Classroom activities for children

PRIMARY ACTIVITIES

Activity
Aim
Content
Requirement
Note

Slapping game
Review the learnt vocabulary
- Put the flashcards on the floor (or stick them on the board)
- 2 teams, each time have 1S from each team comes and plays the game
- T says one word, Ss have to slap the card illustrating that word. The quicker one will earn 1 point for his/her team
Toy racket (if available)



Rolling ball

Check the learnt content or chitchat at the beginning of the lesson

- T and Ss sit in a circle
- T says out loud one learnt modal sentence. Then roll the ball to one S (randomly) and that S has to produce a sentence similar to what T said.
E.g.: Clothes
T: Today, I wear T-shirt and trousers.
(roll the ball to student A, A is wearing a T-shirt and a skirt)
SA: Today, I wear T-shirt and skirt.
Small ball


Clapping hands
Keep silent
Draw attention
Create concentration
(anytime in class)

- T gets Ss familiar with a fixed hand-clapping tempo
- Whenever Ss lose concentration, chitchat, T claps hands and the whole class must do exactly the same
- When finishing, T and every S have to raise both hands to make sure that no one is doing personal business.





Using pitch
Practice pronunciation and generate interest
T specifies the sound pitch according to the altitudinal level of hand.
E.g.:
T reads aloud “SCHOOL”
Low pitch/softly – low hands
Gradually higher/more loudly - Gradually higher hands
When Ss pronounce the word correctly, T moves hands low/high randomly ( Ss have to say softly/loudly basing on T’s hand gestures





Tweet
Practice pronunciation and memorize new words
- T reads out loud one new word ( The whole class reads out loud that word together
- T whispers softly one word to 1S ( Ss deliver the information by whispering to others.
- The last S has to say out loud that word




The hot chair

Review
- Using flashcards
- 2 teams, each time, 1S comes and sits on the hot chair. This S chooses 1 cards and does not let the others see the card. Then asks the other Ss “What’s this?”. Ss from 2 teams have to guess the word. The team guesses the word correctly faster will get a point.
E.g.:
Flashcards about CLOTHES
-S sitting on the hot chair chooses the card of “SHOES” and asks the others “What’s this?”
- 2teams give answers until there is a correct answer.

 “You, please”
“ Yes, you’re right” …
“No, I’m sorry”
It is suggested that the S sitting on the hot should control the activity.
T should instruct Ss to use some phrases in order to call their friend politely, such as:
“You, please”
“ Yes, you’re right” …
“No, I’m sorry”


Make a line

Recall what have been learnt

- T can use flashcards
- 10’ before saying goodbye, T lets S put their books into the bags and line up in front of the door.
- T asks each S 1 question related to the learnt content. Within 3seconds, if S cannot answer, he/she has to move to the back of the line. By contrast, if S can answer right away, he/she can leave.



Memory Chains
This game works well with vocabulary sets such as food, drink, clothes…
Start the chain with a sentence “I went to the shops and bought some cheese”
Choose a pupil to add an item to the chain. Ex: “ I went to the shops and I bought some chesses and some tomatoes”
Continue with other pupils, each one adding an item to the list
The pupils can play this game in small groups, going round the group and adding items until one of the pupils makes a mistake.




Have you got …?
The game is for 3 players
Preparing 5 different vocabulary sets of picture card such as food, drink, clothes, sports, transports (20 cards )
Look at the cards on the table in 5 mins then mix the cards up
The players start with 4 cards each. Put the other 8 cards in a pile face-down on the table.
Ask questions and pick up cards to find pairs from one of the set: Food, Drink, Clothes, sports, transport
The winner is the player with the most pairs of cards




That’s my word
This game is ideal for smaller vocabulary sets (about 6 words)

Divide class into groups, each