Primary and Lower-Secondary School Games for English teaching and learning

experienţe pedagogice

Maria PanăLiceul Teoretic Nicolae Iorga, Nehoiu (Buzău)12 iul. 2022

As far as I am concerned, one of the most important roles of primary school English games is their ability to develop the young learners’ concentration and visual memory skills while helping them to associate meaning with actions, pictures, objects and sounds.

“Time to Talk –Activities to Stimulate Conversation (Grades 2-8)” is a resource book of ideas whose main purpose is to accompany the Romanian English curriculum in order to facilitate a more verbal atmosphere in the English classroom.
The book is a valuable supplement material containing hundreds of games - for beginners and intermediate learners of English - organized on topics (about people, animals, clothes, food, emotions, places etc), communicative functions (agreeing and disagreeing, comparing, giving advice, making suggestions, solving problems etc.) and grammar (verb tenses, conditional clauses, imperatives, questions etc).

What’s missing? can be used for revising vocabulary and practicing yes/no questions.
Materials needed: Object names which have already been taught: a pen, a pencil, a pencil box, a rubber, a ruler, a book, a notebook, a sharpener, a ball, a doll, a key etc.
Time: 10-15 minutes
The teacher divides the class into 2 teams and puts all the objects (realia) on the teacher’s desk. Then the teacher asks a student from team A to come to the front of the classroom and name all the objects on the desk. The student turns his/her back to the desk and the teacher removes one object from the desk. The student has three guesses to find out which object was removed. If he/she guesses correctly, Team A wins a point.
Example: Is it a pencil? No.
Is it a rubber? No.
Is it a ball? Yes.
Then the teacher alternates between Team A and B guessing a few times until the vocabulary has been practised and a winner has been decided.

Simon says can be used for practising different commands and actions.
The teacher asks the students to stand up and tells them that they should do what they are asked to do by the teacher only if the teacher says “Simon says” or “Please”. If the teacher doesn’t say either of these two expressions, they should not change what they are doing.
Example: Simon says sit down. (Everyone should sit down)
Please stand up. (Everyone should stand up)
Point to the window! (Anyone who points to the window must sit down because neither “Simon says” nor “Please” was said.)
Other commands could include: clap your hands, touch your nose, say hello, open/close your eyes, raise your hands, close your book, take a pen from your pencil box, show me your schoolbag etc.
Students can be asked to take the teacher’s place and call out the different commands and actions. The game continues until only a few students are left.

Let’s act – can be used for practising instructions or imperative forms.
Materials needed: slips of paper with an imperative written on them.
The class is divided into two teams. One student from team A comes to the front of the classroom and picks a slip of paper.
Example: “open the window”
The student must mime the activity. Team A has 1 minute to guess what the imperative is. If they guess correctly, they win 1 point. If they cannot, Team B gets one guess. If Team B is correct then they get 2 points. The game can continue until all of the students have mimed something or until the time for the activity is up.
The team with most points wins.

Adjective Race can be used for both vocabulary and spelling practice.
The teacher divides the class into 4 teams and divides the blackboard into 5 sections, each section containing 5 different nouns.
Each team is given 5 minutes to think about as many adjectives as possible for each of their nouns. Each team sends one person to the blackboard to write the adjectives on the board, preferably in front of the words they describe. The team with the most correctly spelled adjectives wins.

Which one? can be used to practise vocabulary, ‘s genitive, possessive adjectives etc.
The teacher makes statements about objects in the classroom and students try to identify which object the teacher is talking about.
Example: They are near the window. (Those flowers are near the window.)
It is under Razvan’s desk. (That schoolbag is under Razvan’s /my desk.)
After a few minutes of the teacher making statements, the teacher divides the class into groups of 4 and has them do the same, rotating who gives clues.

Martians can be used to practise asking and answering Yes/No questions, the plural of nouns, affirmative and negative verb forms etc.
The teacher tells the students that they are Martians from another planet and do not know about anything or anyone on Earth.
Students write down six questions that they want to ask people from Earth. Three questions must be about animals/plants and three about people.
Example: Are dogs pink?
Is grass black?
Are lemons sweet?
Is Ana young?
Do people eat vegetables?
Students must ask their questions to the other students and write down the yes/no answers they get. Then they report what they found out.
Example: Dogs are not pink.
Grass is not black.
Lemons are not sweet.
Ana is young.
People eat vegetables.

My famous friend – can be used for describing characters. The teacher brainstorms names of famous film, television, music, sports stars or cartoon characters the students can think of and writes these real ( or fictional) names on the board. Each student should pick one and think of a few sentences to describe him or her.

Example: My famous friend is big. He is young. He is famous for his good deeds. He wears a special costume.
Then the students walk around the room and tell each other about the character they picked. Students try to guess the character’s name:
Example: Is it Spiderman?
If they cannot guess, the student should say who it is.

Generalizations
In pairs, students make a list of 5 generalizations. They should begin with: All….
Examples: All chairs are good.
All boys are tall.
All teachers are nice.
All girls like pink.
All dogs are playful.
Pairs read their sentences one at a time and the class decides if it is true or not. Students must think of an example when they think a sentence is not true.
Example: Look! This chair is bad.
No, Mike is short.
Mmm, Mrs. James is not always nice.
That’s not true! Jane hates pink.
False! My cousin’s dog never plays.

