~ English Fillers ~
~ Pictionary Mimes
~
Time: Ten minutes
Stage: Stage Two and Three
Outcomes: The children identify another means of communication and
acknowledge that for the group to achieve success, their actions must be concise and clear.
Again, teamwork and strategies may be employed by the groups.
Procedure: The children form groups of two, and sit facing sit other, knees
touching. The first child covers their eyes, while the second child of the pair watches the teacher.
The teacher holds up a flashcard with a word on it, for example, explode, toothpaste, basketball
hoop, Western Australia, Beach ball, waves, brainwash and so on. The teacher shows the child
the word and the aim is for that child to mime the object to their partner by using their hand
gestures only. If their communication is clear, the partner will state the object and the group sits
with hands on head to indicate the partner guessed the word correctly. This continues until the
correct word has been identified by all groups and the child swap roles. The game continues.
Considerations: State that using words and mouthing words is also not
allowed. The word must be communicated entirely through hand gesture, body language and
facial expression.
You may allow children to use symbols, like tugging on their ear to indicate it “sounds like” or
hold up two fingers to indicate there are two words.
~ Sell The Book! ~
KLA: English/ Book review and appreciation
Stage: Stage one, two and three.
Outcome: The children will use descriptive language and give personal
opinions about the book while developing their oral skills.
Resources: The book you are studying in class.
Procedure: Select a child to come out to the front. Give them a copy of the
text they are reading. The child has to try and sell the book to the class. They have to be
convincing, genuine and expressive of their opinions. Ask the class who would buy the book
based on the child’s description. Allow other children to try and sell the book to the class.
Remember to tell them that they have to try and make it sound very interesting, so more people
will want to buy it!
~ I’m Going On A Picnic
~
KLA: English/ Letter & Sound combinations
Time: Five or ten minutes
Stage: Any stage depending on level of difficulty you choose.
Outcomes: To enhance the children’s knowledge of letter combinations,
sounds, cvc blends and spelling skills.
Procedure: The teacher begins. “I’m going on a picnic......and I’m going to
take with me some pencils, some paper and a placemat”. It is then upto the children to identify
the common link between these words, in this case, all begin with the letter ‘P’, and the children
then ask if they can bring certain things to the picnic. If they have identified the link and use it in
their statement, they are allowed to come to the picnic. For example, if a child says, “On your
picnic, can I bring a poster?”, the teacher would reply, “Yes, you may come on the picnic”.
However, if the child says, “On your picnic, can I take a bicycle?”, then the child has obviously
not made the connection and so the teacher replies, “No, you may not come on my picnic.”
Once five or six children have identified correctly what the link is, ask one of the to state what
the link was to the rest of the class. For example, the child would say, “You could only take
objects beginning with the letter ‘P’”.
This game can be continuously used, simply by changing the beginning letter, or using words
with a common sound, such as mat, cat, hat, bat, rat and so on. Also, you may choose objects
with double letters, for example, moose, balloon, rubber, moon and vacuum. You may also like
to use compound words, such as highchair, blackboard, dragonfly, butterfly, a jar of ‘sunshine’
or a motorbike.
This game is effective when children are learning new letter combinations or as a ‘filler’ to get
the children thinking. If you are creative and use different combinations, the children will love to
play regularly.
~ Beat the Beanbag!
~
KLA: English/Vocabulary development
Stage: Early stage One, One, Two, Three
Outcome: The children will develop their vocabulary and quick thinking
skills in a physical and active way.
Resources: One beanbag.
Procedure: The children sit in a circle on the floor. One pupil, eyes shut sits
in the centre of the circle. The children that make up the circle, pass a beanbag around, until the
child in the centre says “STOP!” He/She then says a letter except X. The pupil caught with the
beanbag then passes it on around the circle and then say eight words that begin with the chosen
letter, trying to finish before the beanbag returns to them. If the child can not think of eight
words beginning with the chosen letter, he/she takes the place of the child in the centre and the
game begins again. If the pupil does say eight words beginning with the chosen letter, the child
in the centre must try again.
Considerations: You can suit this activity to whatever your lesson is about.
