'Throwing a Ball'

Hi, everyone! It's been long time not to write on my blog. Well, something came up and I had to deal with it. Thanks to Allah, everything is alright. I'm really grateful of it.

Today, I would like to share again my experience about a popular game among teachers and students. Yep, It is 'throwing a ball' game. Even though there are lots of new games and tech-based games, but this game is quite useful and well-applied for my class. It is less of preparation and can be used to review lots of topics we have in the class. Through this game also, we may revise certain language target in a fun way, we just modify the game based on our needs in the classroom. 

Couple of weeks a go, I used this game to review some topics that I would like to share with you. The preparations are very simple. Teacher only prepares a small colorful plastic ball and eyebrow pencil. The rules are student/each player has to sit in a circle, and every one who catches a ball, she/he has to do the task. If she/he can not answer or do the task, teacher draws a mole on her/his face (this is optional). 

Here are some activities that I have already applied in the class:

1. Circle Adjective

Students sit in a circle. First player calls out an adjective, for example 'tall', then the player throws a ball to another player. The player who catches a ball has to repeat the first word and also calls out an adjective, such as 'tall, short'. The third player also does the same thing, and so it goes on until the last player has to call out all the words mentioned by other players, for example 'tall, short, long, ......'. The player with the least mole on her/his face will be the winner. (addition rule: the adjectives have been called can not be used by others)

2. Past verb in a sentence

Even though, the procedures are the same, but in this activity the students have to make a simple sentence of past simple. Each player must add one past verb in the sentence besides another past verb mentioned by another player. The example would be like this one:

player 1 : I bought a book yesterday.

player 2 : I 'bought and borrow' a book yesterday.

player 3 : I 'bought, borrow, and read' a book yesterday.

player 4 : I 'bought, borrow, read, and .....' a book yesterday.

3. Introduction

In the beginning of academic year, we usually have a new English classroom and some new students. Before starting a new topic, they usually have an introduction and to make it more exciting we may use 'throwing a ball game'. If we have a big classroom, we may divide the students into small groups.

First, students sit in a circle or depend on the condition of your class. First player must say their name, such as 'my name's Rara/I'm Rara'. The second player who catches a ball must repeat her/his friend's name and also says his/her name. It would be like this one 'she is Rara and I'm Carla'. The third player will do the same thing until the last player. The one who can not remember the friend's name has to sing a song. 

Yeayyyy! That is all that I can share with you, these ideas come from many resources and I modify them based on the needs of my classroom. Thank you for reading my blog TrenggaleksinaubosoInggris.blogspot.com

Fun Activities to Review Past Simple

Reviewing and recalling certain topic, for my students of secondary school, are the important ones. They are often being forgetful if we do not repeat and review the previous topics. One of the examples is reviewing the past verbs to tell about their past experiences. Many activities have been done by them, such as card game, bingo game, guessing game, and so forth. Last meeting, we had some interesting and fun activities to review the use of past verbs to study recount text. 

I prepared a simple lesson plan for my students and some materials/worksheets/medias to review past verbs of recount text. First, my students had exercises about regular and irregular past verbs, the pronunciation, and the rules of -ed/-d suffixes. After that, they were asked to make simple sentences using the past verbs given on a piece of paper based on the pattern they have learnt before. The most right answer got a score. 

The next activity was pair work card game. The students sat face to face and they had a set of questions cards. They played in turn taking the card out from the box and called out the question. His/her opponent partner must give an answer. If he/she gave the right answer, the card would be hers/his. Students with the most cards got a score. 

The last reviewing activity was listening to songs. I searched suitable songs for the topic on google, and I found two songs, they are 'because you loved me by Celine Dion' and 'Yesterday by The Beatles'. Then, I prepared the activities using these songs. First, I gave the students a song worksheet of 'because you loved me' lyric. In each verse, there were two choices of past verbs, and students had to choose the best answer of the verbs by listening to the song. 

