Games and songs are for learning

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Lee Yun Jung (Fresa)

It is most important for the children to feel deeply involved in the lessons. The best way to do this is using the games and songs for the children. The more fun they have when they encounter the new language, the better they can achieve this. If these two activities are completely integrated into a lesson, they are more likely to stay focused in class which will help improve their English skills.

I think that we need to keep the children focused by introducing new songs and games. With this kind of approach, the children can focus on one song and game. Especially, songs can add feeling and rhythm to language practice that might help children remember things more easily and draw them more deeply into a lesson. For example, I have taught the names of animals and colors with the book of “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?” to the children between four to five. At that time, I have taught them with songs first and we played a game. They needed to find the cards of the animal or the color whenever I read the names of an animal or a color. All children concentrated on singing with motions and playing game. After one month, I repeated that book and most of the children remembered the song and the words of animals and colors. I believe that most children love songs and games. Therefore, singing and playing games are the most useful activity for them to learn English in many approaches.

Cheating creatively is a term which means we help teams or children do better in the games. I think we need to cheat in a playful way in order to encourage them and give them more hints. I sometimes used it in my class for children between four to five in order to help them get more points and enough chances to speak in English. For instance, the children need to find one card and speak it out loud when I spelled a word on the board. At that time, I moved one card to a child who couldn’t find any card and the child could get one card. After I helped, he was excited to get one point and enjoyed the game more. Therefore, we need to make sure that all children in the class are enjoying themselves. If some children can’t do it, we may need to cheat a bit to help them.

When we introduce a new game to the children, we should explain as clearly as possible to let them know exactly what they are supposed to do. This is because children generally feel more involved in an activity if they understand it clearly. For example, when I introduce a new game to my children, I’ll make a lesson plan like this :

Activity Lesson

Objective: to remember the words of fruit

Players: 3 or more

Target group: intermediate level between ages four to five

Materials: nine cards with a word of fruit

Activity Name: Fruit Bingo

Ⅰ. Before-class

Plan to play ‘Fruit Bingo’ game with three people on  an intermediate level between ages four to five in order to remember the words of fruit.

Ⅱ. Lead-in

Make the nine cards written a word of fruit and three sheets of Bingo boards with nine boxes.

Ⅲ. Set up the activity

Give each of the children a Bingo board and explain how to play exactly. First, I ask what the spelling of ‘apple’ is and to write down ‘apple’ on the sheet wherever they want. After their board are all full of the words, they will pick up one card in the box one by one and read the word on the card. Then they check the word on their board. If they get a whole row, column, or diagonal, they call out, “Bingo!” When I finish introducing the game, in terms of  ICQ (Instruction Check Question) I ask them if they understand how they can win.

Ⅳ. Run the activity

Check if the children can write down the spelling of words on the sheet wherever they want. When they fill the words on their Bingo board, I bring the cards to pick up. I need to make sure they can check the word on the board.

Ⅴ. Close the activity

When a child calls out, “Bingo!”, I check it and explain why he or she won. Provide the winner with one chocolate and repeat every words we learned from the Bingo game and then give all the children one chocolate.

Ⅵ. Post activity

Ask if they had fun and announce them about the Bingo game with different words next time.

In conclusion, the children enjoy the activity and get better at English. This means games or songs are a useful activity in teaching children a new language. Therefore, we need to integrate games, singing, and learning into a lesson.