3.1 Learn with a puppet level All Age 4-6 1s To recognize, practise and memorize vocabulary and/or short chunks of language by responding to a puppet; to create an affective atmosphere which encourages active participation. Language focus any lexical set and/or short chunk of language Materials Essential: a puppet, real objects or flashcards / Optional: a bag for objects or flashcards (see 3.1d), music (see 3.1) Procedure Use any one or a combination of the following procedures: 3.44 Follow the puppet's instructions 1 Lay out the flashcards or objects on the floor or stick them on the board. 2 Use the puppet to say, eg Touch the banana ... Maria and Daniel. 3 Children listen and do what the puppet says. 3.1b Repeat what the puppet says 1 Use the puppet to say vocabulary or short sentences which the children are familiar with, varying the pitch, volume and pace, eg The giraffe is tall./ The lion is fierce. 2 Children listen and repeat what the puppet says in the same way. 3.1¢ Correct the puppet 1 Ask questions and get the puppet to give the wrong answers or to say sentences with the ‘wrong information, eg The ball is blue. 2 Children listen and correct the puppet in chorus, eg No, ...! (naming the puppet) Green! 3.1d Guess what the puppet's thinking about 1 Put 3-6 flashcards on the floor or board, Use mime to convey that the puppet is thinking about one of them. Encourage children to guess which one. 2. Make the puppet shake its head and say Noand then nod and say, eg Yes, brilliant! when a child guesses correctly. 3.1e Guess what's in the puppet’s bag 1 Put several different objects or flashcards in a bag. Make the puppet hold up the bag. Children take turns to guess what's in the bag, eg Elephant! 2. The puppet nods or shakes its head and says Yes or No. Whenever the puppet says Yes, take the relevant toy or flashcard out of the bag. Children clap and say Yes! Elephant! Hurray! 3.1f Pass the puppet 1 Children sit in a circle 2. Play music and children pass the puppet round the circle. 3 Whenever you pause the music, the child who has the puppet tells the puppet something about themselves using language you want them to practise, eg / like biscuits. Secticn 3 locyand grammar 893.2 90 Comments and suggestions * The use of a class puppet helps to create a positive affective climate which encourages participation in English and makes very young children feel secure. A familiar puppet provides a friendly, funny, helpful presence which the children can relate to in a direct and spontaneous way. The puppet brings fantasy, magic and humour into the classroom and helps to make learning natural and part of real events, * You may have a puppet as part of the children’s course book. If not, any soft toy, felt puppet, or puppet you make yourself, eg from an old sock or kitchen glove, can serve the purpose just as well. + In addition to procedures such as the above, a class puppet is useful to mark the beginning and ends of lessons with greetings and goodbyes, to give feedback and praise, and to manage the class in a positive way, eg Quiet now everyone! .. (puppet's name) is asleep! Flashcard vocabulary activities Level A1.1,A1.2,A2.1,A2.2 Age 6-10 Organization whole class Aims To recognize, practise and memorize vocabulary through associating words, meanings and pictures. Language focus any lexical set or combination of lexical sets Materials Essential: flashcards for one or more lexical sets / Optional: word cards to match the flashcards Procedure Use any one or more of the following procedures: 3.2a Flashcard instructions 1 Stick a set of flashcards on the walls around the classroom. 2. Divide the class into groups. 3. Give each group instructions in turn, eg Group 1~ walk to the elephant. Group 2 — jump to the lion. 3.2b Flashcard groups 1 Divide the class into groups. Assign each group a flashcard, eg ‘apple’ ~ this is their name. 2 Give instructions, eg Apples, touch your nose! Carrots, put your hands on your head! Children listen and follow the instructions for their group. 3.2¢ Missing flashcard 1 Stick a set of flashcards on the board. Children say the words, 2 Ask the children to close their eyes. Remove one of the flashcards. Children open their eyes and name the missing flashcard 3.24 Magic eyes 1 Stick a set of flashcards in a row on the board. Children say or repeat the words, 2. Remove the flashcards one by one. Point to where they were and children repeat the names as if they were still there. 3.2e Lip reading Stick a set of flashcards on the board. Choose one flashcard and mouth the word silently. Children read your lips and say the word. 3.2f Repeat if it’s true Stick a set of flashcards on the board. Point to one of the flashcards and say the word. Ifyou have said the correct word, children repeatit. Ifnot, they fold their arms ond stay silent. This activity can be made more challenging if you say sentences, eg It’s a blue car. 500 Actives for Ihe Primary Classroom3.3 3.2g Flashcard chain 1 Stand orsitin a circle with the children. 2, Passa flashcard to the child on your left and ask, eg Do you like ...? or What's this? 3. The child answers, then asks the question and passes the flashcard to the next child, and so on round the circle. 