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Games in English for preschoolers
Playful language learning develops children's ability to cooperate with each other, actively listen, develop auditory perception and obey the rules, and instills self-discipline skills.
Preschoolers are a special category of children who cannot yet focus their attention for a long time due to their age. Therefore, conventional training programs are not suitable for them. In order to optimize the learning process, you can use various techniques. Some teachers use different intonations in their voices, others turn the lesson into a fairy tale. We suggest you try to conduct various games: didactic, mobile, role-playing, phonetic, finger, card. Thanks to this method of discharging kids, you can turn a boring activity into a creative workshop, where each child plays a role and has a certain function. This helps children to socialize, develop communication skills.
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The use of games in learning English contributes to the consolidation of language material in children, the formation of skills and abilities of oral speech. Games should be appropriate for the level of preparation of children so that they can feel that they can speak a foreign language on an equal basis with everyone, and this feeling was enjoyable.
Playful language learning develops children's ability to cooperate with each other, actively listen, develop auditory perception and obey the rules, and instills self-discipline skills. These factors are very important in shaping the personal qualities of children as members of society.
Games for preschoolers on the topic "Food"
"Let's lay the table"
A table is placed in front of the kids with various toys in the form of fruits, vegetables and other products. One assistant is selected to carry out the leader's commands.
Example:
Take a melon. Put the melon on the table.
Take a bread. Put the bread on the table.
"Feed the Beast"
You need to prepare several small baskets with animal faces glued on. The task of the children is to throw fruits or vegetables into the baskets, which each of the animals eats. At the same time, the food that you throw must be called in English.
"Smilies"
Prepare a printout with photos of fruits, vegetables, or other foods. Opposite each of them there should be an empty column. The task of the children is to draw a happy or sad emoticon in front of the products and say in English “I like…”, “I don't like…”.
"Shopping"
The teacher says "Let's play shop" and selects the buyers and the seller. Children should act out the dialogue "In the store."
Example:
-May I come in? — Come in, please.
-Good morning! — Good morning!
-Give me, please, a cat. -Here you are.
-Thank you. goodbye. — Goodbye.
Games for kids on the topic "Animals"
"What can you do?"
The children are invited to imagine themselves in the role of an animal and think about what he can do. Then the facilitator asks each in turn the question “What can you do?” and they should say "I can jump/fly/swim/run".
"Find a baby for mom and dad"
In advance, you need to prepare pictures with images of a kitten, foal, calf and puppy and lay them out on the table. And put toys of cows, horses, cats and dogs on the body of the car. The teacher starts the game with a backstory: “One day, a calf, a kitten, a puppy and a foal ran away from their mothers and got lost. Alarmed and upset, the mothers went by car to look for them. Kitten , the smallest of all the cubs, stumbled and meowed. Children, how did he meow? (answer). "Cat" heard him and called: "Meow-meow." After that, the teacher calls one child from the group to take a cat out of the car, go to the table with pictures and find a baby cat there.
During this game, children learn the words: "Mother, father."
By the same principle, the game continues to search for the rest of the baby animals.
"Zoo"
Children sit in a circle and get a picture with their animal. You cannot show the picture to the rest of the group. The task of each child is to explain to the group what his animal looks like, what it eats and what it can do without naming it. The rest of the kids must guess who they are talking about and name this animal in English: “a cat, a dog, a tiger, a frog”.
"Snowballs"
The task of the presenter is to throw the ball to the children and name the animals in English. They catch the ball, translate the word and try to portray it with gestures.
"Guess who?"
The teacher prepares a toy house in advance and inserts pictures with animals into each window of the house. Children should take turns opening the windows and naming in English the animals they see in them.
"In zoo"
The whole group goes on an imaginary journey with the teacher to the zoo. On the way there, the children sing a song:
"We go, go, go
to the zoo,
to see brown bear
A big gray kangaroo!"
At the zoo, the teacher, pointing to pictures of animals, asks the children questions to which they answer:
-What is this? — This is a rabbit.
-Is this a little rabbit? No, this is a big rabbit.
-There are bears, tigers, lions, foxes, monkeys.
"Wake up the cat"
The teacher needs to prepare a cat mask or a toy. From the whole group, you need to choose one child who will be in the role of a cat. He sits in the center of the circle and “falls asleep”. The rest must take turns "waking up" the cat, making the sounds of various animals. The task of the cat is to guess which animal woke him up and name him in English.
