ESL TEACHING: "Let's learn about the human body"

There are lots of ideas on the web for teaching children about the human body. I chose some of them that I found appropriate also for ESL students. 

We started by introducing the parts of the body: head, shoulders, knees, toes, eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. Depending on the age or level of the students you are teaching, start with three or four words per class.

Ideas for flashcard games while teaching the parts of the body:

Simon Says

When you say "Simon says touch your head" students need to touch their head. But when you say "Touch your head", without "Simon", they must not touch their head. If they do they are out of the game. Repeat the game with all the body parts you have introduced. 

What’s Missing?

Place four familiar cards face up in a row. Ask your children to close their eyes. Now, they can open their eyes and guess which one is missing. Turn that card face up again and add one more card to the pile. Ask your students to close their eyes again and turn two cards over.  Gradually add few cards more, depending on how many you have introduced at the time, and turn more cards for students to guess what's missing.

Touch the Ball

You will need one ball per pair of students sitting on the floor and facing each other. The ball is on the floor between them. You give them instruction to touch a certain part of the body e.g. "Touch your head/knees/head...." After some time, you will tell them to touch the ball. The student who picks the ball first is the winner. Now, only the winners play the game. Divide them into pairs again and repeat the game as instructed. Play the game until there is just one pair of students left. The winner is the last student picking the ball first.

Pass The Card

The students and the teacher sit in a circle. The teacher starts by passing a picture card to the student on his right, saying, “This is a cat.” The student takes the card and passes it to the next student, saying, “This is a cat.” The card is passed around the circle. When the card returns to the teacher, the teacher puts that card aside and introduces a new picture card in the same manner. When the students have learned a few picture cards, the teacher has a few options:
 a) wait until a card has reached the halfway mark, then introduce a second card going in the same direction;
b) introduce cards at the same time going in opposite directions,
c) send 3-4 cards around the circle in the same directions with little pause between each. Tip: four cards is probably the maximum number of cards to work with at one time.

For more flashcard games check  Simple ideas for introducing language using flashcards.

For the "Follow up" activity you can ask children to draw their body or their face using this template

Or you can use this  idea for the activity "The Teeth in My Mouth" with styrofoam and color paper 

Instead of using styrofoam, you can also use white beans.

Sing  the "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" song

While the song plays you do all the action and encourage your students to do the same. Repeat the song singing it a little bit faster, then faster, and faster. Until you can not sing it faster. Students will love it and ask you to sing it more.

If you have already sung "Head, Sholders Knees and Toes" you can sing the "Open Close" song

 

Sing  the "Hockey Pockey" song for level 2 (more body parts)

"All about me" chant

This is a great chant for ESL students to learn. It's very easy to learn when you add appropriate TPR (e.g. ten little fingers - wiggle with your fingers; ten little toes - wiggle or touch your toes, etc.).

 All about me

Ten little fingers

Ten little toes,

two little ears

and one little nose.

Two little eyes,

shining so bright.

Two little lips,

to kiss you good night!

We also did some "Skeleton" crafts after introducing words: skull, skeleton, bone, brain, lungs, and exploring human skeleton through different media.

I made the "Human digestion" labyrinth to help my students understand how does the food travel in our body.

For more ESL teaching ideas read this:

ESL TEACHING IDEAS

I Go With My Bright Little Lantern (lyrics and video)

 

I Go With My Little Lantern

I go with my bright little lantern,

my lantern is going with me.

Above the stars are shining,

on Earth that light is me.

La la la la la la la la

la bi-me-la ba-me-la boom.

La la la la la la la la

la bi-me-la ba-me-la boom.

Jumping colors

Flashcard game idea for ESL teaching

JUMPING COLORS FLASHCARD GAME

This game can boosts colors memorizing in a fun way while teaching "Colors" to the ESL students. You can use it also as an intro lesson when teaching "The Rainbow Colors Song". Arrange two sets of plasticized flashcards "Colors" on the floor in the shape of two squares or circles, making sure to leave enough space in the middle where the students will stand. 

If it's only one child will play this game then you need to form just one circle. When you say the color, the child's task is to jump to the matching color/flashcard on the floor as quickly as possible.

When it comes to a larger group of students, playing in pairs is faster and more interesting, and can also work as a competitive game. In that case, divide the students into two groups/teams. One child from each group takes turns. When you say a certain color,  students need to jump to the appropriate flashcard as quickly as possible. The child who first jumps to the matching color gets one point for his team or two points but loses one point if jumping on the wrong color. You should adopt the rules of the game depending on students' age and level.

