TPR-activity "How are you?". Активная игра для закрепления лексики "Как дела?"
материал по английскому языку на тему

"How are you? Monster Game"

TPR-activity

Introduction

I would like to present one of my favorite games to use and practice  “How are you”  expressions. I like it because it’s a simple and fun game for training very useful English phrases, doesn’t need a lot of preparation and children always play it with a big pleasure.   It’s a "How are you? Monster Game". This game is a complex of different activities and could be used as a separate lesson (the whole game  with pre-playing, playing and post-playing parts takes approximately 20 minutes) and could be used as a physical 5-minutes break in the middle of the lesson in order to refresh your students. It’s suitable for children 6-9 years old and could be done on the second-third “How are you” lesson when the kids have got a grasp of the words. I found out the idea of a “Monster game” from Genki’s games and combined it with “How are you” phrases and presenting new words. It becomes a real fun memorable game, it’s just ideal for practicing "How are you?" and introducing adjectives.  And these two things were my major aims of playing this game.

Preparation:

• Printed ready flashcards : “hungry”, “tired”, “cold”, “sad”, “happy”, “ok” (these words we’ve learnt already in the previous 1 or 2 lessons).
• Also it’s an active game and it needs a quite big space, so before the lesson I agreed with school administration to do it in the gym (can be done in the corridor as well).

Explanation of how to set up the activity

Pre-playing part

1. I make a short revision (oral with the whole group) with the flashcards for the words “hungry”, “tired”, “cold”, “sad”, “happy”, “ok”.
2. I say a word and children mime it:

"I'm hungry" (they pat their tummies)

"I'm tired", (they go to sleep!)

"I'm cold", (they shiver)

"I'm sad" (they pull a sad face)

"I'm happy" (they make a big-big smile and very happy faces)

"I'm ok" (thumbs up!)

And now it’s time to play a game! I explain to children a game and we start to play it.

Playing part

1. I ask all the kids to line up at one end side of the gym.
   
   2. I explain that this side of the gym is the "safe" side. Other (opposite) side is the sweet shop which today gives free sweets to anyone who will enter the shop. (it gets the kids very excited!). And the children have to get across to the other side to get the free sweets.
   

3. But, in between the kids and the sweet shop is a Monster! At first I am (teacher) the monster. I ask the kids to guess what my favourite food is. They'll shout out some foods (nice practice also for the food vocabulary!), then I say that my favourite food is children! (it makes even bigger engaged reaction from the kids!)

4. Then I tell them that they can only cross to the sweet shop if the Monster is in a good mood and isn't hungry. I ask them how they can check on the mood of the Monster. After a moment a few kids will say "Ask him/her "How are you?""

5. All together the kids ask the Monster "How are you?"

6. I (Monster) do a few "I'm sorry?" to get the kids to shout in big loud voices (so that all the kids join in, not just the super quick ones!)

7. The Monster says an answer, e.g. "I'm OK".

8. The kids repeat the answer (important practice!) and move forward one step (no jumping allowed!).

9. We repeat from point 5 and every time I give a different answer with miming, like “I’m happy”, “I’m sad” etc


10. But once if the answer is "I'm hungry!!", the kids have to run back to their safe wall! Any kid who is tagged on the way back goes out of the game (or becomes a monster for the next round)!

11. Play again!

The part of introducing new adjectives comes into the game from the second round. This time I ask the kids if they want a big monster (mime a big monster) or a small monster (mime a small monster). The kids have to shout out which they would like. As I am introducing the vocabulary in context it's a very effective way of teaching. For the second round I ask if they'd like a fast monster (again mime being fast) or a slow monster (do a "slow motion" mime), and finally for the final round I ask them if they'd like a cute monster or a scary monster!!

While playing the game I make sure that every kid had asked a question “How are you?” and notice if all the children are understanding what’s going on.

Post-playing part

After few rounds we finished the game and then did a simple Monster-song all together: “Hello, I am a BIG Monster! I am happy. I am sad. I am tired. I am ok. I am hungry yammi-yammi!!!” (miming everything). And then we repeat it with the new adjectives “Hello, I am a SMALL (fast, slow, cute, scary) Monster!”

Learner reaction

  I did the game with class of children 7 years old which study English for the second year. It needed from me the big concentration to organize them in the beginning of the game (they were 21 pupils together) but then everything was easy. The presentation of new adjectives was very bright and it was a great lead into the adjectives theme for a future lesson. I was satisfied with the results after the game because my aims were picked out. About children’s reaction – I was stunned to see how well the kids reacted to it! They enjoyed the game (cause it was a natural activity suitable to their age), so learning new material was not stressful for them at all, they were enjoying moving, shouting and everybody was involved. It made more friendly atmosphere between them. After the singing a “Monster song” I gave to each kid a “Monster worksheet” which I’ve been prepared and printed. It was white-black worksheet (to color at home and repeat the new words) with the pictures of small, big, cute, scary, fast and slow monsters. The kids were so glad to have their own different monsters. In the beginning of next lesson it was a good material to make a revision for these adjectives – to see the pictures of each pupil, “Look, Sasha’s small monster! Look, Sergey’s scary monster!”

Reflection

I would use this activity again because it was fun, high effective, helping to motivate for learning new adjectives.

This game can be done in different variations, some of the are:

• Add new adjectives into the game
• Ask the kids to be a Monster
• Play the round with more than one monster and get the kids to answer in turn
• Ask kids to react to the situation: for ex. if the Monster says “I am cold” students have to warm the Monster somehow etc.
• Play this game with parents, but this time instead of racing to get the free sweets they have to try to get to their parents!
  
  This game works a treat and is one of those magic games that the kids play long after the lesson has finished. And it’s good way for the kids to PRACTICE their English, to show them that the language is for communication.

This game proved to me once more that TPR-activities are very important at any stage of the teaching (presenting, practicing, refreshing etc). It ‘s bright and fun so it’s easier to remember, and physical movement improves the memorization of the words!