Run and Touch

 Run and Touch

This game was born from the same idea as Jump and serves well as an alternative version of that game, giving you the chance to add a little more variety to your activities. Although students will have favourites that they always want to play, it is a good idea to alternate your games to keep them fresh. For example you can play Jump with your class for years as long as you only use it, say, once out of every three or four lessons; but if you play it all the time, the students will soon tire of it.

For Run and Touch, flashcards are again laid out on the floor as follows while this time two students (e.g., the #4 students) must stand at the back of the classroom:

WHITEBOARD

Team A                                Team B

#1s              FC              #1s

#2s             FC             #2s

#3s              FC              #3s

FC

#5s             FC              #5s

#6s              FC              #6s

#4s    FC   #4s

The teacher calls out one of the flashcards and shouts, “Go!” For example, “Post office, go!” The two [#4 students] must run to the [post office] FC and bend down to touch it with their hand. As they do so they shout, [“Post office!”] and carry on running to the whiteboard, slap the whiteboard with their hand and finally rush back to their chairs. The first student to carry all this out is the winner.

Then it is the turn of the next two students. The [#1 students] go to the back of the classroom, the teacher says, [“Department store, go!”] and the [#1 students] run to touch the [department store] FC, shout out, [“Department store!”] while continuing to the whiteboard, slapping the whiteboard and rushing back to their seats.

Jump

 Jump

This is an extremely effective game. The scoring system is a little difficult to grasp at first, but once set up and played a few times it can become a regular favourite for teachers and students.

As with Hit, this activity is important in bridging the gap between students receiving information from the teacher and repeating it, and students actually using the information they have learnt to win a game. Similarly to Hit, they learn by trial and error and by watching (and helping) their teammates. Capable students will also take turns in being the ‘teacher’.

As shown below, flashcards are placed on the floor in a line along the centre of the classroom.

WHITEBOARD

Team A                                      Team B

#1s                  FC                  #1s

#2s                   FC                  #2s

#3s                  FC                 #3s

#4s                   FC                  #4s

#5s                   FC                  #5s

#6s                   FC                  #6s

  FC

After laying down the FCs the teacher explains the game. Let us say for example that the FCs are activities: go fishing, go surfing, go bungee jumping, go hiking, go swimming, go jogging, etc. The teacher says, “Ok, when I say [go fishing] you must jump to that flashcard.” The teacher then demonstrates jumping along the line of flashcards until they are next to the [go fishing] FC. “Don’t jump on the flashcard!” says the teacher, demonstrating what not to do. “By the flashcard, not on the flashcard!”

Now one student from each team is selected (e.g., the #4 students) to come to the front of the classroom. (As previously stated, a good way to randomly select a pair of students is to roll a dice which will correspond to their student number.)

WHITEBOARD

TA                                  TB

#1s        #4s   FC   #4s        #1s

#2s                 FC                 #2s

#3s                  FC                 #3s

FC

#5s                 FC                 #5s

#6s                  FC                  #6s

The teacher stands in front of the whiteboard and commands the [the #4 students] where to jump to. For example, Teacher says, “Go bungee jumping,” and the two students jump to that FC. Teacher says, “Go jogging,” and the students jump to that FC.

The way that this game is scored is as follows:

A middle B

FC

FC

FC

FC

FC

FC

At the beginning of the game the teacher stands in the middle. If the students both jump to the FC in focus at the same time, the teacher does not move. If the student from team A is the first to land next to the FC in focus, the teacher moves to the A. On calling out the next FC, if the students both jump to that FC at the same time then the teacher again does not move, i.e., they remain standing on the A. If the student from team A is once again the first to land next to the FC in question, then again the teacher does not move. (They are already on A. Team A is in the lead and remain so.) If the student from team B is the first to land next to the FC that has been called out, then the teacher shifts one space along back to the middle. If the student from team B is again first to land next to the FC, then the teacher shifts to the B.

After playing the game for a minute or so, the teacher says, “Ok,” looks to where they are standing (A, middle, or B) and awards points accordingly (to team A, team B, or by calling it even).

The next two students (e.g., the #3 students) are called up to play and the fun begins again.

Usually it takes a while for students to fully understand the way this game is scored, but once they have grasped it and you have been playing for a while, you can get one of them to be the scorer, standing at the other end of the line of FCs, stepping between A, middle and B. As mentioned before, you can also get one of the students to stand in front of the whiteboard to call out the FC. In this way you can have two students playing and two students acting as ‘little teachers’. You may also find that the rest of the students sitting in their chairs will either be shouting and pointing to help their teammates, paying attention to what is going on because it is their turn next, or simply repeating the commands that the teacher is giving.

