ACTIVITIES THAT PROMOTE LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 14: ACTIVITIES THAT PROMOTE speech, LANGUAGE, literacy & learningActivities that promote language development and use in the classroom

Objectives: Brainstorm materials found in the classroom and environment

Have activity ideas for promoting language in the classroom

14.1 Classroom Materials for Creating Activities

What are some materials you have in your classroom?

Paper, newspaper, old magazines, scrap paper Pens, markers

Pencils, colouring pencils, crayons, paint brushes

Erasers Clay, mud, dirt, sand

Chalk

Sticks, rulers

Leaves, seeds Beads, buttons

Material scraps

Dolls

Empty packaging: blue band containers, cereal boxes, milk packets, toilet rolls, empty cans, empty water bottles Feathers

Bottle tops

Corks

Stones, pebbles, rocks, blocks, wood Glue, tape, stapler Games, toys

Books

Water Boxes, bowls, cups, pans, spoons

PaintThere are lots more!! In district trainings teachers were able to generate fifty or more items on their material lists. As teachers we must think creatively about how to use materials in our environment to support students learning. Keep this list of materials in mind as you read through the following activities.

14.2 Classroom ActivitiesThe remainder of this chapter contains activities that can be done in the classroom. Some of them may not work for your group of students, but think about the ways you may be able to adapt them to make them easier or harder for your group.

The focus of these activities is on speech, language and communication, so its important to remember that these activities may be DIFFICULT for your students. Before beginning any new activity with children you may need to build up the childrens self confidence regarding participation. The ability to communicate effectively is an area of particular sensitivity to children, and even to adults, as our communicative skills are such a fundamental part of who we are. As a teacher you have a lot of influence over your pupils and you have the power to make them feel good about themselves and their skills or to feel like a failure depending on your interaction with them. A child who feels like he is failing is far less likely to succeed than one who feels like he is already succeeding.

As teacher it is your job to make the children feel good about themselves and to give lots of praise and encouragement throughout these activities. You should be particularly supportive during the ones the children find most difficult. ** You should give a child 5 praises to every criticism ** Having said that, it is important to be sincere when praising a student. If a child is trying hard but consistently getting the wrong answer acknowledge their efforts. For example: I can see you are trying very hard Abdul or that was almost the right answer, try one more time or Juma is doing a great job working independently. It isnt always so much what you say as the way you say it! Support your children verbally. When you are choosing classroom activities you also need to think about the level of ability of the children and their areas of interest. As mentioned you may need to adapt the activities given in this manual to suit the level of the children you are dealing with (to make the task easier or harder) and you may want to change some of the materials that have been suggested that you use in order to make the activity more appealing to the students.

Children will be more motivated to do an activity if they are interested and enjoying themselves. For example, if you had a child in the class who loves animals and you want to work on his ability to follow directions, then you can incorporate his area of interest into the task by giving instructions that involve animals (e.g. colouring the giraffe red or selecting the small, pink elephant).

If a child has any difficulties completing a task then try and break the task down into small steps to see what exactly the child is finding hard. Work at the level where the child may be able to get it correct 7 out of 10 times. As they succeed on each step, increase the difficulty until they can do the task you initially had in mind. Dont forget you can also work with an individual child who is having difficulties within the larger group activity. Just make a conscious effort not to ostracize the one or two students you may be paying special attention to.

As mentioned before, it is important that children do not feel like they are constantly failing. Do not continue to repeat a task over and over again if students are consistently having difficulties. It is up to you to teach it or present it in another way to help them understand. Try to simplify the task, help a child do the task hand over hand or support your verbal directions with gestures/pictures or words. Perhaps the activity is just too hard and you need to teach them the vocabulary necessary to participate first.As you read through each activity consider how you might attempt to implement these with your class group. Memory Game

Best played with an individual child or in a small group (2-3 children), this is a game that can be adapted to give a child practice in any of the following areas(and more):

naming common objects

naming verbs (action words)

naming basic concepts (including same and different)

using singular and plural endings for words

using visual memory

turn-taking skills

following rules and learning to win and lose appropriately (these are important social lessons that need to be learnt).

