Don't step on the monster!!!

Little children are easy to amuse, and almost anything goes when it comes to playing games. You don't need fancy objects or a lot of preparation. You just need a fun down-to-earth attitude and some creativity. Some of my most unusual but exciting games come from very homey/organic roots. Growing up as a child in a Vietnamese household in Canada, my siblings and I would play many sorts of pretend games using only objects found in the house. My little brother and I used to use my mother's sanitary napkin plastic wraps as sleeping bags for our little trolls and action figure toys. When you think about it, kids are one of the most resourceful beings and their imagination is limitless.

That is why I have great fun with the starter kids classes. With the most humble of environments, you can create all sorts of games to embed your English lesson in. As long as the game is kinesthetic and there is an element of perceived challenge in there, the kids will go crazy.

In this recent kids Starters class, the lesson from their My First English Adventure book was to learn the names of some animals: dog, cat, bird, rabbit... The kids are around 5 or 6 years old. We put the flashcards in a line on the ground, spaced out evenly. The kids have to bring the creature, which is a pillow in the classroom, to the other side of the line, hopping on one foot above each card and saying out loud the corresponding animal. They have to make it all the way to the end, depose our little "creature" at the end of the line, and hop all the way back to the beginning while naming each flashcard. The levels got progressively harder as we would space out the flashcards more, and also add "monsters" in between. These monsters are really bad and the children must not step on them!!!

Simple plain game right? But a fun adventure of rescuing the 'princess' and defeating the monsters on a very delicate bridge, in the beautiful imaginary world of children!!!