WHITEBOARD

#2s (little teacher)

TA                                  TB

#1s         #3s FC #3s         #1s

                     FC               #2s

FC

#4s              FC              #4s

                    FC             #5s

#6s              FC              #6s

A M B

#5s (little teacher)

Although this game is called Jump and in the above explanation it is stated that the students ‘jump’ to the FCs, often the students will run to the FCs instead. This is not a problem, and in fact once they have got used to the game, it usually works better with students running to stand next to the FCs rather than jumping. However, this obviously depends on your students: different classes prefer different versions.

Hit

 Hit

This game is a secondary drill, testing how well the students have been learning the vocabulary as well as further drilling these language items. At this stage we are reaffirming what the students have learnt as well as giving the weaker students a chance to be taught by the stronger ones. The weaker students have a chance to catch up while the stronger ones remain engaged in the activity.

Flashcards are stuck to the whiteboard with Blu-Tack. Board magnets do not work well for this game because, as you may guess from the title, these flashcards are going to be hit by the students (often with some considerable force!)

Whiteboard

                            FC                      FC                      FC                  FC

                            FC                      FC                      FC                     FC

Teams A and B form two standing lines:

WHITEBOARD

Team A                                                  Team B

#1s     #1s

#2s      #2s

#3s      #3s

#4s      #4s

#5s      #5s

#6s      #6s

A soft hammer (or alternatively a plastic baseball bat, fly swatter, rolled up newspaper ...) is given to each of the #1 students. The teacher then shouts out one of the FCs that are on the whiteboard and the first #1 student to hit this FC gets a point for their team. The #1 students must then quickly pass the soft hammer to the #2 student of their team and run to the back of the line, effectively queuing up for their next turn while watching their #2 teammate race to hit whatever FC the teacher has called out next.

And so the game continues: Teacher says, [“Pillow!”] and the two students at the front of their line (who are holding the hammers) race to hit the [pillow]. The teacher awards a point to the student who hit the [pillow] FC first and then shouts, [“Curtain!]” while the next two students (who are now heading the line) race to hit the [curtain] FC.

As with the Association Drill, this game is of a fast pace so it is best to use a separate scoring system while playing.

For example:

A	B
1	1
1	1
1	1
1	1
	1
	1

With the above scoring system you write a mark each time that team is first. Finally when the team has [10] marks, they are the winners. Another idea is to draw a ladder and have magnets dropping down one rung of the ladder each time their team is last to hit. The first magnet to fall to the bottom (where a picture of a shark may be lying in wait) is the loser.

Often students will be shouting out to their teammates to help them. For example, Teacher says, [“Blanket!”] and the two students at the front holding hammers stand there looking confused, then hit the [sheet] FC. Their teammates behind them are screaming, “Blanket! Blanket! Blanket! Up! Left! Blanket! There! There! Blanket!” In this way, even when the students are queuing up waiting their turn, they are still paying attention, learning, and reaffirming their knowledge of the vocabulary.

Kids like to hit things and will enjoy this game a lot, but if your students get a little too enthusiastic and start whacking the FCs too aggressively, it is easy enough to set a rule of how much force they can put into their action. Students will understand the difference between hitting normally and hitting crazily. When they disobey your rule, simply award the point to the other team instead. If any one student gets too violent with the hammer you can punish them by making them ‘sit out’ the game. You can also give students the option of being the teacher, i.e., being the one who calls out the FCs that are to be hit.

Another version of the Hit game

In this version you put the two plastic hammers on the floor in the centre of the classroom. Drill the FCs, then call out a student number (e.g., #2 students!) and name an FC for them to hit. The two [#2 students] race to the centre of the classroom to pick up the hammers, then run to the whiteboard to hit the appropriate FC while at the same time shouting out this FC. Finally they run back to the centre of the classroom to put the hammers back and return to their seats. The first student to do all this is the winner. The teacher goes back to drilling for another half minute or so before selecting a different pair of students to hit an FC.

Random Card

 Random Card

This primary drill is used at a stage when the students first come into contact (or are still relatively unfamiliar) with the flashcards. The beauty of this activity is that it does not require any set-up.

The teacher stands at the front of the classroom holding a wad of flashcards (let us say for example that the flashcards are for jobs). The teacher reveals the flashcards one at a time, saying the vocabulary item, the students repeating, the flashcard is moved to the back of the pile (still in the teacher’s hands) and a new flashcard is revealed, said by the teacher, repeated by the students. …

“Pilot; Bus Driver; Teacher; Doctor; Nurse; Office Worker; Police Officer; Fire Fighter; Monkey ...”

