Wish you had games to keep your youngsters engaged?
That is, games which won’t require translating into their native language?
Playing fun cooperative games that were created for this age group will keep your kindergarteners involved, laughing and learning.
Even if they don’t understand every single word you say, the five games below are simple enough that young kids will quickly pick up on how to play, while also absorbing the target language.
Most come with several variations, as these games can easily be modified to fit the needs of your students. They will also likely spark ideas for new games—so you will actually be walking away with way more than five activities!
Ready to get started? First let’s take a quick peek at why we’ve chosen to emphasize cooperative games.
Why Are Cooperative ESL Games Perfect for Kindergarteners?
Kindergarten is where kids learn to socialize through play, so naturally playing games is an excellent way for young kids to pick up English as well.
But as we know, not all games are made equal. Adults usually like to compete (and win!), whereas cooperative games work especially well with young kindergarteners—in which students work together to see what they can achieve.
Here is why cooperative games work well at this age:
Follow the links to browse the variety of games offered. This is only the directory for interactive games and exercises. Our ESL fun games here include: Snakes and Ladders, Hangman, Spelling games, Wheel of Fortune, TV Games(Betting Game), Mazes, Memory Games, Matching exercises, Sequencing exercises, Picture Quizzes, Catch it and more.
The five cooperative games below are “made up” games, based on a song or story that you might use for teaching kindergarten. They include rhythm, repetition, actions and cooperation. And hopefully they will also give you ideas how to make up your own games too!
One way to bring endless fun into the ESL classroom is by incorporating authentic materials into your lesson plans. Below are five fun ways to teach English to kids, but another excellent option is FluentU.
FluentU makes authentic content accessible for any level or age—even Kindergarteners!
If you’re looking for creative ways to teach English, then you’ll love using FluentU in your classroom! FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, cartoons, documentaries and more—and turns them into personalized language-learning lessons for you and your students.
It’s got a huge collection of authentic English videos that people in the English-speaking world actually watch regularly. There are tons of great choices there when you’re looking for songs for in-class activities.
You’ll find music videos, musical numbers from cinema and theater, kids’ singalongs, commercial jingles and much, much more.
On FluentU, all the videos are sorted by skill level and are carefully annotated for students.
Words come with example sentences and definitions. Students will be able to add them to their own vocabulary lists, and even see how the words are used in other videos.
For example, if a student taps on the word “brought,” they’ll see this:
Plus, these great videos are all accompanied by interactive features and active learning tools for students, like multimedia flashcards and fun games like “fill in the blank.”
It’s perfect for in-class activities, group projects and solo homework assignments. Not to mention, it’s guaranteed to get your students excited about learning English!
Sign up for a free trial and bring FluentU to your classroom today.
1. Don’t Put That in Your Mouth!
Type: A singing game based on “Open Shut Them”
The song “Open Shut Them” is enjoyed by all young children, but it is particularly appealing to children from an Asian background who are taught very early to have a strong aversion to putting their fingers in their mouths. (The first time you teach them you may see shocked looks on their faces when it seems like you are going to do that.) It provides a good opportunity to practice the pronunciation difference between “r” and “l.”
This song is so simple that it is great for your very first session, maybe the first time you try to teach them with only English.
Teaching the song
Start by teaching students the song “Open Shut Them.”
Here are the actions that you should do as you sing. Remember to make eye contact while teaching, and make sure all eyes are looking at yours. Students should all copy your actions while singing/saying the words.
Go through the song several times, each time getting a little bit faster, and maybe progress from saying it to singing it. You could give some more confident children the opportunity to lead from the front, or to sing it as a solo/duet.
From the song to the game
Now play a game to practice the vocabulary they have just learned. Here is just one possibility:
Review: Draw a big face on the board with an open mouth (and obvious chin). Point to the parts and review the words. Leave the drawing up once you’ve finished reviewing, as you will use it in the game.
Practice: Then practice “creeping” with their fingers (you could creep your fingers up the board), and then creeping/crawling with their bodies across the floor on their hands and knees. (Note: Some doctors believe that crawling is a valuable physical brain training activity for young children.)
How to Play:
Scoring: If you want to be more competitive (and the kids generally don’t really care) there could be points for anyone who gets as far as the “mouth.” The catchers near the board could also try to run and take the chairs of the creepers.
Of course you can easily make adjustments to the game based on:
2. Come Back! Come Back!
Type: A dramatic singing game, based on “Five Little Ducks”
Again, we will use a great little song that can easily be taught without resorting to translation. This song works really well with finger puppets—especially for teaching with them. They could be little ducks, or they could just be faces, or five thimbles/bottle caps/anything you can sit onto your fingertips. The children could also make and use puppets, but they could just as easily pretend with their fingers too.
Teaching the songEsl Games To Teach Numbers
Start by teaching the song “Five Little Ducks.”
Don’t use a video to teach the song. Learn it first if you are not familiar with it (using the video above) and then teach it face to face. Note: Some versions use the line “Mother Duck said, Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack!” but we are going to use the line “Come back! Come back!” this version is more useful in this context.)
Put your puppets on your five fingers of your one hand, and use your other hand (perhaps with a sock puppet) to be the Mother Duck.
