LISTENING

SPELLS FOR LISTENING

Gym sequence

Level Al.l, A1.2

Age 4-10

Organization whole class

Aims. To listen and respond to instructions; to focus attention and harness children's physical energy in a positive way.

Language focus imperatives, action words, parts of the body

Materials

Essential: none

Optional: aerobic music

Procedure

Ask the children to stand up.
Give instructions for a short gym sequence in a rhythmic way and do the actions with the children in time with the music, if you use this, eg Hands in the air. One, two! Touch your toes. One, two! Bend to the left. One, two! Bend to the right. One, two! Run on the spot. One, two! Turn around. One, two! And sit down. One, two! (Let's begin!)

Comments and suggestions

This activity works well as a routine for starting lessons. Change or add to the instructions regularly but always remember to demonstrate new actions first.
Ask the children to put their chairs under their desks and move away from these before starting. This is important for safety reasons.
Avoid actions like stretching arms out sideways in order to prevent physical contact between the children and possible disruption.
Increase the level of challenge either by giving more complex instructions, eg Put your left elbow to your right knee! or by going faster, or by not modelling the actions yourself.
With older children, you can ask pairs to prepare their own instructions for a gym sequence and take turns in different lessons to do these with the rest of the class.
With younger children, keep the sequence short, introduce variations less frequently and avoid using 'right' and 'left'. Alternatively, you can simply say, eg Do this! One, two! Do this! One, two! in a rhythmic way and children copy your actions.

Listen and respond

Level Al.l, Al.2

Age 4-8

Organization whole class

Aims. To listen and respond non-verbally to instructions; to develop concentration skills, confidence and physical coordination.

Language focus In the examples: imperatives and:

- classroom objects;

- classroom objects, toys, any vocabulary on flashcards;

- classroom objects, prepositions of place;

- any vocabulary on flashcards, eg animals.

Alternatives: any other familiar lexical set, eg parts of the body, food, colours, clothes

Materials

Essential: classroom objects, flashcards

Optional: flashcards

Procedure

Use any one or a combination of the following procedures.

1. Do the actions

2. Give the children instructions, eg Walk! Jump! Run! Skip! Hop!

3. Do the actions with the children

True or false?

Level All

Age 4-12

Organization whole class

Aims. To listen and respond non-verbally or verbally to sentences which are true or false; to develop concentration and pay attention.

Language focus any, depending on the topic, story or unit of work, eg present simple, past simple, can (for ability), there is/are

Materials

Essential: none

Optional: flashcards, poster or course book picture

Procedure

1.Decide on the non-verbal or verbal response you want the children to give in

the activity and explain and demonstrate this. For example, non-verbal

responses for true sentences could be for children to put their hands on their

heads and for false sentences to fold their arms. Verbal responses could be to

say Yes! or repeat the sentence for true sentences and to say No! or turn the

sentence into a true one, for false sentences.

2.Say a series of true or false sentences based on the unit of work, topic or

story that you are currently doing and children respond verbally or non-verbally in the way you have set up.

Comments and suggestions

With very young children, this activity needs to be done with reference to real things, pictures or actions in the children's immediate environment, eg using flashcards The duck is yellow/ The horse is red. With older children, sentences can be longer and need not necessarily refer

to the immediate environment. For example, sentences may relate to topic or content-based work, eg Mammals lay eggs / Bears can swim, or to a story or other listening or reading text the children have done.

You can vary the non-verbal responses in the activity depending on the age of the children, the space in your classroom, as well as the stage in the lesson and whether or not physical movement is appropriate. For example, in a more kinaesthetic version of the activity, you can ask children to jump three times for true sentences and turn round on the spot for false sentences.
This activity gives you an opportunity to observe and evaluate informally which children respond confidently and appropriately each time, and which children wait and copy what their friends do, and who may need more individualized attention and help.
The activity is also suitable to use for visual observation of a poster or picture in the course book, eg There's a man driving a blue car.

Mime what happens

Level All

Age 4-10

Organization whole class

Aims. To listen to a sequence of events; to show understanding through mime; to supply missing language in the sequence.

