrations,Fun things,Holidays,Maple Square,Pictures,Students and have No Comments

Dec

Really Old Pictures

I thought I’d show you some of my pictures from my first year of teaching. It seems like ages ago. I still remember some of those kids and wonder how they’re doing today. The oldest ones would be out in the world as adults. The youngest, probably in middle school. So these are just random pictures from OeDae in Yangsan, South Korea.

posted by Kathryn in Activites,Games,Pictures,Students,Teaching and have No Comments

Dec

It’s a Yo-Yo

I thought I’d post a quick video of Ivy 2 class singing one of the songs out of their Let’s Go 1 book. They’re mostly 1st graders, but a few older student. At the time of this video, they were learning shapes and toys. You know, I wish my beginning Korean book was set up more like ESL books. It’s nice to learn to say your name and everything, but then chapter two shot up about 2 levels. Alas, that’s probably more of my problem.

So please enjoy “It’s a Yo-Yo”.

posted by Kathryn in Activites,Maple Square,Music,Students,Videos and have No Comments

Nov

Hot Potato – Version 2.0

A few weeks ago I wrote about using Hot Potato as a speaking game in the ESL classroom. Well, here is version 2.0. As I was playing with McQueen class (an older, low intermediate class) I decided I shouldn’t have to do all the work. Why yes, I can be lazy late on Thursday.

You play Version 2.0 the same as the original version. But instead of the teacher asking questions, the student who gets the hot potato has to ask a question of another student in the class. I think this is a much better version. Asking questions is a skill that gets practiced less as students progress up the ESL ladder. And if I don’t have to ask the questions, I can pay closer attention to the problems students have in forming questions and making appropriate responses.

If I get really motivated, I’ll make a dedicated hot potato mp3 that I can just put on my iPod. That would reduce the time I spent stabbing at the pause button and I can pay more attention to potential disasters.

Try it out. As always let me know how it goes.

posted by Kathryn in Activites,Games,Speaking and have No Comments

Oct

Speaking Games – Hot Potato

As ESL students get older, they tend to clam up. Try teaching a book called “Speaking Tutor” to two mute fifth graders. Isn’t puberty fun?

Unfortunately I don’t have access to any sort of technology in the classroom. I came across a (flash I think) speaking games that reminds me of hot potato. In this game music played while students passed a ball of paper (personally I’d use my beach ball). When the music stopped (controlled by the teacher), a question came up in the game. The person with the ball had to answer the question.

I think I’m going to replicate this with just paper. Print a question on a piece of paper, and ball it up. Use your CD player with music of your choice. When you hit pause, the person has to unball the paper and answer the question.

I can actually see this being a great icebreaker game with higher level classes or even small adult classes.

Try it in your classroom and let me know how it goes. I’ll be sure to try it with target language (younger kids) after our test week is over.

posted by Kathryn in Activites,Games,Speaking and have Comment (1)

Oct

Board Games

Yet another way to have fun in class. No need to commercial games. A big piece of paper and a meandering path from “your school” to “home” is all you need. Add a few jump forward and jump back spaces and you’re on your way. I use magnets to attach the board to the errr, board. I also found “pool” magnets that have numbers on them. Perfect markers for teams. Add a die (or dice depending on how big your game board is) and you’re finished.

Now what to do. Higher level students, questions and answers. Lower level students, vocabulary (picture or word flashcards) or target language. Be creative. Only you know what your students need.

posted by Kathryn in Activites,Games and have Comment (1)

Oct

Teacher May I?

Remember the old game “Mother May I?” This is a variation on the game. I use it primarily as a spelling game, but it could be used as a speaking or question and answer game. I have three bags. Easy questions (typically review) are “baby steps”. Normal questions (generally current material) are “regular steps”. Then I have a bag for “giant steps” that are things that might be just above the students’ current level. We all know you always have one or two students in a class that are more advanced.

I start the game with a round of rock, scissors, paper to determine order. Use your favorite method. The first student says “Teacher, may I take N ____ steps?” Where N is a number and ____ is the type of step. My only ground rule is the most giant steps a person can take on a round is 1 and the most regular steps is 2. This gives less confident students a chance to keep up. If the student is correct, they move forward. If they are incorrect they have to move back 1 step of the size they chose.

I’ve tried it with a small class and it worked well. I don’t know how well it would work with a large class unless you divide them up into separate groups.

If you try this, drop me a line and let me know how it works.

posted by Kathryn in Activites,Games,Phonics,Spelling and have No Comments