Fun Activities for very young learners

By Miriam D’Amico

What kind of activity is a task?

Will the activity engage learners' interest?

Is there a primary focus on meaning?

Is there a goal?

Is there an outcome?

Is success judged in terms of outcome?

Is completion a priority?

Does the activity relate to real world activities?

‘The more confidently you can answer yes to each of these questions, the more task-like the activity.

Activities like the following generally have the potential to become effective tasks:

Listing and/or brainstorming

Ordering and sorting

Matching

Learning from exposure

Problem solving

Sharing personal experiences and storytelling

Comparing: finding similarities and differences

Ordering and sorting

Ordering and sorting

Learning from

exposure

Learning from

exposure

Matching

Matching

Sharing personalexperiences

Sharing personalexperiences

Communicative activities have the following characteristics:

•They are purposeful. • They are beyond strictly practicing particular structures.

•They are interactive. • The activities are often conducted with others and often

involve some form of discussion. • Authentic materials are used.

• The situations in which the learners have to use language should be as realistic as possible.

• The language models given should be authentic. • They are based on the information gap principle.

•Teachers need to be aware that children have a much shorter concentration span than adults

and this will affect the number of different activities we plan for a single lesson.

•Different kinds of activities to practice the different skillsneed to be balanced against each other.

•Teachers need to take many factors into consideration when planning

a balanced primary lesson and it is important to plan varied lessons.

How to plan the activities:Stirrers and Settlers for the Primary Classroom

Settling students‘Settlers' are activities which are designed to calm students

down and settle them into a routine.

Basic classroom management and routines are essential to establish as a pre-requisite for learning.

Make sure children know what the routine is when they arrive in class e.g. coats off, books out.

Have a clear signal to get the children's attention and make sure children know what it is. Clap your hands, say a signal

word clearly and hold up your hand, sing a song.

Settling Activities

• Wordplay activities

• Whole-class listening activities or games

• Arts and Crafts activities

• Read and draw activities

• Use stories or storybooks

Stirring Activities

• Mingles or surveys

• Use action/movement games

• Use songs, chants and raps

• Use drama/acting out

• Make the most of technology

Songsand problem solving