Language focus In the example: present simple, clothes, places, actions, food, personal possessions

Alternatives: past simple, any other familiar vocabulary

Materials

Essential: none

Procedure

1 Invent a simple sequence of events about something that happens to the children. Tell the events to the children and get them to respond by miming what happens. Do this with them at first, eg One day it's very cold. You put on your coat, your gloves and your hat. You get your bicycle and you ride to the park. Suddenly you see a friend. You're very happy and you wave to your friend.

You get off your bike. You put your bike on the grass and you and your friend play football together.

Whistling story

Level All

Age 6-12

Organization whole class, pairs

Aims. To listen to a story and supply missing words and phrases; to retell (a shorter version of) the story.

Language focus any depending on the story

Materials

Essential: a copy of the story for you (eg from a picture book, course book or children's reader)

Procédure

Retell the story to the children but, instead of saying key vocabulary, whistle and children supply the missing words, eg T: Robinson Crusoe was a (whistle)... PP: sailor. T: One day there was a terrible (whistle)... PP: storm. T: Robinson Crusoe swam to a small, tropical (whistle)...PP: island.

2 Depending on the length of the story, repeat the procedure, this time

whistling for longer and leaving more of the story for the children to

complete, eg T: Robinson Crusoe (longer whistle)... PP: was a sailor. T: One

day (longer whistle)... PP: there was a terrible storm. T: Robinson Crusoe

(longer whistle)... PP: swam to a small, tropical island.

Divide the class into pairs.
Children reconstruct and retell the whole story with their partner.
When they are ready ask one or two pairs to retell the story to the class.

Comments and suggestions

This activity builds up children's ability to recall and retell a short story.

If you can't whistle, either you can pause and use gesture or say a nonsense

word, eg Bleep! to indicate that children should supply the next bit of the story.

Depending on the age and level of the children, you may also like to ask

children to write a short version of the story after they have reconstructed it

orally.

Story circle

Level All

Age 6-12

Organization whole class

Aims Either to listen and retell a familiar story in turns (A2.1+) and/or to express your views and opinions about a story; to collaborate and take turns; to respect and value other people’s opinions

Language focus any, depending on the story; opinions, like/don't like, favourite

Materials

Essential: a soft ball, scarf or bean bag to pass round the circle

Optional: small pictures which tell the story (one set)

Procedure

Ask the children to sit in a circle.
Explain that the aim of the activity is for children to take turns to retell a familiar story, eg The Three Bears, by passing the ball, scarf or bean bag (depending on the object you have chosen) round the circle. If children get stuck, they can say Pass! and give the object to the next person in the circle. They can only speak if they have got the object.
Give the object to one (confident) child in the circle and invite them to start the story, eg Once upon a time, there was a family of bears. This child then passes the object to the child on their left, who adds a sentence, eg There was Mummy Bear, Daddy Bear and Baby Bear and so on round the circle until the end of the story.

Freeze!

Level Al.l

Age 4-6

Organization whole class

Aims To move round the classroom pretending to be a story character; to freeze; to practise self-discipline and self-control.

Language focus In the example: be, animals, adjectives

Alternatives: any, depending on the story

Materials

Essential: none

Optional: maracas or a tambourine

Procedure

Use this activity once children are familiar with the story.

Ask the children to stand up. Say eg You're lions! You’re fierce! Get the children to walk r: *mc the classroom pretending to be fierce lions. If you have maracas or a tambourine, mase ■ noise with this as children do their mimes.
Stop the noise suddenly and/or say Freeze! Demonstrate that the children should fretii in positions showing that they are fierce lions. Walk round commenting positively or. re children's mimes, eg What a fierce lion! You look very scary. I hope you're not hungry.
Repeat the procedure with different animals and adjectives from Dear Zoo.

Comments and suggestions

- Young children love pretending to be animals and the physical movement and

mime to make the names of the animals and the adjectives associated with each one.

- The use of the 'freeze' technique helps you to manage the activity in a positive way. As

you feel the children becoming over-excited in their mimes, you can say Freeze! and

immediately bring the situation under control again.

Number story

Level Al.l, A1.2

Age 4-6

Organization whole class

Aims To listen to and act out a story with numbers; to practice counting; to develop phys coordination.