Materials:

- matching picture pairs (choose the pairs depending on the skill area that you are targeting with the child).

How to play:1. Use the picture pairs cards that you need to target whatever it is that you are focusing on with the child (if you are simply practicing social skills and visual memory then use the common object picture cards).

2. The first time you play the game you can place the cards face-up in rows on the table. Allow the child to look at the pictures and encourage her to look at the fact that there are two of each picture. Tell her that she needs to remember where the pairs are. Turn all the cards over so that you can no longer see the pictures on them but keep the cards in the same position as when they were face up.

3. You go first to demonstrate how the game is played: turn over two cards, one at a time, naming each one as you do so. If the cards are the same, you get to keep the matching pair and have another go, turning over two new cards. If they are different then you need to turn them over again so that they are face down, keeping them in the same position on the table so that the child has an opportunity to memorize where the cards are. 4. Make sure that you are using the language needed to help the child learn whichever language skills you are targeting. For example, if you are working on plurals then say 1 dog as you turn over one card and then 2 dogs when you turn over 2 of them. Encourage the child to do the same when it is her turn. Or if you are working on the concepts of same and different, make sure that as you turn the second card over, you either say same or different depending on whether the second card matched the first.5. When you have turned over 2 cards that do not match it is the childs turn to turn over two cards. Make sure you encourage her to use the target language as she takes her turn.

6. The game ends when there are no more cards left on the table. Each player counts the number of pairs that they have collected during the game and the child with the highest number of pairs is the winner. The game can be played with 2 or more players but remember that the more children that play, the harder it is for each one to remember where the cards are (as they have to wait that much longer for their turn) and the more likely it is that someone else will take the pair that they were trying to remember by the time they get there turn again i.e. it is easier to play with fewer children.

7. After the first game, you no longer need to have the cards face-up to begin with as the children will know how the game works.

Note: Make sure that the child does not get to keep any pairs until he uses the target language that you are working on. Do not lose sight of what you are aiming to achieve by playing the game.

To make the game easier:

use less cards

always have the cards face up initially before turning them over (as you did the first time you played)

only have 2 players.To make the game harder:

use more cards

do not turn the cards face up to begin with

have lots of players.

Bingo

There are lots of different ways to incorporate Bingo in your lesson plans! Its a simple idea, but can be adapted to use pictures or words depending on the level of individual learners.

Materials:

- A bingo grid for each child

- A small pile of bottle tops for each child (buttons, small stones or squares of paper would also work)1. Give each child a bingo grid. The smaller the grid, the easier the game. Start with a 3x3 square. See below.2. Each child will have a grid with different pictures in it. For example different animals.

3. The teacher calls out the name of an animal. If the child has that animal on their grid they can place a bottle top on it.

4. The teacher continues to call out names until a child has covered all 9 squares. They are the winner. What it teaches?In this example Bingo is being used to teach children vocabulary. They are learning to associate the animal name with the picture on their board.

To increase the difficulty some children could have written words on their grids rather than the picture. Then they would have to learn to pair the spoken word with the written word.

Alternatively, rather than just saying giraffe the teacher could say, a tall animal that eats leaves and has a very long neck. By using clues, you are helping children generate the vocabulary and expanding their knowledge about each of the animals.

The great thing about Bingo is it is extremely versatile and can be used in lots of different ways. I have seen teachers who use numbers in the squares. For their less able students they will hold the number up so all the child has to do is match the way the numbers look. For their children who are learning the names of numbers they will call out the numbers. Even more advanced, some teachers will put a simple addition or subtraction sum on the board and the children have to answer it correctly to know the number that is being called out.

Nursery Rhyme Share

1. Choose a nursery rhyme and teach it to your students.

2. When your students know the rhyme have them act it out

Depending on the level of your students you can allow them to get into groups and decide how they want to perform the nursery rhyme, or you can help them and make it a whole class activity.