4, Introduce other flashcards in the same way until all the flashcards in the set have passed round the circle. Comments and suggestions «Short activities using flashcards familiarize children with vocabulary which has been previously introduced. They aid memorization through the association of visual images and words, and help pronunciation by giving children frequent opportunities to listen to and say new words. * Children can also match word cards to the flashcards on the board ifit is appropriate to familiarize them with the written forms of new words as part of the procedure. ay Kim's game Level A1.1,A1.2,A2.1,A2.2 Age 8-12 Organization groups Aims To observe, memorize and recall vocabulary in a picture or word list; to arrange the words in order of the alphabet or classify them; to work collaboratively in groups. Language focus Inthe example: animals Alternatives: any lexical set, eg food Materials Essential: real objects, flashcards, a poster or word list for children to memorize, small pieces of paper / Optional: A4 envelopes Procedure 1 Divide the class into groups. 2. Give out small pieces of paper to each group (enough to write each word in the activity on a separate piece of paper) or children prepare ‘these. 3. Give the children one minute to look in silence and memorize a set of real objects, flashcards, details in a poster or a word list. For example, a list of animals could be: horse, snake, penguin, whale, butterfly, kangaroo, gorilla, dolphin, parrot, koala, chimpanzee, crocodile, polar bear, zebra. 4 After a minute, remove the word list. Children work in their groups and write the words they can remember on the pieces of paper. 5 When they are ready, either children arrange the words in alphabetical order on their desks oryou can write the sentences below on the ‘board and children classify the animals (two for each sentence): 1 They are mammals and live in the sea. 2 They can fly. 3 They eat grass. 4 They live in Australia. 5 They like eating fish. 6 They are reptiles. 7 They are like people. 6 Atthe end, find out how many words the children remembered and check the answers to the activity they have done. (Alphabetical order: butterfly, chimpanzee, crocodile, dolphin, gorilla, horse, kangaroo, koala, parrot, penguin, polar bear, snake, whale, zebra. Classifying: 1 whale, dolphin 2 butterfly, parrot 3horse, zebra 4 kangaroo, koala S penguin, polarbear 6 snake, crocodile 7 gorilla, chimpanzee) Section 3: Vocabularyand grommor 913.4 92 Comments and suggestions + Thename ‘Kim's game’ is from the novel, Kim, by Rudyard Kipling, in which Kim and others are trained to memorize objects. In the traditional version, there are twenty small objects on a tray which, after one minute, is covered with a cloth and participants recall as many as they can. * In this version, in addition to memorizing the vocabulary, children do a further activity, such as arranging the words in alphabetical order or classifying them. In the case of the former, this encourages children to think about spelling and develop reference skills through arranging the words in alphabetical order. In the case of the latter, children read sentences which encourage them to think about meaning and relate the vocabulary to their knowledge of the world in a classifying activity. + Ifyou have A4 envelopes, instead of writing the sentences on the board, you can write one sentence on each envelope and stick them on different walls around the classroom. Children then classify the words by putting the pieces of paper into the correct envelopes. If you do this, it helps to ask each group to write the words in a different colour in order to be able to check answers easily at the end of the activity. ‘+ Analternative example of this version of Kim's game is with food vocabulary, eg cheese, tomato, sausage, bread, chicken, milk, pasta, rice, carrot, banana, tuna fish, rice. After recalling the words, children classify them into four food groups: meat and fish, fruit and vegetables, cereals, and dairy products. + Ifchildren memorize a written list of words, it may be appropriate to focus on spelling when checking the answers. If children memorize the vocabulary from pictures, however, you may decide it is more important that they recall the words rather than focus on spelling accuracy. Odd one out Level All Age 6-12 Organization whole class, pairs Aims To think about the meanings and properties of words; to identify a vocabulary item in a sequence that is different; to say why it is different. Language focus any familiar vocabulary; be, have got, present simple, (because) Materials Essential: none / Optional: flashcards or pictures Procedure 1 Write a sequence of four words on the board, eg apple, carrot, banana, strawberry. 2. Ask the children to identify the odd one out and say why, eg Carrot (because) its a vegetable. 3. With older children, ask them to look again and think of other possible answers, eg Banana - (because) it grows in hot countries / (because) it’s the only one without double letters. Apple— (because) it starts with a vowel. Point out that there isn't only one correct answer. 4. Divide the class into pairs. 5. Write several different word sequences on the board, eg butterfly, beetle, spider, grasshopper / turtle, mouse, rabbit, bat. 6 Ask the children to decide with their partner which is the odd word out in each sequence and why. 7 Atthe end, ask the pairs to report bai the odd one out in each sequence Comments and suggestions * This activity encourages children to think about the meaning of words and relate this to their knowledge of the world. You may be surprised by how many possible answers and reasons children come up with, for example, for the animal sequence above, Mouse — (because) it’s part ofa computer. nnd count up all the possible answers and reasons for 500 Activities forthe Primary Classroom