Language focus In the example: numbers, language from the story

Alternatives: language from any counting song or rhyme as a basis for the story

Materials

Essential: none

Optional: pictures of a Mummy duck and five baby ducks

Procedure

Introduce Mummy duck and the baby ducks either by holding up pictures, if you have prepared these, or drawing on the board.
Encourage the children to count the baby ducks with you. Say, eg Mummy duck and the ducks like swimming in the pond (draw this on the board). Hold your head up like a duck and put your arms by your sides with your hands out as 'wings'.

Act out a story with puppets

Level Al.l, A1.2, A2.1, A2.2

Age 4-10

Organization pairs or groups (depending

on the number of characters and structure of the story)

Aims. To listen and act out a story with puppets; to manipulate puppets appropriately according to the story; to focus attention and develop concentration skills.

Language focus any, depending on the story

Materials

Essential: puppets for characters in the story; a version of the story for acting out (one copy for your reference if this is different from the original story)

Optional: Cuisenaire rods or classroom objects to use instead of puppets, eg ruler, glue stick, pencil case

Procedure

Use this activity once the children are familiar with the story and confident about using key language it contains.

A Role Play

Level All

Age 6-12

Organization pairs or groups (depending on the role play)

Aims. To prepare and do a role play between two or more characters in a story; to think and act

creatively in relation to story characters and situations; to collaborate in pairs or groups.

Language focus In the example: greetings, be, have got, want to, like/don't like, family, activities

.Alternatives: any, depending on the characters, story and role play

Materials

Essential: none

Optional: puppets, role cards for each character, props

Procedure

Decide on the characters, situation and language of the role play children are going to do, eg 'A week after the story, Baby Bear invites Goldilocks round to play at his house'
Prepare children to do the role play by building up a possible dialogue with the whole class. Either do this by taking the part of one of the characters yourself and getting children to respond as the other character, or by asking the children to make suggestions for what both characters say. Encourage children to use any language they know in the role play and be ready to prompt or remind them of this if necessary, eg Have you got a pet? Do you like music? Do you want to play on the computer? Are you hungry? Would you like a sandwich?
If appropriate, you can also write question stems on the board for the children to use as prompts during the role play, eg Have you got...? Do you like...?
Divide the class into pairs and either assign or get the children to choose their roles.
Children act out the role play with their partner.
Children can then either change roles and repeat the role play and/or you can ask a few individual pairs to act out their role play to the class.

Thought tunnel

Level All

Age 6-12

Organization whole class

Aims To make statements expressing opinions about a character and/or what they should do

in the context of a story; to collectively explore issues or problems of a character in the story

Language focus opinions, suggestions, should

Alternatives: any language related to the story

Materials

Essential: none

Procedure

Ask the children to stand in two lines facing each other and to raise their arms high with the tips of their fingers touching to make the thought tunnel.
Choose a child to take on the role of the character who is to go through the thought tunnel.
Ask the rest of the class each to prepare a sentence either giving an opinion about the character, eg You are a very bad wolf! or suggesting what the character should do, eg (to Cinderella) Why don't you run away?
Ask the child who is the character to walk slowly through the thought tunnel in role. Get the children on either side of the thought tunnel to alternately say their sentence to the child as they pass by.
At the end, ask the child who has walked through the thought tunnel to comment briefly on the opinions and/or advice they heard.

Comments and suggestions

This activity provides a controlled dramatic context for encouraging children to express opinions about characters and to think about problems and issues in the story. Although individually children only say one sentence, the collective outcome can be very rich.
An alternative way of using a thought tunnel is for children to voice the internal thoughts in the mind of the character who is going through the tunnel. This is particularly appropriate to use to explore the feelings of a character at a moment of conflict or crisis in the story, eg for Cinderella, I hate my sisters. I'm so tired. All I do is work. I love beautiful clothes. I want to go to the ball.

Abracadabra!

Level A 1.1

Age 4-6

Organization whole class

Aims To show understanding through mime and physical response; to develop physic coordination.

Language focus In the example: animals, numbers 1-3, be Alternatives: present continuous, food, actions

Materials Essential: none / Optional: improvized magic wand, eg ruler; witch puppet

Procedure

Teach the children simple mimes to go with a familiar lexical set such as animals. Fc:

example, for frog children jump, for cat children make ears with their hands, for duck make a beak with their hands.