"Show me, please"
The kids show the toys in the room, which the teacher calls in English. The task of the children is to repeat the name of the toys in English.
Example:
"Show me, please, a cat/crocodile, bear, fox."
"What's missing?"
Children at the command of the host " Close your eyes" close their eyes. The teacher hides some toy at this time. At the command “Open your eyes”, they open their eyes and guess which of the toys is missing. They call her in English.
"Yes/No"
The teacher shows the children a toy, calls it either correctly or incorrectly in English. They need to figure out where the mistake is and fix it.
Example:
-This is a dolphin.
-No! This is a lion.
"Large or small"
The teacher calls phrases, and the children squat down or stand up and stretch up, depending on whether the object is large or small. At this time, they repeat the phrase after the teacher.
Example:
-Big bear (children get up and stretch up);
-Little mouse (squat down).
"Who's come?"
You need to prepare a rope in advance and tie a bell to it. A bell with a rope is hung at the height of the children. During the game, children sit on chairs a short distance from the rope. The teacher calls the kids to him in turn and distributes the roles of different animals.
The first child runs up to the rope and calls twice.
Children ask: "Who came?"
Child: "Meow meow."
Children guess who could make this sound and name the animal in English. Then, the next person runs up and so on in a chain.
Games for preschoolers on the topic "Parts of the body"
"Hey Snowman"
The guys collect a snowman to the song.
I went walking
through a winter wonderland
and spied a frosty snowman
who needed a hand.
Hey, Mr. Snowman, what do you need?
“I need BLACK EYES. Put them on me."
Hey, Mr. Snowman, what do you see?
"I see an ORANGE CARROT. Put it on me."
Hey, Mr. Snowman, now what do you see?
"I see a BLACK TOP HAT. Put it on me."
Hey, Mr. Snowman, now what do you see?
"I see some BROWN STICKS. Put them on me."
Hey, Mr. Snowman, now what do you see?
“I see a GREEN SCARF. Put it on me."
Hey, Mr. Snowman, now what do you see?
"I see some PINK MITTENS. Put them on me."
Hey, Mr. Snowman, now what do you see?
"I see some BLUE BUTTONS. Put them on me."
Hey, Mr. Snowman, now what do you see?
“I see some YELLOW BOOTS. Put them on me."
Hey, Mr. Snowman, now what do you see?
"I see the coolest snowman ever. Me!"
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"Show me where the pen is?"
The teacher calls the children one by one and asks to show and name the part of the body in English.
Example:
"Show me, please, nose."
"Say a word"
The host calls one of the parts of the body, and the children say that you can do this with a part of the body.
Example:
"Hand" - hand - clap, take objects.
"We glue the monster"
The teacher lays out large numbers of body parts cut out of paper on the table. The task of the children is to count the limbs, glue a monster out of them and name its body parts in English.
"Touch"
This is a ball game. The host calls a part of the body and throws the ball to the child, and he must touch this part of the body with the ball.
Games for kids on the theme "Colors"
"Feathers"
Toddlers attach colored feathers to a peacock, calling the color in English.
"White feather, white feather, what do you see?"
"I see a gold feather next to me."
"Gold feather, gold feather, what do you see?"
And so it continues until all the feathers are attached.
"Let's get acquainted"
The teacher lures the children with a new guest - the Dwarf. He says that his name is "red". He comes from a red country. As a gift to children, he brings objects only in red. The guys lay out flat and voluminous objects on white sheets, find red ones among them and circle them with a pencil of the same color. The host conducts the game "Find the same", where children choose red objects according to the model.
Exercise "One, two, three, bring red" - the children find red objects in the room.
Similarly, a gnome of all primary colors comes to visit to get to know the kids.
"Treat the Dwarfs with Fruits and Vegetables"
The game consists in the fact that gnomes of different colors came to visit the guys. Children treat the gnomes with different vegetables and fruits that suit their color: the yellow gnome loves banana, the purple gnome loves eggplant, and the orange gnome loves carrots. At this time, the children should name colors in English that suit the gnomes.
"Who lives in the house?"
The host prepares in advance figurines of gnomes of different colors and houses of the corresponding colors for them. The task of the children is to settle the gnomes in the houses of the corresponding color. Settling the gnomes, the children name the colors in English.