       

RELATED ESL TEACHING IDEAS:

SPRING SONG (HOW IS A RAINBOW FORMED"  ESL TEACHING IDEAS

THE RAINBOW COLORS SONG ESL TEACHING IDEAS

ACTIVITY IDEAS ON THE "THE RAINBOW FISH" STORY

Activity ideas for ESL teaching: Spring song - How is a rainbow formed

Spring song: How is a rainbow formed

This is a good song for teaching ESL students. It's easy, catchy, and educative. You can use it for the "How is a rainbow formed" project. You can teach it before or after teaching "The Rainbow Colors".

Before teaching a new song, it is always required to pre-teach the targeted vocabulary. For this song, that would be sun, rain, rainbow, flowers. Prepare the flashcards and introduce them to your students. You can use some of these FLASHCARDS GAMES IDEAS. 

Depending on the English level your students are,  you can also add warmth, sound, sight or whatever you like. It is always a great idea to use TPR as well.

After introducing the targeted vocabulary, ask students what will appear in the sky when the sun is shining and the rain is falling at the same time. They will probably know the answer: the rainbow. 

After the conversation, sing the song using TPR. The second time, ask the students to do the TPR as well. 

To boost learning you can make for example several cards of each word you have introduced and give them to your students. Ask them to stand up each time when they hear their word. Or, you can make prompts sun, rain, rainbow, flowers like we did and "dramatize" the song as if it was a story. Well, it kind of is.

For the follow-up activity ask your children to draw "How is a rainbow formed".

This might interest you:

THE RAINBOW COLORS SONG ESL TEACHING IDEAS

COLORS FLASHCARD GAME IDEA: JUMPING COLORS

The Story of Four Candels

Once, there were four candles in the temple of God. The Four Candles were burning slowly.

The first one was called Peace. “I Am Peace, but these days, nobody wants to keep me lit.”, said the candle peacefully and went out completely.

The second candle heard that and said: " “I Am Faith, but these days, I am no longer indispensable.”Then Faith’s flame slowly diminished and went out completely.

The third candle spoke sadly: “I Am Love and I don't have the strength to stay lit any longer.

People put me aside and don’t understand my importance. They even forget to love those who are nearest to them.”. And Love went out as well.

A child entered the room and saw the three candles no longer burning.

The child began to cry: “Why are you not burning? You are supposed to stay lit until the end.”

Then the Fourth Candle spoke gently to the little boy, “Don’t be afraid, for I Am Hope, and while I still burn, we can re-light the other candles.”

The child took the Candle of Hope and lit the other three candles.

"Shine brightly and never lose hope for I will always shine, no matter how bad things look. Never let the Flame of Hope go out of your life."

The child told the story to everybody he knew. And up to this day, the story is told whenever Christmas is near.

Sports

The aim of this lesson is to talk about the various sports that children are familiar with. As always, when planning an ESL class methodology, it is necessary to determine the target words, and I have chosen the following ones: football, handball, tennis, hockey, volleyball, athletics.

Cilj aktivnosti je razgovor o različitim sportovima koji su djeci uglavnom poznati. Kao i uvijek , prilikom planiranja metodičkog sata engleskog jezika, potrebno je odrediti ciljane riječi, a ja sam odabrala slijedeće: football, basketball, tennis, hockey, volleyball, athletics.

Za zagrijavanje i uvod u aktivnosti otpjevali smo pjesmicu s pokretima "Walking, walking“ te odigrali pokrenu igru u kojoj djeca rade pokrete prema uputama npr. jump, run, touch your toes i sl. Naravno, tu sam upotrebljavala action verbs koje su već djeca usvojila u ranijim aktivnostima.

For warming up and introduction to activities, we sang the song "Walking, walking" and played a game in which children did the moves according to instructions such as jump, run, touch toes etc. Of course, I used the action verbs that children have already learned in earlier activities.

Budući da se djeca prvi put susreću sa nazivima navedenih sportova, uvela sam djecu u ciljani vokabular koristeći flashcards. S obzirom da u grupi imam i mlađu djecu, prvo sam djeci pokazala flashcards te ih uputila da imenuju sportove koje prepoznaju te imenovala one koje nisu prepoznala.

Since children had learned the names of these sports for the first time, I introduced the kids to the target vocabulary using flashcards. Given that I have younger children in the group, I first showed the kids flashcards and asked them to name the sport they recognized and named those they did not recognize in Croatian language.

Uvela sam djecu u ciljani vokabular pokazujući i imenujući sportove prvi put, a zatim sam uputila djecu da ponove riječ - svaki sport tri puta. Nakon upoznavanja sa vokabularom, odigrali smo „What's missing“ game.

I introduced the children to the targeted vocabulary by pointing and naming the sport for the first time and then I asked the children to repeat the word - every sport three times. After getting to know the vocabulary, we played "What's missing" game.

