5 Green Frogs Jumping on the Log
An adapted version of “10 Green Bottles sitting on the Wall” for ESL pre-schoolers. This is a fun and simple song to introduce numbers 1-5 and provides lots of vocabulary practice (frog, green, log, jump, splash).
I bring along to class some frog masks for the children to wear and act out the song themselves. They have great fun jumping and splashing in a pretend pond.
Happy Teaching!
Teach Prepositions with Pippo the Puppet
When introducing prepositions (in, on, under, in front of, behind) a puppet can be a useful teacher assistant and engaging for children.
Activity Instructions
Bring to class some fruit props (orange, pear, banana, apple, kiwi, etc) children tend to become very excited about real fruit, but plastic fruit is fine and easier to store away for future exercises:-) Place the fruit on your desk or on the floor in a circle where all the children can see it. Use an empty box (puppet size) and give your puppet instructions to carry out.
Example:
“Hello Pippo, can you show the children a banana, please? Very good Pippo.” (Pippo picks out and holds up the banana for the children to see, get the children to repeat the word and use lots of applause of encouragement both for Pippo and the children)
“Where’s the pear, please Pippo?” (Pippo picks out and holds up the pear for the children to see, and again have the children to repeat the word)
When the children become familiar with the fruit have Pippo select an incorrect fruit and get the children to correct him. Then ask for a volunteer to help Pippo choose the correct fruit. Get the other children to applaud and encourage, if the child is unsure Pippo can always hint:-)
Now give Pippo preposition instructions :
“Pippo can you put the apple on the box/chair please?”
“Pippo can you put the apple in the box/chair please?”
“Pippo can you put the apple under the box/chair please?”
Again as the children become familiar with the prepositions , have Pippo make mistakes and encourage the children to correct him.
Have a competition between a child and Pippo as to who can be the quickest in putting the banana under the box/chair. The child always wins, of course!With older children this game works well with one child competing against another but be careful with younger children as they can end up in tears, especially if they don’t win. A tried and tested lesson that guarantees laughter and group participation even for the shyest of children:-)
Have Fun!
I wrote this mini play for a class of 4-8 year old children. I tried to make it super simple and comprehensive for both children learning English as a second language or very young children who are still unable to memorize longer pieces of dialogue. I also used hand puppets and encouraged the children to make simple prop houses made out of cardboard, sticks and straw. A puppet theatre can be shop bought or if you have a tight budget, a black curtain can be positioned over a hung washing line to create a puppet stage.
2- 10 Characters
1-4 Narrators
Mummy pig
Timmy pig
Sam pig
Jack Pig
Wolf
Brick/Hay/Stick salesman
SCENE 1
Mother pig’s kitchen
Narrator: A Mummy Pig has three baby pigs called Timmy, Sam and Jack. (pigs enter) Timmy likes singing, Sam likes fishing and Jack likes sleeping (Jack can be heard snoring)
Mummy pig: You are too pig for my little house. You must build your own houses
Pigs: Goodbye Mummy
Mummy pig Goodbye little pigs. Be careful of the big bad wolf. He’ll eat you!
SCENE 2
Along the road
Narrator 2 : Timmy Pig meets a man
Salesman : Hello little pig do you want some straw?
Timmy Pig: Yes please, I want to build a strong straw house. (the man gives him some straw) Thank you.
Narrator 2: Sam meets a man
Man: Hello little pig do you want some sticks?
Tommy Pig Yes please, I want to build a strong stick house. (the man gives him some sticks) Thank you.
Narrator 2: Jack meets a man
Salesman: Hello little pig do you want some bricks?
Jack Pig: Yes please, I want to build a strong brick house. (the man gives him some sticks) Thank you.
Timmy pig: This is my new house (a straw house appears)
Sam pig: This is my new house (a stick house appears)
Jack pig: This is my new house (a brick house appears)
SCENE 3
Timmy’s house
Narrator 3: Oh no…here comes Mr Wolf
Wolf: I’m hungry, I’m very very hungry grrrhhhh ! I smell pigs , yummy yummy . Little pig , little pig, let me come in
Timmy pig: No you can’t come in Mr Wolf! Go away go away !
Wolf: Then i’ll Huff, puff, huff, puff ,huff, puff and blow your house in!
(Timmy pig runs away)
SCENE 4
Sam’s house
Narrator 3 The wolf comes to the stick house
Wolf: I’m hungry, I’m very very hungry grrrhhhh ! I smell pigs , yummy yummy . Little pigs, little pig, let me come in
Timmy pig and Sam pig No, no, no you can’t come in Mr Wolf! Go away go away !
Wolf: Then i’ll Huff, puff, huff, puff ,huff, puff and blow your house in!
(Timmy and Sam run away)
SCENE 5
Jack’s house
Narrator 3 The wolf comes to the brick house
Wolf: I’m hungry, I’m very very hungry grrrhhhh ! I smell pigs, yummy yummy. Little pigs, little pig, let me come in
Timmy pig and Sam pig and Jack Pig : No, no, no you can’t come in Mr Wolf! Go away go away!
Wolf: Then i’ll Huff, puff, huff, puff ,huff, puff and blow your house in! (repeat 3 times) Ahhhh, I’m very tired!
Narrator 4 : The pigs put a big pot of boiling water on the stove
Timmy pig and Sam pig and Jack Pig: Mr Wolf, we are ready now!
Narrator 4: The wolf slides down the chimney and falls into the big pot of boiling water
Narrator 4 Timmy, Sam and Jack live together in Harry’s house and are very happy.
THE END
Many traditional drama games for adults can be easily adapted for teaching children English. The following game is great fun and all my students adore it! It encourages team work, self expression, independence, and quick thinking. Suitable from ages 5 upwards.
Call out the name of an object and the group as a whole or split into smaller groups of 4-5 have to make the shape of that object out of their own bodies, joining together in different ways while you count down slowly from ten to zero. Usually the group will find a different way of forming the object. Examples could be: numbers, letters, a car, a number, a letter, a clock, a washing machine, a fire, a happy machine, a sausage machine. Encourage the children to make a sound to accompany their machine or object. One of my children’s favourites is a birthday cake. Some children act as candles we sing Happy Birthday and I blow out the giant “body” candles and the children fall to the ground. Great fun and makes the language memorable.
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.
ESL Drama Games 