Introducing with flashcards
(Introducing New Language (Warm-up Activities))

Partial Card

• Hold a card with the picture of fruit/vegetables fully covered. Gradually, uncover the card (from the top, bottom, or side). In addition, ask: "What is it?" Using your facial expressions and gestures, you may help the students: "I don’t know."
• Keep uncovering the card until children name the picture.
• Repeat the word.

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Flashcard - Flash

• Uncover a card with the picture of an animal for only few seconds, show it to the children several times, turn it around quickly, and hide it.
• Accompany the whole process with the What is it? question and I don’t know. answer.
• Keep uncovering the card until the children name the picture.
• Repeat the word.

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Moving Flashcard

• Show the children a card with a picture of clothes (e.g. trousers) while moving it around. For example: a child is sitting and you move the card around his/her head so that he/she cannot see the picture. Circle with the picture several times, hide it and ask: "What is it?" and answer: "I don’t know." If there is enough room in the classroom and not too many children, you may take the card and move it around the classroom. Children are curious to see what is on the card, so they run after you. You can jump up high, stretch your arms to the ceiling etc.
• Keep showing the card until children name the picture.
• Repeat the word.

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Mystery Card (1)

• This game is based on raising interest and curiosity in children by showing only a small part of the picture. Mystery Cards may take various forms. It depends on the teacher’s imagination.
• Making a Mystery Card: All you need is a sheet of paper/cardboard paper big enough to cover a picture card easily; simultaneously, you need to be able to move the card hidden behind this paper without uncovering its corners or margins. Write What is it? on the front of the Mystery Card. Make the question mark large and place it in the centre of the card., then cut out the dot in the question mark to get a hole through which children will be able to see a small part of the picture.
• While moving the picture card, the children can see the picture through the cut out hole, ask them: "What is it?" and answer yourself: "I don’t know." Subsequently, you may introduce the It’s a/an + noun structure.

Alternative of Mystery Card:

You can draw more question marks on another Mystery Card. Again, cut out holes in the question marks’ dots. This means that this time you get two or more holes through which children will see the picture.

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Secret Flashcard

• Place a card on your chest, face down, and take a quick, discreet look at the picture so that no one else can see it.
• To get children’s attention, you may comment on the picture, e.g.: "Wow."; "Ooh" or you may also laugh a little; use facial expressions etc.
• Keep holding the card on your chest and say: "No, you can’t look, it’s my card." and use gestures to communicate to children to go away.
• Take another quick look at the card and repeat the whole process.
• You may help the children to find out what picture is on the card by using the language they already know, or can guess easily from your behaviour (gestures, facial expressions) even though they do not know the new word yet. For example: "It’s sweet. It’s yellow or brown. We eat it a lot when we are ill."
• Sometime later, you may allow one or two children to come and take a look at the picture. Have the selected child come to you. Indicate that he/she must not tell anyone from the group what is in the picture; it will be your secret.
• Show the picture to the child, make some comments and laugh to increase the curiosity of the rest of the group.
• Finally, show the picture to all children and practise the It’s a/an + noun structure.

Note:

You may share your secret with either a child or a group of children. You may divide these groups into girls and boys; children wearing red and blue T-shirts etc.

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Photo Album (1)

• Show children pictures of your family members and describe who is who: "This is my mum. This is my dad. This is my sister/brother …" Introduce your husband/wife, and your children: "This is my husband and these are my children."
• While showing your family in the pictures, describe what is happening in each picture. "I’m riding a bike. I’m on holiday in Šumava."
• Order the photos on a magnetic board (put your mother and father next to each other; place pictures of yourself and your brothers and sisters right under them - create a family tree). One more time, point to the pictures and repeat who is who.

Alternative:

You may take pictures of yourself/a puppet you use in the class while doing daily routines (brushing your teeth; shopping; putting your shoes on; putting your coat on; reading etc.). You may use these to then present the use of verbs for describing everyday activities.