Hold up the witch puppet or put on the witch's hat, if you have one, or wave your ‘maac wand'. Explain that you're the witch and you’re going to make spells to change the into different animals. Say the following in a rhythmic way.

Abracadabra! Listen to me!

You're a...( frog/cat/duck)!

One! Two! Three!

As you name the animal in line 2, turn away from the children and pretend to close as you count to three. Explain and demonstrate that children should mime the animai name as you do this. As soon as you get to three, open your eyes and turn round su'’ Look at the class and say, eg Fantastic! The witch's magic works! What a lot of lovely frogs
Explain that every time the spell works perfectly, all the children respond by doing: mime you say, the class scores a point.
Say different spells, speeding up the time you give children to respond as they become familiar with the game.
Keep a score of the class's points on the board and count them up at the end.

Comments and suggestions

Very young children love the element of 'magic' in this game. The more surprised an ; amazed you make your response at their ability to change into different animals and the 'spell' has 'worked', the more enthusiastic their participation will be!
Once the children are familiar with the game, you can ask individual children to takf to come and be the witch, or the witch's helper, and say the rhyme with you and/or animal in line 2.
This game can also be used with the present continuous and actions, eg You're sww food, eg You're eating a banana!

Pass the secret!

Level Al.l, A1.2

Age 4-6

Organization whole class

Aims To listen to and whisper instructions (or words); to show understanding by responding to instructions (or words); to take turns following a prescribed order.

Language focus In the example: imperatives, actions

Alternatives: any familiar vocabulary, adjectives of feeling (eg happy, sad, angry, scared), numbers

Materials Essential: none / Optional: puppet, flashcards or objects, keys (or other object) Procedure

1.Get the children to sit in a circle.

2.If you have a puppet, use it to whisper a secret instruction to one child, eg Jump to the door! Explain and demonstrate that the child should whisper the instruction to the child next to them clockwise, and so on round the circle. If you like, use the puppet to emphasize that the instruction should be kept as secret as possible until it gets to the last child in the circle.

3.The last child then says the instruction out loud and does the action. The puppet and all the other children clap and say eg Hurray! or Fantastic! if they do this correctly.

4.Repeat several times, starting with different children and using different instructions.

Comments and suggestions

This game encourages children to listen attentively, speak (whisper) clearly and take turns in an orderly way. The two alternative versions below also develop physical coordination and concentration skills.
Instead of instructions, the puppet can whisper a secret word to a child in the circle. In this case, stick flashcards of familiar vocabulary items on the board or arrange objects on your desk before the game. Children whisper one of the words, eg Umbrella! round the circle. The last child says the word and finds the flashcard on the board or object on your desk.
An alternative version of the game to practise adjectives of feeling is 'Pass the feeling'. In this game, bring your hand down over your face as if it is a mask, give a big smile and say I'm happy. Mime passing the 'mask' to the child next to you, who pretends to put it on, makes a sad face and says I'm sad, and so on round the circle, either using just happy/sad or any other adjectives of feeling they know.
An alternative version of the game to practise counting is 'Pass the keys' (or any other object you have available). In this game, children clap and count rhythmically to five, emphasizing the beat on the count of one, and passing the keys from child to child around the circle every time they say 'one', eg One. two, three, four, five. One, two, three, four, five.

Feely bag games

Level Al.l, Al.2, A2.1

Age 4-10

Organization whole class

Aims To guess what's in a bag; to identify objects from touch; to focus children's attention on a

central point.

Language focus opinions, Is there...? Have you got...?, classroom objects, adjectives to describe size, texture and shape, materials, made of, any familiar vocabulary

Materials

Essential: a feely bag (ie non-transparent drawstring bag, eg shoe bag or bread bag),

items to put in the bag

Procedure

Use a feely bag to play one or more of the following games with the whole class.

Jumping beans

Aims To listen and respond with actions; to develop physical coordination; to let off physical energy; to cooperate with others.

