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We all know that interesting lessons make you learn things easier and faster. So how do we bring some life into the boring lesson? Actually there are a lot of ways. Some teachers use songs and cartoons which are great for kids, the others find class discussions and debates helpful, they are a good choice for older students. But what do all of us really love? Of course, games! Both children and grown-ups enjoy playing games. They bring fun into the studying process and can be really productive. Games can be used at every stage of ESA lesson. Let’s start with the Engage stage. Here are some games to engage students into the studying process: Last man standing. This game is really fast. It’s good for revising the topics. It can be used with students of different ages and level. For this game you will only need a ball. Put the students into a circle. They may be sitting. Name the topic and ask them to say a word related to the theme and throw the ball to another student. Every person has to come up with another word that fits the theme. If they repeat a word that has already been said or can’t think of a new one within a few seconds, they are out. They one that is left wins the game. Hot and cold. This could be a fun lead-in to your lesson. Make your students look for the object that represents the topic in the class. You will help them by saying hot when they are coming closer or cold when they are going in the wrong direction. 20 questions. One person thinks of an object in the class and the others have to guess it by asking yes or no questions. What am I thinking of? It’s similar to the previous time. But this time you divide students in pairs. Each of them thinks of one object and describe on the piece of paper in 5-8 sentences. Then students swap papers and try to guess the object. After the Engage stage goes the Study phase. It’s usually less fun for the students so bringing some energy and changing the pace from slow to fast or vice versa. So here some games suitable for the study phase: Board race. An excellent game to check the spelling of the words that have recently been learnt. Split the students in two teams. Divide the board in two. Make two students from the each team write a word you say on the board. Then come next two people from each group. The team that makes fewer errors wins. Bingo. Everyone knows this game. It’s perfect for beginners and elementary students of different ages. The memory game. It’s a good game for learning the new vocabulary. You will need 2 flashcards for each word. Lay them on the table and mix. Let students pick up 2 cards and find the matching ones. The one who gets the most matching flashcards wins. Never have I ever. This game will help you student learn the new grammatical forms and something new about each other. And the last one is the Activate stage. Here you can use such games as “find someone who”, “what am I doing?”, “taboo”, “chain fairytales”. As you can see there are a lot of options for every stage of the lesson. Each game can be transformed and adjusted for the needs of your particular class. All you have to do is to use a little imagination. Your students will appreciate it.