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PHOTO ALBUM (2)

• Children bring the photos of their family members.
• Based on the introducing of your photos, ask children to show you the picture of their mother (children raise the picture above their heads), then the picture of their father etc.: "Show me a photo of your mum, please."
• While they make their family trees following your sample on the blackboard, walk from one student to another and ask: "Who is this?" With your help (either give them the first letter or have them read your lips), children try to answer: "It’s my mum." You may use other questions too: "Where is your mum?" - "She is in our garden. She likes gardening."

Note:

Naturally, you have to consider the level of your students. The level of the students will then tell you which, and how many questions you can or should ask them, and whether or not they will be able to answer.

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What’s in the Picture?

• When selecting or making the picture, bear in mind which words you wish to present and focus on these (e.g. a Christmas tree, presents, cookies, lights, etc. or outside winter atmosphere - snowman, snowflake, falling snow, children on sledge etc.)
• Place the picture so that everyone can see it.
• Ask the children to look at the picture.
• One by one, ask them to name one thing from the picture they can say in English: "What can you see in the picture?" This way, most children will take turn.
• Ask one child to point to something in the picture that he/she does not know the English name for and ask them to ask anyone in the class: "What’s this?" If someone gives a correct answer, praise him/her and pronounce the word clearly. If no one knows the word, present it yourself and have children repeat it after you.

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What’s New?

• Spread cards depicting the meaning of adjectives that the children already know on the table; add several new ones. It is always convenient to teach adjectives in pairs, i.e. opposites: small x big; happy x sad; etc.
• You may also spread the cards around the whole classroom, in a circle, etc. Children can either name what they want, so they have the new cards left, or the teacher asks them to give him/her all the cards they know. They can thus create a line of new words.
• Encourage children to tell you what they do not know using phrases they have already learnt. Still, encourage them to broaden their existing knowledge (instead of I don’t know they can say I don’t know this one).

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Where Do They Live?

• Show children a picture, e.g. a king, and ask them: "Where does a king live?"
• Ask one of the children to come to the blackboard and draw where a king lives (he/she will probably draw a castle). Tell them to make the drawing simple.
• When they finish the drawing, praise them, show them a castle in your picture and say: "It’s a castle. A king lives in a castle."

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In the Mix

• Prepare a set of cards with pictures that children already know (colours, numbers, animals, etc.).
• Have another set, consisting of pictures that they do not know and cannot name in a foreign language.
• Divide the class into two teams.
• Have the teams stand in lines opposite each other.
• Place an object between the two groups (e.g. a card, book, notebook, etc.)
• Repeat the vocabulary they have studied.
• Now place a card with a picture they cannot name in English among the cards they can name, and shuffle the cards.
• Show pictures to children one by one, have children name them.
• When the new word appears, children who are on the first positions in the two teams run to get the object placed between the groups (if it is a card, they can slap it.)
• The team that reaches the object first gains a point.
• Present the meaning of the new word.
• Place another new word in the pack of cards. Ask the students from the two teams, who are next, to get to the object.
• The pattern repeats.

Note:

A fly swatter has proved to be a great aid for this activity; children use it for swatting The object placed between the teams.

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Maze

• Children must find a path from one place to another and pass through the system of tunnels. If they hit a dead end then they must try and find a new route.
• To make the activity more entertaining and use it for the introducing new language, at the beginning of the maze draw a cat and a kitten at the finish. Ask the children to help the kitten find a way to its mum: "Please help the kitten find the way to its mum", to help a prince free the princess from the captivity of a wizard: "How can get the prince get to the princess?" Etc.

Alternative:

These are three-dimensional maze activities on a lesser scale (from boxes, cards, etc.) or real-scale somewhere in the garden, in playroom, gym.

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Odd One Out

• Place four pictures next to each another on the board. One of the pictures does not belong to the others; it differs from them, such as a cow, a rabbit, a sheep, and a lion (the lion does not belong here because it’s a wild animal, while others are domestic ones). Ask the children to identify that picture: "One animal is different from the others. Which one is it?"
• Then we can give each child a copy of the handout where individually or in groups they can search for things that are different from the others.
• The children’s task is to identify the object and cross it out.

Note:

That different picture should always introduce a new word. The children should be able to name the remaining pictures.

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Introducing New Language (Warm-up Activities)

Tento projekt je spolufinancován Evropským sociálním fondem a státním rozpočtem České republiky.