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Games in English lessons in elementary school
Many teachers have to deal with a situation where children in elementary school quickly get tired of a monotonous lesson, the level of attention and concentration tends to zero. What to do in this case? The answer is simple: you need to diversify the lesson with what elementary school students like - games. This is a good technique in organizing classes, which will help you interest the children and captivate them, activate the thought process and creativity.
After all, the game is exactly what is understandable and natural for children in grades 1-4. And when learning a foreign language such as English, the use of games is a must. They will help the children master large amounts of material and systematize this knowledge.
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Games in English lessons can be focused on the topics that you cover in class. For example, phonetic, Spelling, didactic, communicative, grammar, lexical. Each of them will be useful and interesting for children. After all, by including games in the learning process, you help the student:
- learn the material and expand vocabulary,
- repeat and consolidate vocabulary in English,
- hear information,
- develop auditory reaction and auditory memory,
- speech reaction in the process of communication,
- activate and stimulate cognitive activity,
- remove the language and psychological barrier, the fear of speaking English,
- relieve fatigue and stress of students in the classroom,
- to teach to express thoughts in their logical sequence.
Let us remind English teachers that in such games it is necessary to take into account the age of students, their level of knowledge, and the general psychological picture of the class. In this way, you will be able to involve every student in the class in the learning process, increase their motivation and stimulate activity in the lesson.
We have prepared examples of games adapted for students in grades 1-2 and grades 3-4.
Games in English for grades 1 and 2
"Be quick"
All students are divided into two teams. During the draw, the team that will start the game is selected. One of the players first calls the word in English. Then the representatives of the teams in turn must name the words that begin with the letter of the previous word. Who could not come up with a word is out of the game. The team with the most players left wins. Example: "Aunt? telephone? Elephant? tiger".
"Who knows the parts of the body?"
The students are divided into two teams. The task of the presenter is to give the representatives of both teams tasks: "Touch your legs", "Show your nose" and others. The team that completes the task correctly receives one point.
"Who knows the colors best?"
The host calls the colors in English. The guys should show objects in the class or clothes of the color that the leader named. The team with the most correct items wins.
"Seasons"
Two leaders are selected from the class. Players agree on who is thinking what word. For example, words like flowers, grass, mouse, fox. One driver says: “I like flowers. I like foxes. I like grass". The students who have thought of these words stand next to their leader. The second leader pronounces sentences with his own words next. The one with the most team members next to them wins.
"Guess the word?"
The teacher guesses the words on the studied topic and asks the students to guess them. Students ask him: "Is this a...?". And so on until the word is guessed. The one who guessed the word becomes the leader and guesses a new word.
"Home. school. Zoo"
The teacher approaches each child and names the topic: home, school or zoo. The student must name any word on a given topic, without repeating with previous players. The one who could not name a word on the topic is out of the game.
"The chain of words"
The host calls the day of the week in Russian and throws the ball to the student. He, in turn, must name this day of the week in English. You can complicate the task a little: the host will ask “What day is before (after) Tuesday?”. In this game, you can change the days of the week for colors, names of months, numerals.
"Snowball"
The game is played as an individual competition. The task of the children is to come up with words on a certain topic and name them along with all the words that the rivals came up with. The one who could not come up with his own word or did not remember what other players said is out.
"Do you have...?"
Four people stand near the blackboard facing the class. They hold toy animals behind their backs. Those who are sitting in their seats must guess the animals by asking the question: “Do you have...?” or "Is it...?"
"I can't see"
The teacher prepares toys in advance and puts them on the table. Children examine them carefully and memorize. Then they turn away and the teacher hides one of the toys. The task of the kids is to answer which of the toys is missing and name the rest: "I can see... I can't see..."
"Deaf phone"
The guys are divided into two teams and line up in a chain. The first student in the column comes up with a word and whispers it into the ear of the next member of his team. The last person to hear the word should raise their hand and say it in English. The team that gets it right first wins.
"What's your name?"
The children sit in a circle, clap their hands and knees twice, ask the question: “What's your name?” Then they take turns clapping their hands and knees twice and answering: "My name is...".
"Guess by voice"
The students take turns leading and go one by one to the board, standing with their backs to the class. The teacher at this time points to one of the students. This child says "Hello!". The task of the driver is to guess who it was by voice: “Are you...?” Answers for him: "Yes, I'm... No, I'm...". Then the players change places.
