Board Games

Board games could be a useful tool for teachers to make our classes different and dynamic, in addition students can practice english through this type of games.

1. TWISTER

This game is useful to practice colors and body parts, but you can customize it to practice other type of vocabulary, kids like this game because they can move and learn while they are having fun. What you will need are the carpet of twister and the board, but this only work with a small number of students, however you also can make it with your students by cutting color paper into circles with different colors and paste them in the floor, you can vary the number of circles according of the number of your students.

2. SCRABBLE

With this game we can practice with our students vocabulary and we can know how much our kids know and what are their difficulties in terms of vocabulary.

This game consist on a board were you can put the letters and it also gives you points according to the level of difficulty of the word if it is long or if the letter is difficult. Having the board game could be useful but we must have more than one, we should play it with a limited number of students or having our kids in teams. Another option is to create our own scrabble (we can use the help of the students) by cutting letters and assign them points, the board is not necessary and also we can play it in paper (by pairs) having an initial word and then students must write words with the letters of the written word.

3. GUESS WHO?

with this game you can practice physical appearance, the original game has two board with different persons to describe, but we can modify the game and the character according to wr needs, or according to the topic of the lesson, we can print charaters like animals, famous people, sports, tv programs, etc and play with them. 

4. BINGO

this game could work to practice numbers, kids like to play this game, they will have fun and learn. In a Bingo you will have some boards with different numbers and the word Bingo in the upper part of each one, also you will have a big board with all the numbers and it avoids repetion of numbers or confusion and finally you will found all the numbers cut, so the objective of the game is to cover all the numbers on the board of the players. As teacher you can change roles with your students and play with them. You can customize your bingo and create boards with images of clothes, animals, sports, etc.

5. LOTTERY

Here you will have some boards with images (this images could change according to your objective) and the images cut individualy, here you can practice any vocabulary topic, studets will have the boards and the teacher or another students will pick one out of all and tell to the other what it is, he/she can describe the picture or say the name. the students that have all the images corresponding to his/her board wins.

6. MORE GAMES

Here we would show you some pages with some free printable board games to play with your students according to the lesson.

• iSLCOLLECTIVE

https://en.islcollective.com/resources/search_result?Tags=board+game&numrows=12&page=1#

• eslgamesworld

http://www.eslgamesworld.com/members/games/printables/index.html

Young language learners between 9 and 12 years old

Working with kids between these ages could be easier as now they see the world differently by recognising the difference between real facts and fiction. They become a little independent, and start showing interest by asking more questions. 

Learners between nine and twelve years old are already competent users of the language. 

Activities

1. Air words

This activity is very easy, useful and funny for children that already know the alphabet and they can read and write. The teacher writes a list of some recently learnt vocabulary. Working in pairs, students sit opposite each other and spell out their words in the air with their fingers. Students have to say the words that their partner spells. 

2. Realia race 

Vocabulary: Adjectives and classroom objects

Grammar: This/ these/ those/ that

Everybody stand in the middle of the classroom. The teacher is going to say some adjectives. The first person to call out something in the classroom described by that adjective gets a point. 

- Students have to call out the object and then repeat "This is a ... it is ...."

- The kid with most points at the end is the winner. 

SOME USEFUL ADJECTIVES: 

blue, bright, big, warm, new, old, soft, long, tiny, yellow, thin, round, small...

3. Simon says

Vocabulary: Any kind 

Grammar: Action verbs/commands

These is a very popular and known game, usually use to implement TPR in your classes. You can practice many topics with it. 

The teacher (or a student) will play as Simon. The students must listen carefully to the teacher and they have to do as Simon says only by hearing "Simon says..." at the beginning of the sentence, if Simon does not say his name, students will not do anything. 

EXAMPLE: 

- You can practice the parts of the body [feet, ears, eyes, head, legs, toes, fingers, knees, teeth, nose, lips, hands, stomach, shoulder, thong]

- Use different verbs to notice who is not paying attention (you must explain the verbs before starting the activity) For example: MOVE your hands. STAND UP. SIT DOWN. TOUCH your ears. JUMP on your right foot. 

NOTE: If you notice that one of your students is not participating, you can ask them to play as Simon. 

