Introducing with real objects (realia)
(Introducing New Language (Warm-up Activities))

Secret Box

• Put the spider in the box and close it. Children must not know what is in the box. Take a quick and discreet look into the box.
• To get children’s attention, you may comment on the thing in the box, e.g. "Wow"; "Ooh"; you may also laugh a little; use facial expressions; etc.
• Keep holding the box in your hand and say: "No, you can’t look, it’s my box" and use gestures to communicate to children to go away.
• Take another quick look at the box and repeat the whole process.
• You may help the children to find out what is in the box by using the language they already know, or can guess easily from your behaviour, even though they do not know the new word yet. For example, "It’s black.", "It’s got 8 legs."
• Sometime later, you may allow one or two children to come and take a look inside the box. Have the selected child come to you. Indicate that he/she must not tell anyone from the group what is in the box; it will be your secret.
• Show the contents of the box to the child and make some comments and laugh to increase the curiosity of the rest of the group.
• Finally, show the little spider to all children and practise the It’s a/an + noun structure.

Aids:

a box; a real object; (in this case it is a small spider - it does not have to be alive, you may use a toy J)

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Blowing Up a Balloon

• Show children a deflated balloon and ask them: "What is it?" and answer: "Yes, it’s a balloon." You may also ask them what colour it is: "What colour is the balloon?" - "It’s red/blue/yellow" etc.
• Consequently, ask children if it is big: "Is it big?" and use your gestures. Encourage the children to cry: "No, no."
• Ask them: "Do you want it bigger?" and use your gestures again. Encourage the children to cry: "Yes, yes, bigger, please."
• Start inflating the balloon. Inflate it just a little more and ask again: "Is it big? Is it OK?" Encourage the children to cry: "Yes, yes, bigger, please."
• Inflate it as much as possible. Ask the children: "Is it big now?" Encourage the children to cry "Yes, yes, it’s big!"
• Finally, play with the balloon.

Aids:

air balloon

Alternative:

Inflate several balloons in various sizes and look for either the biggest/smallest one or compare bigger/smaller than.

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What’s Missing?

• Spread the objects that children can name already on the floor/table. Add other objects that they cannot name in English yet.
• You may also place the objects around the class, in a regular shape (circle, square, etc.). Ask the children name the objects they know.
• Ask them to close their eyes: "Close your eyes, please" and quickly hide one of the objects.
• Ask them to open their eyes again: "Open your eyes, please" and ask them what is missing: "What’s missing?" Children name the object in Czech, because they still do not know the English word for it. The teacher reacts - he/she praises the student (in English) and says the word in English.
• Follow the same pattern for all objects.

Aids:

real objects (pencils, pens, crayons, bags, rulers, etc.)

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What’s in the Bag?

• Put objects made of various materials, such as: a teddy bear; a glass marble; a plastic cup; a wooden spoon; and a metal fork; etc., into a bag made of non-transparent material.
• Very slowly, part by part, take one of the objects out of the bag and ask: "What is it?" Using your gestures and facial expressions, you may answer: "I don’t know."
• Keep uncovering the object until children name it.
• Repeat the word.
• Then ask them: "What material is it made of? Is it made of plastic? Yes, it is. /No, it isn’t." (Emphasize the word plastic.)
• To make it even clearer, point at other objects made of the same material you are presenting.

Aids:

bag

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Mystery Card (2)

• While moving with a toy animal that the children can see through the cut out holes, ask them: "What is it?" and answer yourself: "I don’t know."
• Hide the toy behind the card until children recognise the animal.
• Finally, name the animal in English.

Aids:

toys - either fabric or plastic exotic animals; a magic card with holes in it (Mystery Card)

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What’s under the blanket?

• Put several different objects on either the floor or a table and cover them with a blanket/tablecloth etc. (shapes of individual objects should be recognisable); avoid children seeing them.
• One by one, children try to identify individual objects. They may touch them, but must not uncover them.
• When they recognise an object, take it from under the blanket and name it.

Aids:

real objects; a blanket/sheet/towel etc.

Alternative:

Have two examples of the same object. One set of objects are to be hidden under the blanket; and the other set should be kept available. Ask children: "Is there an apple under the blanket?" and hold an apple in your hand and show it to the children.

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What Do You Do?

Rather demanding preparation!

• Ahead of time, think of the professions you wish to present in order to prepare necessary props (e.g. a doctor - white clothes, a mouth protector, gloves; a nurse - a bandage, a syringe - you may use the props from children’s doctor set; a teacher; a shop assistant - a cash register, some things representing the goods; etc.).
• Select one student - a volunteer. Tell him/her he/she is a doctor: "You are a doctor now." Show him/her a picture of a doctor to make sure he/she knows who a doctor is. Start getting his/her clothes ready. While showing him/her working overalls, ask: "Are these clothes right for a doctor?" (Emphasize the word doctor.) Then check their understanding by holding a screwdriver and ask again: "Does a doctor use this?"
• When the student finally puts on the right clothes and selects the aids he/she needs for given profession, ask: "What does she/he do?" and answer: "He/she is a doctor."
• Follow the same pattern for all professions.
• Children who acquired various professions keep their clothes and aids. Eventually, revise the professions with children one more time (the "actors" come up one by one, naming their professions).

Aids:

aids and uniforms necessary for individual professions; flashcards

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What Colour Is It?

• Pour some water into each container. Gradually, add food colour into each container and ask: "What colour is it?"
• Consequently, you may blend the base colours and name the new ones (red +white = pink; yellow + blue = green; etc.)
• Ask: "What’s (red) here?" (the children point at another red object in the classroom, e.g. curtains; classmate’s T-shirt; etc.)

Aids:

water containers (glasses; flasks; cups; etc.); food colours

Tip:

Instead of water and the food colours you may use colourful plastic foils. Overlap each other and show the children what colours originate.

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Taste It

• Prepare as many items of food as there are students in the class, so they can all take turns. To make the activity more interesting, you may bring something unusual, exotic.
• Do not let anyone see the food. Blindfold the students one by one, handing them some food. The students use their senses to guess what it is they got. They can smell it, touch it, and taste it.
• If a student guesses right, the rest applaud and he/she can take the scarf off of his/her eyes. If he/she cannot guess the food at first try, the rest let out a sound of disagreement/disappointment.
• Eventually, name the word in English

Aids:

real food; a scarf

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Introducing New Language (Warm-up Activities)

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