Language focus beans (eg jumping, runner, jelly, baked, coffee, broad, string)

Materials Essential: none / Optional: examples or pictures of different types of beans

jumping runner bean bean broad string beans beans jelly baked coffee

Procedure

Show the children examples or pictures of different kinds of beans, if you have these, or draw some beans on the board. If you like, ask the children Are you full of beans? and use mime to convey that this means 'Are you full of energy?' If the children say yes, say Then let's play jumping beans!
Ask the children to stand up and demonstrate the following actions for the game: for 'jumping beans' children should jump up and down; for 'runner beans' they should run on the spot; for 'jelly beans’ they should pretend to shiver; for 'baked beans' they should cuddle together in groups (the exact number doesn't matter); for 'broad beans' they should hold out their arms to make themselves look broad; for 'string beans' they should hold hands with others and stand in a line (again the exact number doesn't matter); for 'coffee beans’ they should pretend to drink a cup of coffee.
Call out the names of the different kinds of beans in random order and children respond by doing the actions. Be ready to do these with the children at first.
Repeat and either increase the speed and/or stop doing the actions yourself as the children respond more confidently.

Comments and suggestions

Children love the physical movement in this game and will often ask to play it again and again! It can also be very useful to use if you sense children need to let off physical energy or you wish to change the pace and mood of a lesson, eg after they have worked quietly completing an activity sheet.
In order to manage the game positively, it may be useful to use the 'freeze' control technique. You can also introduce 'sleepy beans' as the final instruction in the game, to which children respond by lying down and pretending to go to sleep. This settles the children before moving on to the next activity.
With younger children, it is advisable not to introduce all the beans and actions at once. If you play the game on repeated occasions, you can start by teaching them the actions for, eg three beans, and then add a new one each time you play.

Musical instructions

Level Al.l, A1.2

Age 4-10

Organization whole class

Aims To listen and move to music and respond to instructions as fast as you can; to follow and respect the rules of the game; (to develop awareness that participating in a game is more important than winning).

Language focus In the example: imperatives, parts of the body, colours

Alternatives: be, jobs, present continuous, actions, have got or any other suitable language

Materials

Essential: a lively music CD

Procedure

1.Ask the children to stand up and move to a space in the classroom without furniture.

2.Play the CD and encourage the children to dance.

3.Pause the music and give an instruction, eg Touch your toes! / Touch something blue! The last one or two children to follow the instruction are out. They then help you either to give instructions and/or to identify which children should be out each time.

4.The last child still in the game is the winner.

Comments and suggestions

This game allows for non-verbal responses to language. It is easy to organize and frequently a favourite, particularly with younger children.
It is up to you to decide whether it is appropriate to make the game competitive or not. Although children need to learn not to mind losing in a game, you also need to consider the potentially disruptive effect of children who are 'out' and no longer involved. With younger children, it is usually best to let everyone continue participating whether they are last to follow the instruction you give or not. Alternatively, you can introduce a system of, eg three 'lives' and ensure that no-one has lost all their lives by the time the game ends.
In addition to the basic procedure above, you can also use the following variations:

Musical statues: when you pause the music, say, eg You're a painter! or You're playing a computer game! Children respond by 'freezing' in a mime to show what you say

Musical bumps: when you pause the music, say, eg Everybody who has got blues eyes!

Those children sit on the floor as fast as they can.

Big, brown bears

Level All

Age 4-7

Organization whole class

Aims To listen and respond to language in a playground game; to follow and respect the rules of a game; to use English as a natural vehicle for play.

Language focus be, numbers, big

Alternatives: any other animals and adjectives, eg fierce, hungry lion

Materials Essential: none

Procedure

Play this game in the playground or gym.

1.Divide the children into four groups.

2.Ask each group to stand in a different corner of the play area. Choose one child to be the big, brown bear. Get the bear to say I'm a big, brown bear. One... two... three!

3.As soon as the bear says ... three! all the children must run and change corners, and the bear tries to catch them.

4.The first child to be caught becomes the bear in the next round of the game.

Alternatively, any children caught become bears so that, with each round of the game, there are more and more bears and fewer children to catch. In this case, the last child to be caught by bears is the winner.

Comments and suggestions

This game involves children playing in English outside the context of the classroom. Once children are familiar with the game, you may find that they choose to play it independently in break times. This gives them a sense of 'ownership' of language as well as a sense of achievement.
You can increase the language children use in the game as appropriate, eg the bears can count up to ten and say I'm a big, brown bear. I'm very hungry. And I'm going hunting now... and the children can say, eg P/ease don't catch me, bear! as they run away each time.
If you like, you may wish to make the point that wild animals such as bears are dangerous and that it is important to keep a safe distance from them in real life, eg when visiting a zoo or safari park.

