ESL Activities Children

Halloween Party Games:

There are a plethora of great online and printable Halloween party activities these days, most of them are free, and many of them will liven up your Halloween parties while teaching the kids some ghoulish English!


Classroom Christmas Party Ideas

Some great Class Christmas Party ideas are in our Christmas section of our site. Bash the heck out of a pinata, ordrive Santa to Christmas town in a jeep!

"Bring out the artist in the Kids"

Japan is still frought with rote memorization teaching--especially in junior high school and beyond. So if you can add creativity to the classroom, not only are you teaching them English, you are helping them to hang onto the natural creativity that is a child`s blessing.

With my own children, I constantly encourage them to draw. I give them materials that encourage them to keep up this skill. I encourage the teachers at Kevin`s English Schools to do creative activities with our students too.

You can do this in your English classroom as well.

ESL Activities Children: Getting the Kids to Draw

Ask the children to draw their favorite: toy, place or activity.

Or you can direct them with TPR (James Asher`s Total Physical Response):

Say commands like these to the children:

"Draw a big circle."

"Draw a cute cat."

"Draw your house."

"Draw your nose."

Or with colours:

""Draw a brown dog."

Better still, become more student centred (something we should all strive for,) and have a student be the teacher. The student can issue commands, you stay in the background and monitor.

Or

Have the students draw what they want and the class must ask them questions about their picture. You could make it a 20 Questions type guessing game or simply ask questions about the picture.

*If the teacher draws something too, the children often get a kick out of this. (especially when they see my drawing ability!)

Take them Outside

On a nice day you can take the kids outside and have them choose what to draw. State to the children simply: "Draw something beautiful."

After they have drawn it you can ask them questions like:

"What do you like about it?" They might answer:

"I like the shape." or "I like the colour."

You may have to pre-teach the above vocabulary however.

On a final note:

I think remembering which activities we enjoyed as children and incorporating them into an English class is very important, and will lead to fun in the classroom. Fun can`t be over-emphasized! Most of the kids you teach will have already been at school all day,so the last thing they wish to do is study more. Make it as fun as possible for them, while you teach them English.

ESL Activities Children -- Toys and Keeping the children Safe

Little Safe One

Is a site by a mother and is about keeping our children safe.This is something that we as teachers and parents need always to be aware of. Lisa says:

"As a mother, we would like to bubble wrap our little ones to keep them safe."

Take a look at some realistic safety tips to keep your precious little one out of harm's way.

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