"Traffic Lights"
The host and the players stand opposite each other at some distance. The teacher in English calls any color. Players must find on their clothes, demonstrate and go to the side of the driver. The one who does not have the right color should count "one, two, three!" Run over to the opposite side. If the leader catches one of the children, then the caught one becomes the leader.
"Traffic light"
It is necessary to fix the colors in the same order as at the traffic light. The children are indicated the starting point - the line of the pedestrian crossing and the finish line, where the leader stands. He shouts "Green color", which means: you can go, "Red color" - the children freeze. The one who moved to the “red light” is eliminated, and the winner becomes the leader.
Games for preschoolers on the theme "Numbers"
"Engine"
The teacher will need a train to play in English. He will be the driver, and the numbers (numbers of seats in the car) will be the passengers. At each station, the driver announces the number of the platform and the number of passengers who must board the car. The child puts down their number.
"Wolf and Bunnies"
The wolf sits in the center of the circle and sleeps, and the bunnies run around and sing: "What's the time, Mr. Wolf?" The wolf says a number. Bunnies count in English from one to the number named by the wolf and come up to him. As soon as they count to the required number, the wolf jumps up and starts catching the rabbits.
"The reporter"
One of the children takes on the role of a reporter and interviews the rest of the children.
Example:
How old are you? — I'm 5 years old. "How old are you? - I am 5 years old".
"Let's Jump"
The leader calls the number and says what the guys should do.
Example:
"Jump 3 times!", "Sit down 3 times"
"Name the number"
The teacher draws some numbers on sheets of paper and shows them to the children. They look at them, call them in Russian and English and remember them. Then the guys on the team close the chapter, and the host at this time removes one number. Children open their eyes and guess which number is missing.
«1-1-1»
"one, one, one"
I can run ”- the kids run in place.
"Two, two, two -
I can jump two "- jump in place.
"Three, three, three
Look at me ”- everyone gets into a funny pose.
"How?"
There are several toys on the table. First, children count them in English and memorize their number. At the command “Close your eyes”, they close their eyes, and the presenter removes the toy. At the command “Open your eyes”, the children open their eyes and count how many toys are left.
How many? - "Seven!"
Card games for preschoolers
"What changed?"
The teacher lays out a card with the image of various objects on the table. Children look and remember the location of each of them. One child turns away, and the rest of the guys swap two cards. The guesser must find what has changed and name these words in English.
"What is it?"
The box contains cards with pictures of various objects. The host gives each player one card and asks not to show it to anyone. The task of the players is to characterize their card by properties and qualities without naming it. The winner is the one who guesses the most images and names them in English.
"What do you see?"
The teacher prepares a card with a small hole in the middle. This card is for covering picture cards. Children are given the opportunity to drive this card through the pictures and call in English, which turned out to be depicted in the center.
"Helpers"
Players receive cards with pictures of family members and name each in English. After that, they tell how they help them at home.
Active games for kids
"The corridor"
Children break into pairs, hold hands and raise them above their heads, forming a corridor. The host passes along the corridor and chooses one of the players in any pair. Then he asks him: “Who are you? What is your name? » The child should answer: “I am a girl/a boy. My name is…”. The host continues: "Come here!", and takes the player by the hand. The kid answers: “With pleasure!”. After that, a new couple passes along the corridor and gets up after the rest of the players. The new host becomes the one who was left without a pair.
"Fun Charge"
The teacher calls the commands in English, and the children perform them only if they are preceded by the word “please”, Example: “Please, stand up!”. If this word is not present, then the children do nothing. The one who incorrectly executed the command is out of the game.
"I can…"
The leader counts to five: “One, two, three, four, five!” Then he says "Stop!" While counting, children perform arbitrary movements, and on “Stop!” freeze. After that, the host "revives" the players. He approaches each child in turn and asks: “What can you do?”. The child "dies off", answering: "I can run" - depicts the desired action.
More information about outdoor games in English lessons here.
Conclusion
These are just examples of games where you can change the rules and conditions. It all depends on your imagination and ability to interest children. In the comments below the article, you can leave your proven game options to help novice English teachers diversify the learning process with preschoolers.
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In addition, you can learn new methods of teaching young and middle-aged children in online TEFL / TESOL courses, after passing which you will receive an international certificate. Courses can now be purchased at a 50% discount!