Here are the actions of the song. Once again, have students copy you as you go.
Continue the song in the same way, removing one duck each verse until the line “None of those little ducks came back.” Finally, Mother Duck calls again and on “All the five little ducks came back,” you will want to put the five finger puppets back on your hand.
Add some drama to the song
Now let the children themselves be the little ducks, with you (or one of the children) being the Mother Duck. A group of five (or more if you want to increase their counting-backwards-in-English skills) go across the room and behind some furniture as everyone sings the song. When Mother Duck calls the first time, all but one return.
From the song to the game
Again, there are many possible variations, depending on your class, the room and your comfort level. Here is one possibility:
Set up: Firstly, place five items around the room. These might be small toys/pictures/flashcards/tokens/etc. One item should be special in some way. For example, it could be marked with a star, a ribbon, or be a different color. It doesn’t really matter if the children see where you put them, but don’t show them which is the special one.
Practice: It is good if you can practice the words for these five items first.
How to play:
When you play the game more than once, some of the children could do the hiding each round as well.
There are many other ways to vary the game. The children will have fun regardless, because they enjoy singing, running, looking for treasure and repetition.
3. Run as Fast as You Can!
Type: A storytelling game based on “The Gingerbread Man”
Reading the story
Start by telling the story of the Gingerbread Man.
You could read the story aloud from a book or from a website, or you could even show a video. If you can, it is always best to tell the story with the children watching you and making eye contact. If you are telling the story without a book/video and the children are unfamiliar with the names of the various animals, have pictures of those ready.
As you tell the story, get the children to join in with you on the chorus, “Run, run as fast as you can! You can’t catch me—I’m the Gingerbread Man!” Teach it to them slowly the first time, a word or two at a time with actions that make the meanings clear. For example, on the word “catch,” the children could all stand up and make running motions with their arms at this point.)
From the story to the game
Set up: Have the children sitting on chairs in a circle. One child (or more, if you like) should be in the center of the circle holding something such as a foam bat, (soft) rolled-up paper or small towel.
Designate the various characters to the children sitting in the circle: old man, cat, dog, pig, goat, cow, horse, fox. You can have several children for each character. It might help to give students a small picture card telling which animal/character they are. (Note: Versions of the story vary, and if you have Muslim children you might want to omit the pig and dog. You might also choose to add some other animals.)
It is all about practicing vocabulary (the character names) and spoken rhythm (the chorus), listening carefully for specific words, and having fun while socializing. It doesn’t need to be competitive.
You could tell the story in such a way that you repeat each name several times. For example, “He saw a dog, and the dog looked at him, and the dog said… and the Gingerbread Man said to the dog…,” pausing momentarily before each one to build suspense and excitement.
If your children have a tendency to get rough when tagging, or if there are social concerns about children touching each other, the game could be changed so that the specific children have to simply change places with each other, while the child in the center tries to steal their spot.
This type of game can also be played with any other stories that have a number of characters!
4. Find It! Catch It! Throw It! Jump on It!
Type: Card game
This card game is very flexible to whatever content you’d like to practice. For example, to learn letters/sounds/printed words, you could use flashcards with the target letters or words. If you are practicing English vocabulary, then picture cards are clearly better. For numbers you could have the actual number written on the card, or representations of numbers (i.e. dots, or a series of small pictures such as three dogs). Or you can even use regular playing cards to teach numbers with this game.
Preparing the cards
For the main game, you would need enough cards for each student (or pair, or group) to have identical sets of cards. Below we will also look at some variations that require just a single deck of cards.
You can use ready-made cards, or make your own. If you make your own:
Playing the game
If each student (or pair, or group) has an identical set of cards, then you can begin play by asking “Who can…?”
Possible questions include:
It can be competitive, as pairs/groups race against the others to follow the command, and there could also be points. There could even be a reward for the winner(s) at the end.
Download aplikasi google book downloader. If you are using a single set of cards for the whole class, students could also compete individually or in pairs/groups with the following ideas.
Again it can be as competitive as you choose, with points and/or rewards for winners (or everyone) and winning students could also have turns at calling which card is the next target. Build suspense as you pause when calling which card they should be looking for.
5. Make It and Say It
Type: Games with playdough
Playing with playdough is an activity loved by children of all ages, and probably not used enough in the classroom considering the benefits that it offers the children in their learning.
Making the playdough
Firstly, you can make some homemade dough using these instructions. There are cooked and uncooked recipes, but I much prefer the texture of the cooked playdough, and it lasts much longer. (If you keep it in a zip-lock bag in the fridge it can last for weeks!) The ingredients are cheap and available in the supermarket, so you can easily make several different colored batches.
You could also let the children make the dough, which in that case it would be better to use the uncooked variety. This activity is in itself a valuable language learning activity, as you carefully demonstrate and give each instruction in English.
Playing with the playdough
Just playing with the dough is an activity that children will enjoy and benefit from, but you can spice it up by adding some competition with a challenge, or by cooperating together in a game. Here are some ideas to start:
Pass the Dough
Here is a final game using playdough:
In all of these games, the children are active, involved, socializing, feeling safe, being creative, learning new words and having fun. Start using these games with your kindergarteners today and watch their excitement grow!
If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to teach English with real-world videos.
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