Total physical response – page 4

In general

Young children find it impossible to sit still. We cannot stop this, but can allow for lots of movement to allow children to use their energy and feel totally involved in the lesson. Movement when linked to the target language helps children remember language as well as enjoy the activity. Simple activities like a favourite warmer I have with 5/6 year olds are easy to set up

• teacher and students stand in a space (chairs and tables moved to back of classroom)
• teacher calls out a verb that children have been presented with previously and are familiar with e.g. swim, hop, fly
• as each word is called out the teacher and children move around making appropriate actions
• verbs can be added as children’s vocabulary grows
• teacher can stand out of the group and just call out words as the students’ familiarity with the words grows
• students can take turns calling out the words
• my students love doing this at the start of every lesson – they like the security of a regular pattern to lessons and enjoy moving around and showing their understanding. At the start of the lesson it’s good to bring them all together into a group activity to foster a sense of the group and help ‘tune’ them into English. They may have come straight from another lesson or from home and not have heard English for a while.

Weather

For the key lexis choose appropriate actions. For ‘rainy’ walking hunched up pretending to hold an umbrella, for ‘windy’ walking as if blown from side to side, for ‘hot’ wiping off pretend sweat from brow etc. Play a game like that described above.

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These materials are prepared by Olha Madylus, who has been a classroom teacher for over twenty years as well as a teacher trainer in state schools and other institutions, including The British Council, in Greece, Hong Kong, Venezuela and the UK.

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