Toss –a –week – can be used for practising the time, the days of the week, daily activities and Present Tense Simple (the third person singular).
Materials needed: a small ball
Students stand up and the teacher tells them they are going to invent a week of activities for their colleague, Mark. It should be a very interesting week with lots of different activities. They will plan the week hour by hour and day by day beginning at 7 o’clock Monday morning. The teacher tells them that mornings will probably be similar, but the days should be different. The teacher begins with a sentence.
Example: At seven o’clock on Monday morning Mark wakes up.
Then the teacher tosses the ball to a student who continues with another activity for Mark.
Example: At half past seven on Monday morning, Mark washes his face.
The student tosses the ball to someone else who continues.
Example: At 8 o’clock in the morning Mark gets dressed.
The activity continues until the entire week is finished. Students can toss the ball to whoever they want, but each student must talk at least once.
Notes: Ss may be reminded that Mark can travel, meet friends or family, work and be in different places.
Examples: At 2 o’clock on Monday morning Mark goes to France by plane.
At 8 o’clock on Saturday evening Mark eats dinner with his girlfriend in London.
At 9 o’clock on Wednesday morning Mark goes to work at the post-office.

Arguing friends can be used and adapted for various vocabulary and grammar practice as well as for practicing disagreeing.
The class is divided into groups of 4. A student in group 1 makes a statement about a classmate that can be about anything: likes, dislikes, activities, family, schedule, clothes, possessions etc.
Example: John has a dog.
Ann goes to bed at 6 o’clock in the evening.
Judy never eats cheese.
Sean wears blue jeans every day.
Mary’s sister is a tennis player.
The members of the other groups disagree with the student but also with each other, making new statements.
Example: John doesn’t have a dog. He has a cat.
                John hates cats! He has a cow.
                That’s impossible! John doesn’t have a cow. John doesn’t live on a farm. He has a parrot.
                Not true! He doesn’t like talking birds. He has a fish.
After each student has said at least one sentence, the game can finish.

Responsibilities can be practiced for expressing obligation.
The class is divided into groups of 5. One person from each group comes to the front of the class and extracts a job: a teacher, a student, a mother, a pilot, a film star, a farmer etc. Then each student is told one responsibility by the members of the other groups.
Example: A teacher must get up at six o’clock in the morning.
A teacher must correct the tests.
A teacher must go to school every day.
After listening and remembering what everyone said, the student returns to his or her group and reports what the others said about his or her responsibilities.
If the student cannot remember all his responsibilities, the team loses a point.

Holiday talk – can be used to describe international or national holidays as well as special events or customs the students are familiar with.
The class is divided into groups of 4-5 students. Each group chooses or is given a holiday to talk about. Each group must discuss what their holiday celebrates and what people do to celebrate it.
Example: Christmas, Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving, Easter, Halloween.
Each person in the group must have one thing to say about the holiday. Groups present their holidays to the class.
Example:
A: Valentine’s Day is a day to celebrate love and friendship.
B: People give flowers and candy to their friends and family.
C: People make Valentine’s Day cards.
D: Red, pink and white are the colours of Valentine’s Day.
E: It is an American holiday.
F: It’s celebrated on February 14th.
The class decide what group gave the most interesting holiday description and why.

Telling tall tales can be used for practising oral narratives, for expressing disbelief and giving reasons.
The teacher tells the class a story about a real experience or plan and introduces some untrue elements in it.
Example: Oh! I’m looking forward to this evening. You won’t believe me! I don’t think I’ve told you before, but I play tennis. I’m so famous that tennis players from all over the world come to play against me. I know it’s difficult for you to believe me. But this evening Ilie Năstase is coming to play with me. Of course, it will be a difficult game…
By this time (if not before) the students will be expressing their disbelief. The teacher admits the exaggerations a little and asks the students which parts of the story they think are true.
Then the class is divided into groups and students take turns telling each other stories that are a mixture of true and false. After each story, the group talks about which parts were true.
Notes: Being a difficult activity as it requires sustained speech, the students may prepare their stories inside the groups first and only after that be asked to tell them in from of the whole class.

Solving problems
Materials needed: Situations written on slips of paper
The teacher reads the class a situation that involves a problem that needs to be solved.
Example: Your hobby is playing computer games but your computer has broken down. What will you do?
The students make suggestions to solve the problem. They should be creative, but still realistic.
Example: I will have my computer repaired.
                 I will borrow my father’s laptop.
                 I will sell my bike and buy a new computer.
The other students are encouraged to say if they agree with their classmates’ ideas or not or to ask questions.
Example: You need money to have your computer repaired.
                Your father won’t lend you his laptop for games.
                How much will you ask for the bike?
Once the class understands what they have to do, the teacher divides them into groups and then assigns them problems to solve.
Examples: You are on a trip. You are fond of taking photos but your camera isn’t working. What will you do?
                 You like painting and you are doing one now. You make a mistake and use the colour red instead of green to paint a tree. What will you do?
                 You love watching television and your favourite programme is now on. But you have lots of homework to do. What will you do?

They elicit the solutions inside their groups and then introduce them to the class. The teacher identifies the best ones but the students from other groups are free to comment or ask questions.

Back-up plans
The teacher brainstorms a list of activities that people do outside and a list of activities that people do inside.
Example: Outside: go on a picnic, go fishing, do some gardening, walk in the woods, go sailing, play football
Inside: read in bed, clean my room, watch television, work on the computer, go to a movie, go to a museum
Then the teacher tells the students that each time they plan to do something outside, they should have a back-up plan for something to do inside, in case the weather is bad. The teacher asks a student what he or she will do this weekend if it is nice outside and then if the weather is bad.
Example: Maria, what will you do this weekend if it’s nice outside?
                If it’s nice outside, I’ll go shopping.
                But what if it rains/ snows/ is very cold and windy?
                Then I’ll stay home and watch television.
After a few repetitions, the students walk around the class and ask as many people as they can about their (back-up) plans for this weekend.
The teacher asks students to report the most interesting things they heard.
Example: David, have you asked Ben what he will do this weekend?
Yes. If the weather is nice Ben will play football, but if the weather is bad, he will listen to music in his room.