Little Red Riding Hood
Puppet Play
The following puppet story may give you some interesting ideas on how to stage your own puppet play
The magic chair
The magic chair
1. Put a chair in the centre of a circle of children.
2. Tell the children that it is hot, sticky, covered with paint or glue, cold, soft, has a pin on it, is broken, very comfortable etc.
3. Any child who wants to gets up and sits on the chair. They act out the situation. Eg. If it is hot they sit down and jump up screaming “Ow!”.
Musical Clothes
Musical Clothes
A great revision game for clothes and accessories
You’ll need your costume bag for this game. If you don’t yet have a costume and prop box ask parents to bring in the following items:
- hats, gloves, and scarves
- coats and old shoes
- shirts, t-shirts
- Plastic glasses, moustaches, wigs etc
How to play
The children stand in a circle, the music starts – and the bag needs to be passed round the circle. When the music stops, the child holding the bag has to take something out, say what it is and put it on.
The game continues until all the items have been used. The winner is the person wearing the most clothes. You can either put some pop music on and let the children dance in their new outfits
Or
Encourage everyone to find a new way of walking, talking and gesturing using their costumes and props and introduce yourselves to each other in English using your character s voice.
Practicing simple ESl introductions,
– Hello, what’s your name?
– My name is….
– How are you?
– I’m wonderful!!!
– How old are you?
– I’m 100!!
can be made so much more fun by dressing up and putting on a silly voice and you will find that even the shyest of children will feel less inhibited to speak as they are able to hide behind another character
Happy teaching and have a great weekend
Miranda
Pass on the Mime Message
Pass on the Mime Message
You will need: Several simple sentences written on cards.
Example:
– It’s cold outside
– I have a sandwich for lunch
– I like to ride my bike
Have the group stand in a line facing the opposite direction to you. You tap the first child on the shoulder who turns around and you give him/her the message using only gestures. This player then taps the second child on the shoulder, who turns around , and passes on the message as he/she understands it. Stop the game at a certain point and ask the player whose turn it is if he/she can explain the message vocally without enacting it. Has the message been passed on correctly?
This Esl drama game is great fun for older children who are already able to form simple sentences. It encourages creativity and stimulates the imagination. To make the game easier for younger children, instead of sentences use illustrated flash cards to show the first child e.g a bicycle, horse, sandwich, rain.
Song and Role-play for “The Wheels on the Bus”
Song and Role-play for
“The Wheels on the Bus”
My 4-5 year old class loves doing the following song and role-play activity . It’s physical, lively and engaging. Try it!
I got the following song and activity from super simple songs
Language focus: Round and round, open and shut, beep beep, up and down, wheels, bus, door, wipers, horn, people, babies, mommies.
Classroom benefits: The Wheels on the Bus introduces a lot of very useful vocabulary for young learners while allowing them to get up, move around the classroom, and engage their imaginations.
Preparation: Before singing the song, introduce a toy bus or a picture of a bus or a bus-themed picture book. Point out the wheels, the door, the wipers, etc. Now, seated in a circle, you are ready to introduce the song.
Lyrics and actions:
(Everybody stands in big circle. You may want to give all of the students some props to act as steering wheels. Tambourines work great! Honk the horn!)
(Everyone stops and faces into the circle.)
The wheels on the bus go round and round. (Move your hands and arms round and round in a circle.)
Round and round. Round and round.
The wheels on the bus go round and round. Round and round. (Go! Between each verse, everyone pretends to drive a bus and honk the horn.)
The door on the bus goes open and shut. (Clap your hands together on “shut” and open them on “open”.)
Open and shut. Open and shut.
The door on the bus goes open and shut. Open and shut.
The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish. (Mimic the motion of windshield wipers with your hands and arms.)
Swish, swish, swish. Swish, swish, swish.
The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish. Swish, swish, swish.
The horn on the bus goes beep, beep, beep. (Pretend to be honking the horn on the steering wheel of a bus.)
Beep, beep, beep. Beep, beep, beep.
The horn on the bus goes beep, beep, beep. Beep, beep, beep.
The people on the bus go up and down. (Stretch up and then squat down.) Up and down. Up and down.
The people on the bus go up and down. Up and down.
The babies on the bus go wah wah wah. (Place your hands next to your eyes and pretend to cry.)
Wah, wah, wah. Wah, wah, wah.
The babies on the bus go wah wah wah. Wah, wah, wah.
The mommies on the bus go shhh shhh shhh. (Place your finger in front of your mouth as you make the shhh sounds. You can also pretend to cradle a baby in one arm).
Shhh shhh shhh. Shhh shhh shhh.
The mommies on the bus go shhh shhh shhh. Shhh shhh shhh.