4. Cooking race 

Vocabulary: Food

Grammar: Simple present

- Students will compete in groups (In our case five people per group)

- On the board the teacher writes ten requirements for a shopping list: 

[Something salty, something sweet, a kind of meat or fish, a green vegetable, a round fruit, a dairy product, hot drink, junk food, something healthy, your favorite food]

- Each group has to write a ten-item shopping list complying with the requirements that the teacher wrote. 

- They will have 2 minutes to write the list. 

- Ask your students what they like or do not like.

5. My relatives

Vocabulary: Members of the family 

Grammar: Possessive with 's, present progressive 

- In pairs, students tell each other the names of your relatives. Example: My mother's name is Susan. 

[father, mother, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, grandfather, grandmother, cousin]

- Students tell each other what they think their relatives are doing at this moment. Example: My mother is working.

- Students have to draw one of the actions that their partner described and then explain it in front of the class. Example: She is John's mother, her name is Susan. She is working. 

6. Picture board

Vocabulary: Any kind

Work in two teams. Students have to take turns to come to the board. The teacher is going to give their students a job (for example) [Write them on a piece of paper or whisper it]. Each student have sixty seconds to draw pictures to help their team guess the job. They must not write any letters or words.

[doctor, policeman, teacher, chef, soldier, vet, secretary, firefighter, artist]

7. Practicing colors

In pairs, students will write a list of things that are the color the teacher says. Example: WHITE - snow, paper, clouds... 

- The teacher will give them thirty second before he/she says another color. 

- Each team will get a point for each thing that the other teams didn't put. The team with more points is the winner. 

Pre-kids activities

Working with kids under six years old might be more difficult than working with older young learners. 

Pre-kids are between four and five years old. Those children are old enough to walk and talk, but they are not ready to go to school. Their abilities are limited, as most of them cannot write or read.

ACTIVITIES

Coloring is always a good option with pre-kids, as long as the activity is connected with a relevant topic of the class. Coloring might be useful to practice vocabulary (colors, body parts, animals, places of the city, objects, parts of the house, etc.) or to connect our students with some cultural aspects (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, San Valentine’s day, etc)

Some useful worksheets: 

1. Coloring numbers:

-Ask your students to think about the color that each number would be: "If number one were a color what color would it be?" 

- After coloring each number, ask your students to walk around the classroom searching for people with the same number and color. 

- At the end they will know who is the partner they have more things in common with. The teacher can write some couples or groups that had some numbers with the same color in common. 

NOTE: To make sure that any of your students will be alone at the end, you can ask them to take out the number of colors of the numbers they have. Here we have numbers from zero to five (six numbers) so they will take out six colors. 

2. Color and answer: 

Here, our children will practice vocabulary (animals and numbers) and they will also practice their skills counting. 

- Ask your students to color the image. 

- On the board, the teacher writes the number and the transcription of it in words.  EXAMPLE: 1=one, 2=two, 3=three... 

- Bring some toys or different objects to the classroom to help your students counting and to practice before answering. Students must repeat each time the teacher says a number. 

- Leave your students answer the worksheet alone, then correct with everybody. 

 Some other worksheets "color and answer" 

3. I like.../I don't like... 

Some worksheets contain only the vocabulary that you need. Isolated words are not very useful to improve their language learning process. Teachers must connect the new vocabulary with some easy and practical phrases. 

- Ask children to color the images. 

- Repeat with your students the names of the animals (objects, parts of the body, colors or any other vocabulary you have) 

- Bring some extra images to paste then on the board face down, each student will go to the board and take one of the images, they have five second to tell the name of the animal. 

SOME BOARD GAMES: (Extra-material)

- Sometimes, teachers have some minutes more and no plan to develop. These activities are funny and take long time. Students will be relaxed and they love to complete these kind of activities.

4. Listening and repeating 

Most of the times we think that pre-kids are not ready for "difficult" activities as the ones that involve listening or speaking skills development.

Kids have the ability to repeat what they hear, so you can present some videos for them to repeat and learn.

- They can learn the alphabet with a song.

- You can add some movements. EXAMPLE: Stand up if you hear a vowel. Shake your hands if you hear a consonant.

Alphabet song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAlX1V3lK5s&t=38s

BINGO 

- You can practice the alphabet with this classic song 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mmF8zOlh_g

Farm animals: 

- Teacher can play a mime game with the students by producing the sounds of each animal.