„Mime the word“

When children adopt vocabulary sports, arrange TPR or you show them movements for each sport. Invite a child and whisper a word (sport) to a child; he or she then mimes the sport for other children to guess.

Kada djeca usvoje vokabular sportova, dogovorite TPR ili im vi pokažite pokrete za svaki sport. Pozovite dijete te mu šapnite ili pokažite sport koji ono ostaloj djeci pokazuje pokretom te ona pogađaju o kojem je sportu riječ.


„Shoot the sport“

For this activity, you will need: a large die, big flash cards, and a ball. Place large flashcards on the floor or hang them on a board or wall and mark the shooting point on the floor with. It can be played in several variants.  Divide the children into two or three groups and compete for who will have more hits. You say the sport and the children shoot the flashcard.


Za ovu aktivnost potrebno je: velika kartonska kocka, velike flashcards i lopta. Velike flashcards posložite na pod ili objesite na ploču ili zid te označite mjesto gađanja na podu pik trakom. Igrati se može u nekoliko varijanti. Npr. djeca mogu pojedinačno gađati sport prema uputi ili ekipno da se podijele u dvije-tri grupe pa se natječu tko će imati više pogodaka. 

„Snap“

Divide the kids into several teams. For each team in each round plays one child. Big flashcards are hanging on the board or smaller flashcards placed on the floor. Say the sport or do a TPR  (if you have children introduced into TPR's targeted sports). Who says  "Snap" and cover the sport with his/her hand first, gets one point.

Podijelite djecu u nekoliko timova. Iz svakog tima u svakom krugu igra po jedno dijete. Velike flashcars obješena se u na ploču ili manje flashcard posložene na pod. Recite na glas jedan sport ili ga pokažite TPR ako ste djecu uveli u TPR ciljanih sportova. Tko prvi kaže „Snap“ i rukom poklopi zadani sport dobije jedan bod.

 „What sport do you play“ -  „I play …..“

Show the kids flashcards and emphasize for each sport "I play ... .tennis / handball" or "I do not play ...". Then ask the kids "What sport do you play" and direct them to answer "I play ...". You can end this activity so that kids can draw the sport they know to play or they want to learn.

Pokažite djeci flashcards te naglasite za svaki sport „I play ….tennis/handball“ ili „I don't play….“. Zatim pitajte djecu „What sport do you play“ i tražite da vam odgovore sa „I play…“ . Ovu aktivnost možete završiti tako da djeca nacrtaju sport koji znaju igrati ili bi željeli naučiti.
Za kraj sata predlažem slijedeće :

Volleyball with a baloon

In the middle of the carpet/floor spread the rope to improvise the volleyball net. Organize a small tournament and divide the kids into several smaller teams or allow them to choose their own team.  Arrange the rules, give the children the baloon and the tournament can start.

Na sredini tepiha/poda zalijepite pik traku ili raširite uže kako bi improvizirali mrežu za odbojku. Organizirajte mali turnir te podijelite djecu u nekoliko manjih timova ili im dozvolite da si sami biraju suigraće – brojalicom odredite kapetane timova koji naizmjence biraju svoje suigraće. Umjesto lopte napušite balon dogovorite pravila i turnir može počet.


Learn how to sing the song "What do you like," 
To learn this song you first need to teach children the names and TPR of the sports that are mentioned in the song.

Naučite pjevati pjesmicu „What do you like“, ali za učenje ove pjesmice prvo ćete djecu naučiti nazive i TPR sportova koji se spominju u pjesmicu.

Na internetu možete nači različite radne listove kojima možete završiti sat te ponoviti i utvrditi naučeno.

For the end, you can find a variety of worksheets on the net that you can finish the lesson with. 

I naravno, pobjednici sportaši nagrađuju se medaljama, peharima i ostalim nagradama. A u  našem slučaju sva djeca koja su sudjelovala u aktivnostima su pobjednici. Stoga podijelite djeci medalje napravljene od tanjeg kartona koje mogu ukrasiti/dizajnirati po vlastitoj želji.

Uglavnom, ovu su samo neke od aktivnosti koje možete iskoristiti za učenje naziva sportova i planiranih fraza vezanih za ovu temu. Nadam se da će vam predložene aktivnosti  korititi, a vi slobodno nama podijelite i svoje.

Bye do slijedećeg posta!

A rose is red, a violet is blue

"A rose is red, a violet is blue..." je jedna jednostavna pjesmica na engleskom jeziku koju lako mogu zapamtiti i mala djeca Kao i uvijek, umjesto prevođenja, koristite "flashcards"  i opet se iznenadite kojom lakoćom i brzinom djeca usvajaju engleski jezik.

"A rose is red.

A violet is blue.

Honey is sweet.

So are you!"

Old MacDonald

Novi!!!