Online teaching for younger students can be quite challenging as it is hard to keep the student’s attention and it is easy for them to wander off or play with other things whilst you are teaching. In order to help, here are some simple to no-prep activities designed specifically for the EFL classroom
Make a class book
Encourage your students to work together to make a class book – you could give everyone a letter/noun etc. and they each make a page. Alternatively, you could have a theme with each student or each group of students starting and finishing their story with the words “however “so that it all joins together
Then read the class book, with either the teacher reading the story as a whole or each student/group reading their own part
Retell a book with character cards
Although you may find it easy to share a book with your EFL students whilst there in person, when online, you need something more than your usual range of voices. To supplement your story, it is suggested that you use puppets – these can be simple paper puppets (that you have printed out from online pictures and added a stick) or puppets that you have made yourself from an old sock etc. As long as the puppet is recognizable as a character from the story that is all that you need – you do not need to spend a long time making it all perfect.
The message of the Day
Give students a special message every day – this can be a question which they need to research and then give the answer the next day or it can be a special fact e.g. do you know that octopus have no bones?
Daily messages can be part of the new routine
Mystery Bag
BEFORE the class put a selection of objects or cards into a bag. In the lesson show the bag and give the students clues as to what the item may be. If this is too hard, then you can tell the students the theme before you start e.g. vehicles, farm animals etc.
Syllable Games
The teacher shows a flashcard of an item or word (or shows a real object) and pupils clap the number of syllables.
Rhyming Games
The teacher shows a card or object and students work to say words that rhyme with it. For example, you show a picture of a cat and students respond with hat/mat/fat etc.
Magic Letter Dance Party
Play some music and students dance whilst in their chairs. When the music stops, students freeze and look at the screen. The teacher then models writing a letter, number, or word and then the students write it on their own board/paper. Repeat for other letters or words.
Learning Show and Tell
Be careful when conducting any no-prep activities and make sure they are relevant to the lesson that’s being taught. You can carry out show and tell but link it to a learning objective. For example, bring something that is red. Bring something that starts with the letter f, bring something you can recycle.
What’s missing?
BEFORE the lesson, prepare a tray of items. These can be related to a theme or a letter e.g. all things beginning with the letter m etc. Show the tray of items to the students and then cover over with a cloth. Ask students to close their eyes (or turn off your camera for a moment) and take one item off the tray. Then ask the students to guess what is missing.
Animal Walks- the simplest no-prep activities
Show the students an animal card or say an animal and they work to move and sound like that animal.
Encourage physical interaction with animal words or cards
Challenges
Extend the lesson with interactive learning after the lesson with some no-prep activities. Each week you can give students a fun challenge to complete after the online video class.
It is important to make it a simple challenge using materials your students have at home, for example, using toothpicks, tin foil, straws, plastic spoons etc.
To make it even more educational and relevant it is good to connect the challenge to a book or learning theme.
Examples of challenges include:
- Playdough Challenges – Sculpt a monster, make your name, design a tree, or sculpt shapes.
- Building Challenges – Build your house, a road, a skyscraper, or something for a toy.
- Art challenges – Make a rainbow, draw a favourite toy, draw feelings, make a letter collage, make a cutting collage or make a picture with stickers.
- Cooking Challenges – Cook a yummy treat
For the challenges, students can take a photo and post it so that others can get inspiration and then in the next meeting they can explain their challenge.
Special days
To add variety to the daily routine you can have special days – such as pyjama day/superhero day / bring a friend (a stuffed animal)/ crazy hair day/hat day etc.
Guests
Invite a special person to your class – this can be anyone relating to your current topic or simply someone new for the students to hear.
Celebrate birthdays or unusual holidays
Set up a new birthday routine so that your students can look forward to their special day! Look up unusual holidays e.g. world smile day etc. and celebrate these.
Overall, the answer to effective online teaching is creativity – thinking and implementing new ideas so that there is variety in your approach as well as a range of special things for students to look forward to and be involved in.
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