Still using the same song, the students were given the second worksheet. In this activity, they had to get rid of the extra words written on the song lyrics. So, I gave extra words on each sentence of the lyrics, and the students circled the unnecessary words/phrases on the lyrics of the song. At last, the students had the third worksheet of the second song, entitled 'Yesterday by The Beatles'. The students filled the blanks lyrics of the song by listening to the song played twice. Students with the most right answer of these three activities would get a score. 

'My Delicious Sandwich'

 

The children around my house, in Trenggalek, East Java, Indonesia, are not familiar with sandwich, which is known as a western food. Last week, we learnt about food and drink. I showed to them some picture flashcards of food and drink and one of them was 'sandwich'. They asked me what kind of sandwich is and I told them that it is like a hamburger but having different bread. Because my students have not known yet such kind of food, yesterday we made our own simple sandwich. In this activity, they not only know what sandwich looks like, but they learn about the vocabularies related to sandwich also. 

I prepared some materials related to the topic of sandwich. I made some pictures flashcards about the ingredients of making sandwich, such as bread, sausage, chicken nugget, tomato, lettuce, cheese, and sauce. Then, I also prepared a worksheet for them. First, the students (around 7-8 years old) practiced the pronunciation and spelling words using flash cards. They repeated and spelled the ingredients of making sandwich. After that, I showed the real objects of the ingredients put on small plates/saucers and labeled the names of them using colorful sticky notes. Next, the students did exercises on their worksheet about making sandwich. 

The focus of the activity was to practice vocabulary related to sandwich, so we did not talk about the procedures of making sandwich. After having exercises, it was the time to make yummy sandwich. While arranging the ingredients, I asked the students again what the names of them one by one by asking the question 'what is it?' and pointing the real objects. When the sandwiches were done, we put them on a large flat plate. The children labeled their sandwich by writing their name on a sticky note and was embedded  by using tooth-pick. They were really excited having their own delicious sandwich and it was ready to be tasted. They said, 'Hmmmmm...so yummy!' 

Comparison Board Game

Board Game

My students are frequently being forgetful when they have to review about comparison material. They are often making mistakes all the times to differentiate among the three types of comparison, they are positive degree, comparative degree, and superlative degree. They usually put the wrong prefixes and suffixes of comparison words, for example; the word 'high' will be 'more higher' or 'highest' to form comparative sentences. Teacher has drilled them in each meeting or given them an easy and eye catching note about comparison, but it does not work optimally. 

The students play the board game

Having the experiences above, teacher has designed a board game to review the use of comparison sentences. Through this fun activity, teacher expects that the students can memorize the pattern of comparison sentences in an interesting way. Even though, this game is quite common, but my students enjoy to play this game with their friends, and they feel excited to finish the game firstly than others. The preparation for teacher is quite easy. I made some nice and colorful shapes using Ms. Words and arranged them into downward spiral or like 'snake and ladder', then I put some clues to form comparison sentences. The clues are designed to be authentic ones, so the students are familiar with the words or situation, such as Trenggalek & Surabaya; Blackberry & Android; You & Your sister/brother, and so forth. Each player rolls the dice and she/he has to form and call out a sentence of comparison using the clue given. The player, who land his/her counter on "finish", will be the winner of this game.  

Our Resolution in 2017

It is the end of January and it is not too late to write our resolutions in the rest of the New Year of 2017. A couple of weeks a go. I read an article written by Kelli which talked about her experience in the process of teaching of creating hopes and dreams. Based on the experience, I asked my students to create and write their resolutions in this New Year as well as learning Future Tense.

Before creating and writing the resolution, yesterday, the students learnt about making simple sentences using future tense patterns, it is 'be going to + V1' and I gave them a worksheet. Students chose and numbered some resolutions available on the worksheet, such as, watch less TV , lose weight, study more hard, go travelling, read more books, spend less time of using smartphone, be patient, stay healthy, and so forth. If the students had other resolutions, they could write or add them on the list. After that, teacher prepared and printed a beautiful starburst line image, and they wrote the resolution likes 'This year I am going to ......' on the paper line image to write those resolutions. The students cut, wrote, and colored it beautifully. Later, they would post them on the wall or others. The students felt really great and excited writing their own simple resolutions and learnt grammar of future plans as well. Besides that, the students shared and compared their resolutions each other.