Class Games Ideas:

         “I need a new game!” and/or “I have my first class this week. What do I do?”

I have heard this many times and am surprised at how difficult it is to find great class game ideas.  At first I would spend hours online looking for great game ideas to use in a class with 10-50 very young Chinese students (aged 2-11).  Mostly I would look through about 20 or more game ideas to eventually find just one that I thought was a good idea.  I would look through books written on the subject and find that most were only appropriate if the students could speak English well.  That was many years ago

         I recently searched on Youtube and again did not find anything that I felt I could use.  So, I eventually uploaded videos of my own classes with my own game ideas on Youtube.  Everyones teaching method is different and not all games work for all teachers.  Here are some of the games that I think work well with kindergarten and early primary school aged students in China.

Magic with flashcards

Use the “magic cups and balls”, “1 red card, 2 black cards”, or “balls in the plastic wine cups” to perform the type of “Where is the ball/red-card?” magic tricks.  With all tricks there are three locations that the ball or card can be.  Flashcards showing todays content/words are placed in front of the cup/cards and the students must say the name of the flashcard (and/or say a sentence) in order to choose the cup or card behind it

Balloon ring jump

Blow up a few of the “long twisty balloons” and then make them into a ring.  Place them on the floor in a line, with a flashcards designated for each.  The kids must say the flashcard word and/or sentence for the balloon ring that is in front of them and then jump with both legs together at the same time into the middle of the balloon ring without it bursting.  Continue until the end.

Connecting Lines

Draw pictures of the new words down one side of the board, then write those words down the other.  Teacher yells out one of the words, then two kids race to draw a line from the word to its matching picture.

Word-by-Word Relay! (or “Letter-by-Letter”)

Choose teams of 3-4 kids each. Yell out a sentence that is pre-written on the board. The 1st kid from each team, runs up and writes the first word, then runs back and hands the chalk to the 2nd person, who runs up and writes the next word, that student runs back and hands the chalk to the next student, and so on. First team to finish wins! This can also be done just for one word as a “letter-by-letter relay” for lower level students.

         Please tell me what you think and tell me of any ESL game ideas that you have.  I think there should be a place where all these ideas can be shared, especially for the newly arriving teachers who need the help.

Glenn Batten