Can I cross your river, Mr Crocodile?

Level A1.2, A2.1, A2.2

Age 6-10

Organization whole class

Aims To ask permission and respond according to the reply in a playground game; to follow and respect the rules of a game.

Language focus can (for permission), if, present continuous, have got, clothes, parts of the

body, colours

Materials

Essential: chalk or tape to mark the'river banks’

Procedure

Play this game in the playground or gym.

Use tape or chalk to mark the boundaries of the 'river' (5-10 metres apart).
Either choose a (confident) child to be the crocodile or take this role yourself.
Get the other children to stand on one of the banks of the river and to ask you in chorus Can I cross your river, Mr (or Miss/Mrs) Crocodile? Mime looking crafty and thoughtful and then answer, eg Yes, if you're wearing something red! / Yes, if you've got curly hair!
Explain and demonstrate that children who fit the description should say Thank you, Mr (or Miss/Mrs) Crocodile! and try and run across the river without you catching them.
Any children who are caught become crocodiles and help you think up answers in the following turns. The last child to be caught is the winner and becomes the crocodile in the next round of the game.

Comments and suggestions

As with 5.10, this game involves children playing in English outside the classroom and using language in a natural, motivating and enjoyable way.
The language demands of the activity can be adjusted to suit the children, eg it may only be appropriate to play the game using one structure and lexical set.
Although children are unlikely to have formally come across if or conditional sentences, they usually have no problem either understanding or using the word if in the context of the game. If necessary, you can give a quick translation at the start of the game.

Picture card games

Level A 1.1

Age 5-8

Organization pairs, whole class

Aims To identify vocabulary on picture cards; to ask and answer questions; to listen to others; to manipulate picture cards; to move to music; to take turns.

Language focus any vocabulary depending on the cards and can (for ability), Hurray Can I have...?

Where's the...? hot, cold (warm, cool, freezing)

have got Where's the...?

Materials

Essential: sets of 6-8 vocabulary picture cards (one set for each child,)

Optional: music

Procedure

Either get children to cut out the picture cards, if these are included in their course book, or give these out. Use one or more of the following card games to practise specific language and vocabulary as appropriate.

Hurray!

1.Divide the class into pairs.

2.Explain and demonstrate that the children should put their cards face down in a pile.

3.They turn over their cards at the same time and say, eg I can see the... tomato! As soon as they turn over matching pictures, they say Hurray! and take that pair of cards out of the game.

4.After turning over all their cards, they reshuffle them and start again.

5The game ends when there are no more cards left.

Can I have ...?

1.Divide the class into pairs.

2.Ask each child to secretly choose four cards from their set of picture cards and

hold them in a fan so their partner can't see the pictures.

3.Explain and demonstrate that Child A should ask, eg Can I have the lion, please? If Child B doesn't have the card of the lion, they say No. Sorry. (I haven't got the lion). If they do have the card of the lion, they say Here you are! and give it to Child A, who says Thank you and puts it on the table.

4.Child B then has the next turn asking a question. The game ends when the children have discovered all of each other's cards.

Hot, hot, hot!

1.Play with the whole class. Ask two children to wait outside the classroom door for a moment.

2.While they are outside the door, stick one of the vocabulary cards somewhere in the classroom, where it is ‘hidden’ but nevertheless visible without moving anything. Involve the rest of the class in helping you to do this.

3.Ask the two children back into the classroom and everyone asks, eg Where's the elephant?

The two children look for the vocabulary card of the elephant and the rest of the class helps by saying Hot! Hot! Hot! if the children move near to where the card is hidden and Cold! Cold! Cold! if they move away.

4.When they find the card, the two children say, eg Here's the elephant! and everyone claps and says Hurray!

Repeat several times with different children. If appropriate, you can also introduce the words warm, cool and freezing, using mime to convey the differences, into the game as well.

In addition to the games above, you can also use picture cards to get children to show

listening comprehension, eg by holding up the correct card when they hear it in a story

or song, and for games to get the children into pairs or groups.