4. Flashcard Whispers
The other day, I wanted to review vocabulary with a group of Chinese students and rather than naming the game “Chinese Whispers”, I decided to call it “Flashcard Whispers”. I would use the flashcards to prompt the word/picture and students whispered the word/picture to the front of the group and the first group to write up the word or draw the picture would gain a point for their team. It is a lively activity for students and gets them up and out of their seats during the lesson. It is best used at the end of the lesson as a review and they leave the classroom with a smile on their faces. Try it out and be creative with the points – the teams will be very competitive.
5. Student Created Flashcards
Why spend your own time making flashcards when students can be quite creative and make suitable flashcards for the classroom? One way I do this is with idiomatic language. For example, money related idioms are very visual and students could be quite creative by drawing suitable pictures for idioms. You could use these pictures to supplement or review idioms at the end of the lesson/week. If students make their own flashcards, which are then laminated, they could be used again and again. Students also have a sense to own the language that they are learning and it becomes more memorable. You could then use the student created flashcards for various games suggested above.
Student Idiom Pictures: “To make ends meet” and “To cost an arm and a leg”.
6. Flashcard Sentences/Questions
A really quick and easy way to get students up and about is to create sentences on each piece of card (laminating is an option) and cutting up pieces of paper. Write up a word on each piece of cut up paper, and then students have to rearrange themselves in order, so that they are able to create a sentence or question. I was introduced to this activity in the wonderful “Five-Minute Activities” which I would recommend any teacher to purchase as there are also a wonderful range of ideas for lessons. I have used this activity successfully with both adults and young learners alike. When you check, you could get students to say the sentence/question one word at a time to check understanding or whether they are correct. Students then start to recognise patterns in English and, as like the previous activity, it is more memorable for learners.