KEEP IT REAL

Word Searches

Bring a book of word searches with vocabulary that relates to what you’re teaching and have kids find the words and circle them. Sometimes they forget the last letters! (For more advanced students.)

 

Fill-in the Blank

To practice spelling, sentence structure, vocabulary words. Write the words you want to review with some letters missing and have student fill it in. Have the original list of vocabulary words on hand for reference.

 

Story Fill-in

Write a short story, leaving blank the verbs (or another topic of vocabulary/grammar you are working on) for the students to fill in.  Alternatively, student can write their own short stories with blanks for you to fill in together. Alternatives to leaving them completely blank: include a picture of the word, the opposite of the word, or a synonym of the word that is missing.

 

Memory

Prepare two sets of cards. On one set, draw pictures of objects or actions. On the other set, write the corresponding words. Place all cards face down on the table or floor. On each person’s turn he/she flips over two cards. If they match, the student gets to keep them and take another turn. If they don’t match, the next person takes a turn. This is a great game to review any vocab. Many times you can have a picture on one card and the word on the other. Depending on what you want to teach along with the original vocabulary you can have the student say a sentence when they get a pair. (Example: If they match corn, they can say “I like/dislike corn” or you can incorporate ‘to have’ or ‘to be’ verbs)

 

Story/Video Retell

Read a children’s book or watch a brief video clip and have the student retell the story using his/her own words.

 

Sentence Formation

Have several sentences with verbs and vocabulary to review, but have the words mixed up so that the student must rewrite the sentence correctly placing verbs, subjects, prepositions, and vocabulary. You can control for any of these parts of the sentence by having the mixed up sentence parts grouped together to make it a bit easier for the student – to adjust for the level.

 

Storytelling

If you have the equipment, you can practice creating a story or just reciting an event in your students life, and then record it. You can keep adding to it week to week and after a decided amount of time, listen to it together. Can be a final project before a break etc.

 

Magazine Review (Letters/Sounds)

Materials:

            old magazines

            index cards or pieces of paper

            glue, scissors, colored paper, markers

Work with student to look through old magazines for pictures that start with a given letter or sound. Cut out those pictures and glue to index card or sheet of paper, move on to do several letters. Use as a study tool or for fun review.