Simon Says + Blending

'Simon says' is an action game teachers can use to review vocabulary and action verbs; it can be played anywhere and it only requires at least 3 people. The teacher is usually designated Simon, but you can always pick one of the children if you'd like to work on their speaking skill; the other children are the players. 

Standing in front of the players, Simon tells them what they must do. However there's a trick: the players must follow the instructions only if they begin with the words "Simon says". For example, if "Simon says hop" then the players must jump, but if Simon simply says "hop", skipping the words"Simon says", then players must not hop. Those who do hop are out.

I've thought we can make the most of this game with young learners who are learning English using Synthetic Phonics and are already acquainted with 'blending'. Actually the adaptation is absolutely easy peasy: we only have to substitude "Simon says hop" with "Simon says h-o-p". 

Some examples: Simon says... J-u-m-p
H-o-p
S-k-i-p
R-u-n
T-u-r-n around
S-t-o-p
S-i-t
S-t-a-n-d
S-t-a-m-p your f-ee-t
C-l-a-p your h-a-n-d-s
Touch your l-e-g/a-r-m/f-ee-t/...
P-l-ay  the piano/the guitar/football/tennis/...
P-oi-n-t to the door/the window/... 
S-i-ng a s-o-ng
P-i-ck a flower/ an apple /...
Ea-t a lolly/spaghetti/...
Drive a c-ar/ a b-u-s / a j-e-t/ a b-oa-t/...
R-oa-r like a lion
Qu-a-ck like a d-u-ck
etc. 

The only advice I'd give you is to choose your words taking into account the phonemes and the vocabulary we've already worked with our students, either using flashcards or chants, and as always... have fun! 

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Rhyme Robber: the game that helps children improve their listening skills

Today I'm going to tell you about one of my favorite board games: Rhyme Robber.It's produced by Orchard Toys, the British company I mentioned in a previous post,  and it's a perfect filler for these last hot days of school.

The most remarkable ESL purpose of this game is to develop listening skills at a very young age through sound recognition and rhyming skills, which, as I already wrote here, are crucial in order to build effective communication skills as adults.

In the game box you'll find 4 rhyme robber boards showing a child with a robber's swag bag (1 for each player), 48 rhyme cards and a rhyme guide board, where all the pictures and their respective words are grouped by rhyming sounds and colors.

Each player is given two cards, which they hold in their hands without showing to anybody else, then 4 more cards are placed face up in the centre of the table, while the rest of the cards are left face down in a pile next to these.

The youngest player starts and if they are holding a card that rhymes with one of the four cards in the centre of the table, then they can take the matching card while saying, for example, 'rake rhymes with lake', and put both cards face up on top of their robber board in their character's swag bag. If the next player has in their hand a card that matches a card on another player's board, they can choose to take that one, instead of one from the centre of the table. In any case once a player puts down a card, they have to take another one from the pile so that they are always holding two cards. The game ends  when all 48 cards have been stolen or no more cards can be stolen.
 
The game is especially effective with preschoolers and first graders straight out of the box: you'll only have to be there to read the names under the pictures out loud to help children recognize the rhyming sounds. Very small kids won't love the fact that other players can steal their cards so I'd suggest not insisting that they follow that rule, especially since we should focus on the development of listening skills more than anything else.
 
Once I noticed that older kids have stronger rhyming skills I suggested an extension of the game: through reading rhyming books I encouraged my students to look for new rhyming word families which they would then copy onto paper, cut out in circles, and added to the basic game in order to make it last longer.

My students' favorite books are ones written by Dr Seuss, the author of Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, The Lorax, Horton Hears a Who! and many more, as well as others by Julia Donaldson such as The Gruffalo, What the Ladybird Heard, Room on the Broom, The Snail and the Whale,  A Squash and a Squeeze among others.

Click on the links to Orchard Toys, Seussville and Julia Donaldson websites to entertain your childish soul as much as it needs :)

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LESSON PLAN: Exploring Feelings With Cat and Mouse

Teaching the different kinds of feelings is important because it helps children recognize and express their emotions.  

But, how can we arrange an interesting and fun English class for preschoolers about this topic?

Pictures and drama will surely be useful tools to help kids learn about and explore their feelings.

So let's start with a picture book.

One of the books in the Cat and Mouse collection is exactly what we'll need: 

boredom, happiness, excitement, tiredness, thirst, hunger, sickness, fun, surprise, fear, anger, etc. are presented by the two protagonists who decided to go to the circus that has just showed up in town.

As in all the other books of this collection there's an audio CD and a dictionary at the end of the story to learn the right pronunciation and spelling of the new vocabulary.

After reading the book you can arrange a drama game, calling a child to the front of the class to pull a face to express a feeling that the others will have to guess. 

It might be necessary to hand out flashcards for clearer instructions. Here you can find some. 

In addition, once your students have learnt how to pull a face you can teach them this song about feelings.

Mr Printables.com

Finally, I found this handicraft somewhere on Pinterest and I think it would be interesting to reproduce it and let your students play with it. You'll just need some cardboard and patterned paper.

Have fun!

More about Cat and Mouse:

Meet the Animals 

Learn the Colours

Let's go shopping

Eat Good Food

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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.