"Flower-seven-flower"
The teacher has prepared cards in the form of flower petals of different colors on the table. The guys take turns approaching the table, take the petals and attach them to a special circle in the form of a flower core. At this time, they should say: "I like red", the color changes depending on what color their card is.
"Swap Places"
Each student has a card with a number in their hands. The card must be held so that all other participants can see it. The driver calls two numbers: "One-six". Those in whose hands these numbers should quickly switch places.
"Memorize the Word"
Participants of the game must prepare pictures of their relatives in advance or bring their photos from home. The leader calls the word: "A brother", the participants in the game in response show a drawing or photograph of their brother and repeat this word in English. In case of a mistake, the child gives the drawing. The winner is the one who retains all the drawings and photos.
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Games in English for grades 3 and 4
"The circus"
The students play in pairs. Their task is to prepare a circus performance of a trained animal. They decide for themselves who will be the trainer and who will play the role of the animal. Pairs take turns coming to the board, and the trainer introduces his animal: “I have a dolphin. My dolphin can swim. My dolphin can jump". The student in the role of an animal performs these actions. After that, the guys change places and continue the performance already in the role of other animals.
"Name the sixth"
The task of the driver is to list 5 words from the topic studied, for example, 5 numbers, 5 animals, 5 family members, 5 professions. The person pointed to by the facilitator should quickly add another title on the topic without repeating the listed words. If he managed to do this, then he becomes the next driver.
"Game of Captains"
The captains of the two teams are given a bag containing 2 toys. Captains must describe their toy in English without naming it. Guess the guys from the other team. For example, "It's an animal. It's lives in Africa. It's grey. It likes grass" - an elephant.
"Pantomime"
One person from the class comes to the blackboard and shows some action, for example, on the topic “Household duties”. And the other children should guess and call in English what he is doing: “Marina is washing up”, “Nikita is doing the laundry”, “Lena is ironing her clothes, etc.”.
"Edible/Inedible"
The kids line up. The leader throws the ball to them in turn, naming the word in English. If it can be eaten, the child catches the ball. If the object is inedible, the ball is beaten off. The one who responded correctly takes one step forward, the one who reacted incorrectly remains in place.
"Sounds"
To play, you need to make several chairs in a circle. teacher announces the main letter, for example "M". The children begin to walk around the chairs while the teacher slowly says any words in English: “sun, house, bird...” As soon as he says the word with the letter M: “mouse or monster”, the children should be ahead of other participants take a seat on chairs. The last person to sit down is out.
"Duel"
Two players stand with their backs to each other. In their hands they have one card with an image. There is a countdown to five. Every second they take one step forward. On the fifth - they turn to each other and the one who first calls what is shown on the opponent's card wins.
"Guess"
The teacher prepares before the game a tray with random items: books, pencils, toys, flowers, or whatever is at hand. Blindfolds the child and asks him to touch, feel and loudly pronounce the name of the object in English. For guessing the word, he gets one point. The player gets an extra point if he spells the word correctly. The one who scores the most points wins.
"Dash"
The teacher draws a straight line with chalk or sticky tape. Marks one side of a string as "true" and the other side as "false". The participants of the game at this time stand on this line. The teacher asks any question. If the students think it's true, they go to the "true", if false - "false". Counting is carried out: those who answered correctly receive one point. A point is deducted for each mistake.
"Insert a letter"
The teacher writes down words with missing letters on the board, and the students, in turn, must fill in these gaps with the missing letters. For example: "b*ll - ball, bl*ck - black, mo*key - monkey".
"Grammar detective"
They write on the board or hand out cards with text or individual sentences. The task of the students is to find a noun and explain why it should be preceded by the article "a", "an" or "the".
"Room buttle"
This game is reminiscent of the well-known game "sea battle". Two players draw a plan of the room. Furniture and its quantity are negotiated in advance. Participants must guess its location by asking appropriate questions.
For example, "Are there a cupboard in the middle of the room?", the second player must answer: "Yes, there is/No, there are not." The winner is the one who fills the room with the corresponding pieces of furniture faster than his opponent.
Conclusion
By including such interesting games in English lessons, teachers provide younger students with a good and strong memorization of the material. At the same time, the guys will not get tired of boring memorization and uninteresting training exercises on knowledge of grammar, vocabulary and spelling. Also, these games can be used not only by primary school teachers, but also by parents who seek to develop a child not only at school, but also at home.
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And for those who want to know even more new teaching methods and ways to diversify ordinary lessons, we invite you to the online TEFL / TESOL courses, which are currently available at a 50% discount.