When the students see the monkey flashcard, they immediately realise the randomness of this piece of vocabulary.

The teacher now explains that when the students next see the monkey flashcard, they must stand up, turn around, and then sit down again. The teacher demonstrates this action before checking the students understand by suddenly showing them the monkey flashcard and shouting, “Monkey!”

The first team to have all members stand up, turn around, and then sit down again is the winner and is awarded points (look out for any cheaters!).

The flashcards are then shuffled by the teacher (with the random card being slipped towards the back of the pile) and the drill begins:

“Teacher; Nurse; Pilot; Office Worker; Bus Driver; Fire Fighter; Police Officer; Monkey ...”

When the monkey card is next revealed the excitement happens and points are again given.

For the first few drills, the students will be listening and repeating from the teacher. Soon, however, they will be able to say the flashcards themselves and the teacher will only need to speak when correcting their pronunciation.

Of course the random card does not have to be a monkey. It can be anything. A robot, a tree, a lemon ... and once the students have played this game a few times, the ‘random’ flashcard could even be one of the new vocabulary items. For example, the teacher explains that when they see the doctor flashcard they must stand up, turn around, and then sit down again.

Also, the action of spinning around and sitting down again can be replaced by another activity: running to touch a wall; sitting on the floor; standing to attention and saluting; closing their eyes and ‘falling asleep’ on their desks, get the students to stand up next to their chairs and to sit down when they see the random flashcard, etc.

Flashcard Games - Introduction

Flashcard Games - Introduction

A flashcard is a laminated card with a picture of a vocabulary item (for example, a picture of a cat). The teacher points to the picture and says, “Cat.” The student understands what the sound “cat” means and associates it with the picture. Flashcards usually have the picture with the word written underneath.

Ninety-nine percent of TEFL teaching for young learners involves flashcards (FCs). Even if you prefer to draw your own pictures on the whiteboard, you are still following the same basic principle. From lower levels (“cat”) to higher (“travel around the world”) flashcards are used. Often for higher levels the flashcard picture must be explained and concept checked before the repetition of the vocabulary item commences.

 Flashcard games are difficult to source because so many are passed on by word of mouth. Even with activities you think you have invented, it is highly possible that another teacher somewhere has come up with the same concept.

I hope that the information gathered together in this blog can be of help to all TEFL teachers. The memory of my first day in the job still remains fresh: stuck opposite twelve young children with a pile of flashcards in hand. All I could think of to do was show them the FCs one at a time and say, “Repeat after me ...”

Shoot 'em Up

Stick the FCs on the walls around the classroom, just like with the This, That game. The students gather in the centre of the room. The teacher calls out one of the FCs. The first student to point to that FC wins a point for their team.
　You’ll need a quick scoring system for this game in order to keep the pace going. See Association Drill and Hit for examples.
　As you’re playing, you can optionally encourage the students to make gun shapes with their thumb and fingers so that rather than just pointing to the FCs, they are shooting them. It is also fun to name the student who was first to shoot the FC each time, thus offering encouragement, etc.
　As a follow up to Shoot ’em Up, I often get the students to go round in pairs, pointing to each FC on the wall, asking and answering target language questions. For example if the FCs are for colours, the students could be going round in pairs saying, “What colour is it? “It’s [blue].” If the FCs are for food, they could be asking, “Do you like [Lasagne]?” “Yes, I do.” Or if the FCs are for animals (plurals), they could be asking each other, “What are they?” “They are [giraffes].”

Memorising Orders

A simple concept really. Let's image you're practicng months. Standing at the whiteboard, you say January, then point to the student on your right and encourage them to say February. Then to the next student who says March, etc. You going round the class with each student saying a month until one pauses for too long, mispronounces or says the wrong month. When this happens you run back to the whiteboard and award a point (or a progession along the scoring system) to the opposing team.

You begin again, this time you may choose to start with a different student, you go through the months with each student saying the next month until someone makes a mistake.

So this is the game. And now you've played it you might want to try it with different vocabulary. For one of your lower level classes you could try it with days of the week for example. Or for morning, afternoon, evening, night.

How do you use this game with flashcards? Easy. Simply stick a set of flashcards on the board, drill them a couple of times, then play the game going round the class with each student saying the next flashcard in the order you've given them.

Finally remove the flashcards from the whiteboard and carry on playing the game. Students are remembering the FC vocabulary and challenging themslves to remember the order.

Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, White, Purple, Black. (close your eyes, can you remember the order?)

Mountain, Mount Everest, Mount Fuji, River, The Yellow River, The Mekong River, The Jin Mao Tower, Taipei 101 (recently I played the game with these FCs, going round the class with each student having to remember and say the next FC in the order).