ROLE- PLAY
After the song is great time to “play bus”. Set up rows of chairs like the inside of a bus. Make a bus stop by putting some tape or rope down on the ground. Give each of the children several “coins” (colored chips work great, marbles will do… or use real coins). Make a small box into the fare collection box.
The teacher or parent can put on a bus driver’s cap and use a tambourine as a steering wheel. “Open” the bus door and invite the children on. Ask, “Where are you going?” Elicit responses like “To the park/to the pool/to the zoo/to the library/etc. Say, “Two coins, please.” and help the children pay. After all the kids have boarded, start “driving.” Sing The Wheels on the Bus together. Turn left and turn right, having the kids lean with you as you turn. Call out the stops. “Next stop…the park!” “Next stop…the zoo!”
Kids LOVE this role-play. Let them take turns being the driver too!
Using Esl Drama with “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”
Using Esl Drama with
“The Very Hungry Caterpillar“
Young children love this story , it’s ideal for revising food and numbers and introducing days of the week. Why not add a simple creative improvisation to make it even more fun and memorable for children.
Here are a few suggestions on how to introduce the story:
1. Tell the simple story using the book, get the children actively involved – show them the pictures bring to class some “real” fruit, elicit and count the fruit and food together. Ask them what they understand from the story in their native language.
2. You could use this beautiful and very well made video that I came across on the web to introduce the story. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qoYPLtqqVk
3. For those more adventurous and creative you could make and use a simple sock puppet to tell the story (I’ve used the following user-friendly site in the past to make great sock puppets http://www.daniellesplace.com/HTML/puppets.html ).
4. For simple paper puppets the following blog has some interesting ideas http://babybilingual.blogspot.com/2007/04/very-hungry-caterpillar-very-hungry.html
Improvisation
1. Tell the children that they are now going to re-tell the story of the “Hungry Caterpillar” themselves – and that they are going to “act” being the caterpillar.
2. Make some space in the room free of tables and chairs.
3. Put on some soft/slow instrumental music
4. Ask the children to lay down on the floor and pretend to be a little egg laying on a leaf under the moon. Use the book to show the children the illustrations so they know where you are at in the story.
5. Coax the children to act and push themselves out of the egg and become a little tiny caterpillar. Ask the children how they think a caterpillar moves and get them to show you physically . Ask how many legs and feet they think a caterpillar has. What does his face look like? Remember- he’s very hungry! Start to really wriggle and crawl like hungry caterpillar looking for something to eat.
6. Get the children to imagine and mime how the caterpillar eats and crawls into an apple…munching away until he pops out the other side. Still hungry! Try not to let the children talk.. they should remain concentrated and really imagine that they are the hungry caterpillar.
7. You don’t have to do go through all the fruits as it can get a bit long..but you could get the children to mime eating different foods like a “piece of cake” or “an ice- cream”. See how sticky and mucky their faces get!
8. Get the children to mime “feeling ill” after the caterpillar eats too much.
9. “The following day the caterpillar becomes big and fat”.. get the children to mime being very heavy and moving slowly.
10. For the caterpillar’s “cocoon” use a large blanket and get all the children to crawl under and hide together. (kids find this part great fun)
11. Tell them to slowly come out from the blanket transformed into a beautiful butterfly. Get the children to flitter and fly around the room as beautiful brightly colored butterflies.
Tips on Classroom Management
Tips on classroom management
When I first started out teaching children I never bothered explaining any ground rules naively thinking that my bubbly personality and incredibly interactive ESL drama games could win over even the most undisciplined child …little did I know!!
After one very boisterous 7 year old created havoc in one of my lessons, ruining the enjoyment of others and almost giving me a nervous breakdown, I soon started thinking of better ways I could manage myself and my class.
Classroom ground rules are extremely useful when using ESL Drama especially when many children are up and moving around together. They really can make a huge difference to the whole atmosphere of the lesson, prevent any child getting over excited and losing focus or maybe even unintentionally harming another child , they encourage group collaboration and above all give you more control of each exercise without struggling to be heard.
I learned the hard way….I recommend you avoid it!!
It is important for the children to understand that drama is of enormous fun for everyone but it is structured fun.
Just as football is more fun if everyone follows the rules, ESL Drama is more fun if everyone follows the rules.
Here are a few initial suggestions for classroom rules:
1. Try to go to the bathroom before the lesson. (obvious one but , when you’re in the middle of a group or pair activity it can become an extra disruption with children trotting off to the bathroom – although it often can’t be avoidedJ)
2. Always listen carefully and follow the rules of any game or activity.
3. When you hear the drum beat “freeze” (this one I’ve found very useful in getting the whole class focused and listening in an instant. I personally use a drum but you can also use another loud instrument or even a whistle. When you beat the drum once the children stop whatever they’re doing and “freeze” like ice statues which children love! 2 drum beats indicates the children to quickly and silently form a circle. )
4. Always raise your hand, and wait to be invited before speaking (avoids unnecessary noise and keeps children focused and encourages listening and respecting others children’s’ opinions)
The following rules are can be added on for older children 7-10 year olds:
5. NEVER, EVER intentionally hurt someone else. This means no hitting or pushing but it also means no name-calling or teasing. A Drama lesson can only work if everyone feels safe.
