Showing posts with label Warm up. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Warm up. Show all posts

Saturday, 20 October 2012

100 Formas de Animar Grupos: Juegos para Usar en Talleres, Reuniones y la Comunidad

This is a resource material that has been developed to encourage participation in practice.

It is a compilation of animation techniques, icebreakers and games that can be used by anyone who is working with a group of people, either in a workshop, in a training group, in a meeting or in the community.

Teachers must use games for several different reasons, including to help children to know each other, increasing energy levels and enthusiasm, encouraging the development of co-operation or children think about a particular problem.

The games that help children to know each other and help to relax are called icebreakers.

When they look sleepy or tired, animation techniques can be used to get them moving and to give them more enthusiasm (stirrers).

Other games can be used to help children think about problems and can help solve problems that people may face when they work together.

Games can also help children to think creatively and laterally.

Although this is a material developed for adult groups, most of the games can be easily adapted to primary or secondary levels.

Thursday, 20 September 2012

Waiting games for fast finishers, classroom password, breaking the ice, or... whatever you may find them useful for!

Cockroaches and Ladybugs: Waiting games for fast finishers, classroom passwo...:

I have found this list of  "20 (Almost) Effortless Waiting Games For Your Kids" in a curious web site called More Than Mommies. The idea to make this list came out when you are with your kids "stuck waiting and patience is growing thin".

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

Ice breakers, knowing each other and five minutes Activities for Interaction

Back to work, back to reality! 
Ready to start back?

There is nothing most intimidating for teachers that coping with a large group of children who you don't know at the begining of school year. And this can be very scary for the children, too!

Getting students to feel at ease in a new classroom usually takes a bit of time and work. English language teachers are always looking for "good communicative ice breakers" that breaks this initial "ice", between us and the children.

We need ice breakers to reduce tension in a particular group, to help children to get to know know each other's names (and you to get to know them, too), to involve them into oral language production, to facilitate conversations between individuals, to allow interaction in the groupand to encourage friendships.

I have listed some good ice-breaker activities and games web sites, and other materials I use with my students.

Find them in Cockroaches and Ladybugs: Ice breakers, knowing each other and five minutes activities for Interaction

Explore by yourself!

Thursday, 24 May 2012

Crossing the river

-Resources: A picture or flashcard to represent each vocabulary item or selected letter of the alphabet.
Time guide:10 minutes

Preparation: create some space across the middle of the classroom.

Activity: Use the cleared space in the classroom and place the flashcards in a line on the floor with the pictures facing up.
Divide the class into two teams, with one team standing at each end of the line pictures.
If necessary check that the children know how to play ‘Rock, paper, scissors’ by practising this with the whole class.
Each student stand opposite another child with their fists clenched. They both move their fists up and down as they count 1, 2 3 together and out loud. On the third count each child chooses between showing rock, paper or scissors with their hand.
One child wins , rock beats scissors, paper beats rock, and scissors beats paper. If the same gesture is chosen by both children, they simply repeat the game until one of them wins.

 The first child from each team walks along beside the line of pictures, each starting at opposite ends line. They have to take turns to say what each picture or letter is as they reach it. The rest of their team can join in by saying each item.

When the two players meet the play’ Rock, paper,scissors’. Whoever wins stays where they are, and the other player goes to the back of their team’s line.
The next player in the losing team now starts walking along the line of pictures saying what each picture is,and the winning player also continues. When they meet, they play ‘Rock,paper,scissors’.
This continues until one team member manages to cross the river, in other words, reaches the opposite end of the line of pictures. A point is scored for each child that crosses the river.

The game can end when all of one team reach the other side – but that could take a very long time! Or you can play for a set period of time, stopping when choose, and the winning team is the one with the most points or with the player furthest along the line.

Thursday, 10 May 2012

Concentration. A five minutes warm up activity

"Concentration" is a 5 minutes warm up activity to foster concentration and to involve children into oral production. It is a very good way to start the class when you need to focus in one particular topic, working out abilities such as listening and social skills.

Depending of the level you can increase difficulty by demanding the right phonetics, working out grammar items (adverbs, prepositions...) or increasing speed.


Sunday, 6 May 2012

Three minutes teacher

"Three minutes teacher" is a warm up activity that can be done in upper primary ESL class. It is an activity to promote speaking, oral autonomy and interaction.

Once a week a student presents the class for 3 minutes. Voluntarily, she or he prepares a warm up activity to get into English. For example, asking questions about the weekend, showing a picture, telling a story or any personal information, a song, a chant, a video…

Any possibility is fine. They have to tell the teacher in advance what they are going to do. We can record the presentation or take a picture of him/her being a teacher.