Favourite games for the PLL classroom

Beat the teacherUsing either flashcards or actions, the „teacher‟ says a word or phrase in the TL. If it matches the picture / action, the class repeat it. If it doesn‟t match, the class must be silent. If the class are silent, they win a point; if anyone makes a noise, the „teacher‟ wins a point. Set a number of points to reach – usually 5. Lip reading – Mouth a word / phrase and the class must work out what you said – either say the word, or write it on a whiteboard. Use to encourage pupils to pay attention to the shape of their mouth when they make certain sounds / phonemes. Clap the rhythm – Clap items of familiar vocabulary / phrases – pupils identify the word(S) Encourages awareness of sound patterns / stress patterns / syllables in TL. More advanced – clap questions – pupils answer in claps. Pictionary – Always popular – especially if your drawing is dodgy ;o) Can be played whole class with miniwhiteboards – Dibujame…. Or at front on IWB, or in two teams – first to complete 5 pictures wins. Caliente frío – A very popular game as it‟s noisy! Send a child outside. Hide an item in the room eg a teddy. When the child returns, they must find the item. The class help by saying an agreed phrase, varying the level of voice according to how close the seeker is to the item. La orquestaPupils are given an item of vocabulary eg instruments / animals / colour The leader acts as the conductor, cueing in and out the different “instruments” of the orchestra who say and / or clap their word. Búscame.. Find me something… - use with colour, descriptions, phonemes etc El zoo – Like Fruit salad but with animals. Pupils stand in a circle and are given one of five or six animal names. When their animal is called, they run around the circle back to their space. If the leader calls „el zoo‟, everyone runs around the circle and back to their space. Alternative – pupils can swap places with someone else. La cuerdaLinks to numeracy, using a piece of rope to half / double numbers Body writing – Pupils write words in the air using different parts of their body – start with finger/ hand/ foot – can use nose, head and bottom if you want! Also get pupils to „write‟ on each others backs or hands – sensory awareness – encourages concentration Phoneme runaround – Put phonemes on the walls – eg ch / ll/ z / j Call a word and pupils runaround to the card that matches a phoneme in the word – there can be more than one answer. Alternatively, use vocabulary from the lesson and call the phoneme – pupils stand under a word containing the phoneme. Hoops – there‟s a whole blogpost on ¡Vámonos! About hoop games – http://lisibo.blogspot.com/2008/03/reporting-back-from-pls-4jumping.html X llama Y Whole class beat a steady rhythm on their knees and fingers – left knee, right knee, left click, right click Person begins by saying (their name) llama (another name in the class) – must eb done in the four beats. The person called must respond in the beat or they are out. Can be varied to use vocabulary instead of names. Eg animals / colours / items in the room according to a card they hold perhaps. Great for coordination! Counting with actions – like Brain gym. Left arm up, right arm up, stamp left foot, stamp right foot as you count to 16. After four times, change to 8 for four times, then 4, then 2, then 1, each for four times. Amazing how tricky it is! Try with numbers that aren‟t so easily divisible by 4!