6. Everyone is responsible for his own actions. Just because someone else does something wrong does not give you permission to make things worse by doing the same thing. “He did it, too,” is never an excuse.
7. If you don’t want to play …then sit and watch. (With ESL Drama occasionally some children will react differently to a particular game or activity. Try never to force anyone to participate especially if you see they are uncomfortable about joining in as this could block their spontaneity and fun with other games. With my private groups I suggest that children may sit at the side and watch quietly (without disrupting the rest of the class) if they really do not want join in a game. Saying this I very rarely see anyone taking up the offer.)
In one of my next tip posts I will be talking about some great ways of motivating your children using “rewards” …with no chocolate treats anywhere to be seenJ
Happy teaching
Why use ESL Drama Games?
Why use ESL Drama Games?Welcome ESL teachers
Well…..
ESL Drama and Movement Games are of enormous fun and motivation for children of all ages and are great for enhancing listening skills and fostering group cooperation.
As you well know, children are perfect language learners, they are imaginative, curious , keen to learn, and above all very receptive. ESL Drama games free up and involve children and give them the possibility to really put into practice their language skills , albeit limited skills , by being ACT-ive.
Children are encouraged to jump up on their feet express themselves and communicate with others in English – through mime, body language, eye contact and facial expressions.
ESL Drama games also spur children on to tell and act out stories/experiences
Drama Games also help children focus and concentrate their energies and improve their self-confidence – by taking on a role for example even the shyest of children are able to hide behind another character and feel less inhibited.
ESL Drama games when used at the beginning of a language lesson or play rehearsal, strengthen work with a script by helping the children warm up, focus their energy, develop their characters, work as a team and even memorize their lines!
The teaching tips and creative ideas included in this blog address both inexperienced and experienced language teachers interested and perhaps intrigued in learning how to incorporate drama as an extra joyful dimension in their teaching.
The games and teaching suggestions are targeted at young children aged 4-10 years and have all been personally tried and tested!
Happy reading
and explore the world around them. Through, role-playing, puppetry and mime, improvisation and characterization a child’s memory and vocabulary is constantly stimulated .
Tips on preparing your first ESL Drama lesson
Tips on preparing your first ESL Drama lesson
Your objective
Be clear what you want the children to learn during the lesson. For example colors, body vocabulary, prepositions, group cooperation, trust etc.
Choose appropriate games
Play drama games that reflect your lesson’s objectives. Children learn more by being actively involved and by absorbing ideas and concepts directly so hands-on activities are perfect.
Try and free the children from any traditional classroom restraints (even if it’s for a short time!) and get them up moving, jumping, dancing, exploring the space around them, using their bodies and voices in strange and different ways. Sing songs, and play drama games and you will find it encourages them to get over any initial shyness or embarrassment when speaking in English
Speak loudly , clearly and briefly!
I believe a warm and enthusiastic voice is imperative. You really need to be able to introduce the game and it’s rules quickly with no fuss so that all the children can understand and feel encouraged to join in. Avoid talking for long periods of time as the energy level drops lower and lower and is difficult then to recuperate.
When introducing a new game keep the energy moving, SMILE and use mime and gestures or visual aids like puppets and flashcards to initially captivate the children’s attention. If you see a child’s attention wondering try jumping up and using more active body language .
Try avoid using a monotone voice by changing your rhythm and pitch and always maintain direct eye contact with all of the children (and not just one or two). If you find that the rules of a certain game are complicated and the children haven’t understood it ‘s quicker to repeat the rules in their native language so they can get on with the game itself.
Trial runs of games are a great way to ensure that everyone has understood the rules. Great results come from children who feel considered and not just part of a big group so try and interact with children individually even if it’s a comment or two at the beginning or end of each lesson. Finally remember children need lots of stimulation all the time.
Game playing
Be present and guide the children during each game to keep it on track. If you see the game going flat or not going according to plan , jump in and make some suggestions or change tactic or if the game really cannot be saved change it altogether – Quickly before energy levels drop! Remember to remain positive with your voice and never let the children see that you are disappointed with the outcome it could block their spontaneity with future games. Praise the children a lot as it builds their self esteem and encourages them to try again.
Note: in Drama there are no wrong answers!
Review and repeat games and songs
New language is never learnt (and remembered) in just one lesson so reviewing new concepts is imperative . Songs are great for reviewing and you will find that children will love to repeat their favorite games again and again.
Happy teaching!
ESL Drama Games 