What it teaches?

Excellent in multicultural settings as you can choose whatever rhyme, poem or song that fits with your curriculum and the children in your group. Knowledge of rhyming couplets is a good predictor of later reading skills, and memorizing rhymes gives students a sense of poetry, story, rhyme, sequences, basic concepts, and song. Specific goals you are working on could include: Phonemic awareness, syllables, first sounds, and rhyming.Finger Print Animals

Materials:

- Paper for each child

- An ink pad

- Pens, markers, or pencils1. Children dip their fingers in the ink pad and make fingerprints on the page

2. When the ink dries they turn their finger prints into animals3. Children can dictate stories to their teacher about their animals

What it teaches?

Children enjoy the opportunity to be creative. When they get the chance to do open ended activities like this they can often show you what they know. This activity can be used to work on curriculum content (for example: in the boys work above he made monkeys because they had been talking about monkeys in class that day. The fingerprints could have been turned into fruits or something different depending on lesson plans for the week.) When you take story dictation about the picture this activity can also be used to help children develop their narrative skills. Lunch Talk

Materials:

- None. But this is an activity that must occur during a meal time. 1. During break or lunch time when the students are taking meals, the teacher can practice using open-ended questions about the food the students are eating. Focus on concepts represented in the food (i.e., shapes, colors, tastes, textures, categories). This activity can be done during other times of the day also.What it teaches?

Emphasizes open-ended questions and the use of daily activities to reinforce language. Specific student goals may include: Increasing the amount and complexity of student talking (encouraging them to use more complex grammar and longer sentences), conversational skills and vocabulary.

Collage

Materials:

- Paper for each child

- Scraps of paper, cut out pictures from the newspaper or other collage materials

- Glue

- Pens, markers, or pencils1. Children use the scrap paper or pictures to create a piece of art workWhat it teaches?

This activity can be used to work on a variety of skills depending on how its presented. If you cut up a large pile of pictures from newspapers you can have children sort them by category and glue them (e.g. foods, sports, occupations etc..) Alternatively you can work on colour and make single colour collages. If you want to consider this a motor activity have the children cut/tear up the paper for the collage or cut/tear pictures from the newspaper.

If you have older students, or students who function at a higher cognitive level you may want to increase the difficulty of the collage activity. Try some of the other collage activities as described below. Story Collage

Using newspaper ad inserts, participants cut out and glue pictures that will help them tell a story, then they will share it with the group.

What it teaches?

Emphasizes how materials readily at hand can be used to support vocabulary, narrative, and creative language. Specific student goals might include narratives, description and vocabulary.Theme Collage

Like story collage, ask students to make a collage based on a specified theme (things we can eat or sports or transportation). Have students discuss their work with the class.What it teaches?

Helps participants understand how categories and relationships can be talked about in many settings. Specific student goals might include knowledge of categories, themes, relationships.

Make a ToyMaterials:

- Empty packaging and/or paper tubes, paper plates, string, newspaper, bottle tops, - A stapler, tape, foil, wire or glue to assemble 1. Give the children ample amounts of recycled packaging. Allow them to work independently or in groups to create a toy

2. When they are done, have them show the toy to the class and indicate (via gesture/sign/speech) what their toy is and how it works.

3. Allow the class to ask the presenting child questions about their toy.

** Be sure to have the class clap at the end of each childs presentation. There are no right and wrong ways for a child to respond to this kind of activity. Even if they only did a small drawing be positive about their participation.

What it teaches?

Emphasizes the language potential and creativity in easily accessible materials Specific student goals might include: Increase amount and complexity of talking with children, turn-taking, and question/response.

Concept SortMaterials:- Make picture cards!

-- You can do this by cutting pictures out of the newspaper and gluing them onto index cards.

-- Alternatively you can make them using drawings/marker pens

Think about creating sets by category. For example make a set of colour cards, a set of things we wear a set of things we eat or a set of vehicle cards. Try and accompany the picture/object with a written word wherever possible.