You may even want to make the game a little more specific by having the child in the centre say,
“Name eight animals in the rainforest” if you are studying rainforests in your classroom. You
may even say things like, “Say eight boy/girl’s names beginning with B”, or “Name eight objects
in the classroom beginning with T”.
~ Fortunately/Unfortunately
~
KLA: English/Creative Thinking, Verbal Narratives
Time: Five to ten minutes
Stage: Stage two and three.
Outcomes: The children develop their creative thinking skills and examine
the idea of shaping situations to create conflict or a resolution. They also must rely on skills like
teamwork, cooperation and listening skills, while they develop their decision making abilities as
well.
Procedure: A topic is chosen, such as, “At The Ball Game” or “The Fun
Park”. The topic must allow for children to develop many creative answers, so make it a broad
topic area. The first child starts the scene, “Johnny’s mother told him he could go to the fun fair
that had arrived in the town that day!”. The children then must carry on the story. However, the
second child’s sentence, to continue the story must begin with “Fortunately......”. For example,
“Fortunately, his mother offered him a lift to the park, to save him walking”. The third child
must begin their sentence with the word, “Unfortunately.....”, for example. “Unfortunately, as
they drove to the park, the tyre burst and mum had to stop”. The fourth child must begin with the
word “Fortunately....”, for example, “Fortunately, Johnny knew how to change tyres, so he
quickly fixed the problem and they were back on the road, heading for the fun park”. The fifth
child must begin with the word, “Unfortunately......”, for example, “Unfortunately, an ape had
escaped from the fun park and was sitting on the middle of the road, blocking the entrance into
the park”.
This continues, so every second child begins with “Unfortunately”, creating conflicts in the
story, while the other children begin with ‘Fortunately”, and they try to resolve those conflicts.
~ Spelling Hoops ~
KLA: English/ Spelling
Stage: Two and Three
Outcomes: Children develop skills in spelling and word construction. Depending on the activity, the children may develop skills in forming compound words as well.
Resources: Six hoops, flashcards with various letters from the alphabet on them, five bean bags, and for variations, flashcards with parts of words on them to form compound words or prefixes.
Procedure: To integrate Spelling into the PDHPE unit, this game is simple and yet challenging. A hoop is placed in the centre and five other hoops are placed in a circle around the centre hoop. A child sits in each hoop and is given three letters from the alphabet. The centre child has five bean bags. The aim of this game is for the child in the centre to make a word out of the letters in each hoop. The words can vary in difficulty from grade to grade. The centre child then throws the bean bags to the child sitting in the hoop which contains the letter they need to spell their word. As the child throws the bean bag, he/she states the one letter out of the three, they need for their word. After all bean bags have been thrown, the child states each letter they selected and the word it spells. The children then swap hoops so that each child has a turn at throwing and forming words from the letters.
Variations: Instead of just letters, have parts of compound words in the hoops, and ask the centre child to create a compound word by throwing beanbags to the children that have the words they need. Also, instead of letters or words, the children sitting in hoops may be given prefixes. On the board is the main suffix, for example "EAR". The children in the hoops may have prefixes such as "SP", "H", "CL" and "N". Also have some trick prefixes which don't make words to see if children can identify them for example, "BL" or "TH". Ask the child to state the word, both prefix and suffix to the class and ask the class if they are correct.
~ Mix and Match ~
KLA: English
Stage: Early Stage One and stage one.
Outcome: Children remember the alphabet and develop their memory skills as the strive to remember where certain letters are on the ground.
Resources: Approximately twenty flashcards with letters from the alphabet on them.
Procedure: Approximately twenty pieces of paper are placed faced down on the ground. On the side of the paper that is hidden is a letter from the alphabet. The pages are scattered but remain face down. Eight children form two teams of four and sit opposite each other, with the letters between them. One child from the first team picks up one of the pages and reads out the letter on that page. The child then must find the next letter in the alphabet by lifting up another piece of paper. If the child is right then they keep those two letters and a point is given to their team. If the letters are not consecutive, then both pages are placed on the ground and a child from the other team has a turn. This game helps develop the child's memory skills as well as help them learn their alphabet. The game continues until all pieces of paper are matched and the points for each team are tallied.
Variations: This can also be done using numbers for early stage one classes