   - Each student will come to the front.

   - The teacher will show the name of drawing of the animal to the student and he/she has to produce the sound that the animal does. 

   - The rest of the class will guess the animal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXEq-QO3xTg

Old MacDonald had a farm 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oYKonYBujg

Young Language Learners Between 6 and 8 Years Old

Working with kids between these ages may be easier because they are developing their main skills ( Writing, reading, listening and speaking) in addition they already know  how to write, they talk about what they like, they have an opinion about it, and they can defend it, they enjoy others company however they have a short attention span, so they may get distracted if there is one long activity.

ACTIVITIES

1. Videos are often a good option to introduce topics, but they must be complemented with other activities to make the significant. We can ask to the students relevant and challenging questions about the video, we can make predictions about what is going to happen in the video, how it is going to end or students also can use their imagination and change the end.

Examples of videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jBfb33_KHU&t=35s (To introduce Clothes according to the weather)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnfTHsdTodA (To introduce Food)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkHQ0CYwjaI (To inroduce body parts)

2. You can also use surveys in the class to promote interaction among students, and to practice the main topic of the lesson.
Example:

Clothes and weather activity:

The teacher gives a survey to each pair of students or to every student with questions that they are going to ask to their classmates, they must choose three partners and they will ask what do they wear when it is ________?

3. What is the moster eats/wears/does/etc?

In their notebooks/ piece of paper, each student will create and draw a monster,the can color them, dress them or desing them how they want, then they will write what does the monster eat/ wears / does and why, at the end, students will socialize and show to the class their monsters and tell what do they eat/wears/ does.

Example:

-This is Mike, and he eats junk food because it gives gime energy, and makes him grow.

4. “WHAT DOES HE/SHE LIKE?”

In pairs. Students will read some information about some famous people. All this information is about food they like and do not like. Students will complete a chart, answering if these famous people like or do not like some food. At the end, the teacher will ask them about the food they like and if it is healthy or unhealthy for them. 

Warm Up Activities With Songs

Here you could find some warm ups songs to play with kids also you can customize this songs and adapt them to the topic of your lesson.

Songs will always be a good option to start the class:

1. Boom Chicka boom

Teacher can assign different styles and movements to practice the main topic of the class. For example: “Lion style” (To practice vocabulary) kids will sing the chorus as a lion does.

This could be an effective way to implement TPR in your classes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2XVfTzel8E&t=158s 

2. Move and Freeze

In this song teacher and students will dance or move and freeze as the song says, this could work to introduce topics as body parts or actions verbs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=388Q44ReOWE&t=11s

3. Go Bananas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfhzSNW0NmE

This song could work to wake up the students as they have to move and dance, also this will prepare them to start the lesson.

4. Hokey Pokey 

In this song students can practice body parts, commands, prepositions, etc. It is useful to conect what the students are learning with movements. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZinb6rVozc

5. Baby Shark

The teacher could introduce family members with this song, children will have a fun moment acting as shaks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqZsoesa55w

Useful Pages

Here I am going to show you some pages that will be usefull for you at the moment of planning your classes and creating activities for your students.

1. British Concil And British Council Kids:

This is a page where you could find a lot of teaching aids, it will help you to plan your lessons.
Here your will see:

• Activities (according to levels)
• Songs
• Videos with stories
• Articles for teachers
• Other teaching tools like posters, flascarsd, etc.

https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/es 

2. English with Mr. Alonso
This is a page focused in young learners (kids) here you will find:

• Activities 
• songs
• worksheets
• stories
• games
• videos
• books

All these according to the level or grade of your students.

http://misteralonso.blogspot.com.co/

3. Busy Teacher

In this page you will find a lot of aids for english teachers like

• Printable worksheets (Acoording to topics, grammar, speaking, reading, listening, writing and pronunciation)
• ESL Articles
• Store of book (Busy teacher's books)
• FlashCards 
• Warmer, fillers, ice breakers and more.

http://busyteacher.org/

4. kahoot

It it a platform were you can make interactive trivias with your students, what you will need is a cellphone, computer or tablet, you can desing a trivia or a quiz based on your necessities or select one from kahoot, it will give you a PIN and your students from their cellphones or tablets and play with you.

https://kahoot.com         https://kahoot.it/