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
Have you ever tried to make a flip book? If not, you can try this in the next class. It's really fun and interesting for students, particularly primary or secondary students. Actually, I got this idea from British Council's page on Facebook. Then, I tried this idea in my English classroom to practice present simple. For your information, flip book is a kind of book consisted of some pages with pictures and inside of each paper there is a sentence or information of the picture when we turn the page. That is why we can use this book to play game to practice certain language target in the classroom.
Even though it sounds complicated in making a flip book, but we can make it in a simple way made of sheets of plain papers. Yesterday, I had an English class of present simple topic for eight graders. I told them that we would like to make a flip book. I showed to them the example of flip book made by me. Before they made it, they practice present simple using worksheets about the pattern and the exercises. They practice how to make simple sentences talking about their weekly routine from Sunday to Saturday. Then, I asked them to prepare four sheets of papers and cut them into a half part. After that, they arranged the cut-papers to be flip books, it was consisted of eight pages. In each page, they wrote the days and drew pictures corresponded the weekly routines. After it was done, they exchanged their flip book and tried to guess the activity corresponded by the picture. If the students had the right answer, they would have a score. 