CIRCLE GAMES - The Farmer in the Dell

Do you know this song? 

And this is the game you can play with your class

Children (10 or more) join hands and dance in a circle around the FARMER who stands in the center of the circle. 

When the FARMER chooses his WIFE, following the first verse, she joins him inside the circle. 

At the end of the second verse, the WIFE takes a CHILD. 

This continues until the last verse when everyone is in the circle except the CHEESE. 

The CHEESE gets to be the FARMER

Have fun!

Lyrics

The farmer in the dell,
The farmer in the dell,
Hi-ho, the derry-o,
The farmer in the dell.

The farmer takes a wife,
The farmer takes a wife,
Hi-ho, the derry-o,
The farmer takes a wife.

The wife takes a child,
The wife takes a child,
Hi-ho, the derry-o,
The wife takes a child.

The child takes a cow,
The child takes a cow,
Hi-ho, the derry-o,
The nurse takes a cow.

The cow takes a dog,
The cow takes a dog,
Hi-ho, the derry-o,
The cow takes a dog.

The dog takes a cat,
The dog takes a cat,
Hi-ho, the derry-o,
The dog takes a cat.

The cat takes a rat,
The cat takes a rat,
Hi-ho, the derry-o,
The cat takes a rat.

The rat takes the cheese,
The rat takes the cheese,
Hi-ho, the derry-o,
The rat takes the cheese.

The cheese stands alone,
The cheese stands alone,
Hi-ho, the derry-o,
The cheese stands alone.

ROUND OF QUESTIONS

One of the main speaking exercise I constantly perform with my students, right at the beginning of the class, is the 'Round of Questions'.

Once they are sitting in a semicircle you can start to ask the student sitting beside you the first question.

- How are you?

- What's your name?

- How old are you?

- Where do you live?

- What's your favorite color/ animal / food?

These inquiries and their respective answers are the goals you can achieve with pre-school children.

You can add more complex questions for higher-level students.

The child, sitting beside you, must answer and then ask the same question to to the one sitting next to him and so on until the question will reach you again.

It should be a fast-pace game to avoid general boredom.

At the beginning it will be naturally slow because the kids will have to learn the right words to use and you'll notice their certain tendency to divert their attention toward anything but the performance. Don't give up and be firm.

To make it more engaging I also use a little soft ball. I throw it to the chosen 'victim', who after answering will redirect it to anyone he chooses asking, of course, the same question and so on.

The problem with this solution is that you will have, and I am almost 100% sure of it, someone of them trying to throw the ball as high or far as possible instead of his/ her classmate… 

When that happens, definitely write his/her name under the sad face on the board!!! ;o)

Recently, i successfully introduced a box into which they have to throw the ball or a puppet or something soft you keep on hand, exactly like basketball.

It helps to avoid balls flying everywhere inside the classroom with the consequent mess. 

All of your pupils, with no exception of age, attitude and ability will participate with sincere thrill and joy!!!

Do you know any best way to start an English class?!?

I design series of activities based on a communicative method that will help children to practice the grammar they're learning at school.

Many ESL activities, I see, are nothing more than 'fill in the blank' exercises that only teach kids how to fill in blanks and miss the whole point of learning to speak and understand a new language.

It's much easier and more fun to learn by doing, and you'll be surprised at how quickly you'll see valuable results. 

You can get my activities on my online store:

http://childreneslworksheets.bigcartel.com

CIRCLE GAMES - The Shoe Behind You

Introducing Time Expressions

My Spanish students know a circle game called "La zapatilla por detrás".

I persuaded them to play it in English introducing some little changes to the original one and I made the most of it to teach the next concept for my classes: Time.

This is how it works:

- Arrange your class in a circle. Everyone is sitting on the floor except for one of them, who stands holding a shoe in his/her hand. 

Let's call him Carlos, to simplify.

- Carlos starts walking around the circle with the shoe while the class is singing a chant. I personally chose " The itsy bitsy spider" because it was a little difficult for them to learn and this way they have already sung it about 100 times!

- At the end of the chant they ask Carlos: " What time are you coming, daddy?"

If it was a girl they would say " What time are you coming, mummy?" 

- Carlos answers: "at 8 o' clock", for example, and the kids in the circle start counting until 8 while pretending to be asleep. At the same time Carlos is walking around them to decide who he is going to drop the shoe behind.

- Once the counting time is done, the kid who finds the shoe behind his back has to stand up and try to catch Carlos chasing him around the circle.

Carlos in the meantime will run away to take the place of his chaser. 

- If Carlos gets the seat before being caught then it will be the chaser's turn to walk around the circle and drop the shoe. 

There are a couple of rules in this game that will help to keep it under control:

1st: Don't let them run freely in the classroom. They have to run strictly around the circle. This way they won't hurt themselves or break something.

2nd: The pupil who is being chased has to complete two circles before trying to sit.

This way it'll be more challenging and engaging.

I hope you have a good time!

---> Quiero leer este post en español.

Lucy dedicates a lot of time and love to thinking about and writing the posts she shares with all of you. Because she believes that a better teaching is the key for a better future. If you find any help, value or joy in this blog, please consider becoming a supporting reader. A donation, in any amount, will be gratefully accepted.