Stirring activities for YL

Hello everyone! If you have ever taught young learners, you definitely know how loud and uncontrolled the classroom can get. Kids have a lot of energy and knowing how to channel this energy and make kids stop misbehaving is a real challenge. Many teachers have already drawn a conclusion that knowing when to ‘stir’ and when to ‘settle’ the little people in class will help achieve balanced lessons, avoid boredom and make learning more productive as well as fun.  In our today’s newsletter, a CELTA trainer and a teacher from Grade Education Centre, Daryna Luhovska,  shares a variety of stirring activities to help you energise kids and keep them motivated. Stirring activities are about movement, action games, group and pair work and of course a lot of fun.

Show me the card This activity can be done after some new vocabulary has been taught with the help of flashcards. You need half flashcards with pictures and the other half with corresponding words. One student shows the word, the second student needs to find and show the correct picture (they have to say the words as they do it). Then change roles. What’s the word? Students work in two teams, it’s a competition. They line up. One student gets one paper and runs back to his / her team. They write the word and run back to the teacher. If the word is okay, the next person can take the second picture, if not, they need to go back to their team and correct it. The winning team is the team who finishes all their papers first. Run and tap the picture The flashcards are displayed on the board or on the floor. The students need to run and touch the picture when the teacher says the word / phrase. You can then nominate students to be ‘teachers’ and say the words that need to be tapped. Stepping stones It’s a competition. The flashcards are put into two long lines on the floor. In two teams, students have to step on a flashcard and also say the word / phrase. If you have a strong group of students, you can tell them to also make a sentence after saying the word. Then step on the next picture. This continues till they reach the end.  Mime it for me Students get cards with words / phrases written on them, they need to mime the expressions to their partners. The partners guess the expression. You can turn this into a competition and don’t forget to change roles. Emotive Drama-ing Students are given emotions. They compete with their partners to say the phrases in the most extreme way they can. For instance, they take turns being as angry as possible and the angriest person wins. Gallery Walk Questions are put around the room, students walk around in pairs and discuss the questions. They need to remember something that their partner tells them. In open class feedback, the teacher asks what they remember about their partners. Gather together Students get cards with information about, for example, their hobbies. They go around the class and ask each other questions aiming to unite in groups with similar interests. TIP: Keep in mind that you need to have a healthy mix of stirring and settling activities during the lesson. For example, when your students are bored or are falling asleep, it is a great idea to start a stirring activity, but when they are misbehaving and are too active, you need to stop the stirring activity and carry on with a settling one.  If your learners are given a range of stirring and settling activities, you will find your classroom will become a lot of organised and disciplined. Your learners will appreciate the structure and will be able to benefit from the content of the lessons. If you would like to try more activities with your little students, check the following links: Stirrers and settlers for the primary classroom Stirring activities From Grade Education Centre