S . ESL Teaching

Let's start a new fun category - GAME TIMEEEE!!! Every now and then I'll post a game you can play in your classroom that are classroom proven! Since it's getting cold and the winter topic is coming closer, I would like to introduce you to a game that's one of the favorites in my classroom at this time of the year. Preteach: You preteach winter clothes; jacket, pullover, boots, scarf, gloves, beanie .. whatever you feel you need to teach the kids. For very small children you might just want to pick 2 or 3 things. Prep: For this game you ask the parents  to bring all those things along. Now for the game you put all the clothes on one side of the classroom. Make sure they are all mixed up and all over the place, so that nothing is neatly put together. The students stand on the opposite side of the room. How to play: You ask them to "Put on the scarf (or any other object)", give a signal and the kids have to run to the other side, find the right object, put it o...

If your classroom looks anything like this ↑ , you probably need to talk about classroom rules again! Just kidding. Well at least I hope your class doesn't look like this :o. The above picture is a project I love to use in my classes when talking about rules. It is essential to fix rules right at the beginning and you might have to remind the children of those rules every now and then. First of all it is important that you don't just stand in front of the class and dictate your rules. How much do you like to be told what you have to do? Isn't it much cooler when you can do what you have in your mind? So the first thing I do is to discuss WITH the children how they want their classroom to be and how do we achieve that. What can they expect from me and what I can expect from them. Now as an ESL teacher this is the tricky part, because explaing them all this in English ... if they would understand all that, they would probably not be with you! So you might hav...