For example:

Your shape cards might look like this:

SQUARE

CIRCLE

Your colour cards might look like this:

Black

Blue

1. Give the children small sets of card to work with. Have them sort the cards into category piles

In the beginning you may give students a set to work with containing only 2 categories. As they get better at sorting them, add more categories.

2. When the children have sorted their piles, have them explain to you WHY they made the choices they did. For example maybe given a pile of cards containing vehicles they will separate all those with wheels.. or they will separate animals with 2 legs from animals with 4 legs. If you ask the children about their choices you can get to know where there categorization skills lie. If children are having difficult sorting animals from vehicles, talk them though it.

What it teaches?

Concepts such as shapes and colours (depending on the cards created). Categories, similarities and differences, vocabularyOdd-one-out/Pairs

Materials needed:

- A selection of picture cards or objects from various categories. Think about including fruit (apple, banana, mango, orange, pineapple), clothing (socks, t-shirt, trousers, hat, dress), toys (teddy bear, dolly, toy car, pencils), animals (dog, cat, rat, lizard), household items (spoon, plate, pot, cup), and/or furniture (chair, table, bed, book case) etc.1. Put 3 pictures in front of the child, 2 from the same category and 1 from a different category. Ask the child to tell you which one does not belong and why. Start with an easy task e.g. with a picture of a banana, a mango and a hippopotamus. After some practice you can make the task more difficult by adding cards, or including more similar items (e.g. by having pictures of a chair, a table, a bed and a cup). Make sure that you mix up the order of the pictures so that the odd one out is not always in the same place on the table (which would make it too easy for the child- they are smart at picking up these kinds of patterns in teacher behaviour!!).

2. Lay out 4 pictures 2 from one category and 2 from another and ask the child which ones go together and why. As the childs skills improve, increase the number of pictures to 4 pairs and so on. You can make this into a memory game. Turn all the cards over, face down and take it in turns to turn over just 2 pictures. When you get 2 from the same category you get to keep the pictures and have another go. If the 2 pictures are not from the same category, you turn the cards face-down again and it is the next persons turn. Continue until all the cards have been won. The winner is the person at the end with the most pairs.

What it teaches?

Categories (depending on the pictures used), similarities and differences, vocabulary, inclusion and exclusion of category members

Sharing Characteristics.1. Students are given two (or three if you want to make it harder) pictures, words or actual objects that might be related by color, function, shape, location, material (wood, paper, plastic), size, or quality (sticky, wet, cold, hot).

2. Students are asked to determine how the objects might be related, and explain their answers.

When you do this activity with your children, you will need to provide many clues, models and assistance before children begin to make guesses successfully and independently. Always accept the answer given. Children will be concrete but will become more abstract with encouragement and practice.What it teaches?

Students can be reinforced for their creativity. This is a good way to discuss enrichment vocabulary, which are not only categorized in terms of noun (things you can touch), verb (things you do) and characteristics (number, size, function) but are related to the current classroom themes.

Scavenger huntThis can be done in many ways. The basic premise of a scavenger hunt is that you make a list and have your students find those items. Think through the items youll have them find carefully.

Some teachers will have students find objects that all begin with the same letter (e.g. s) as a way of introducing new vocabulary (so his words might be: smile, spoon, sock, soap, stick). Other teachers will actually make a list of clues of what they want children to find (e.g. find something red or find something that opens and closes).

Materials:

- Make a short list of three to five items and write them on the board or a piece of paper. Be sure to draw a picture of the items next to it.

- have the children either individually or as a group search for the items

- when they have found them come back as a group and talk about the objects

What it teaches?

Depending on how you structure the activity you could be teaching receptive language, receptive vocabulary, alphabet knowledge and sight words.

Charades

Once again there are lots of possible varieties on charades. In its most basic form it is about having the students act things out.

1. Students are asked to pretend to perform an activity using at least three steps, for example:

Making chair,

Getting dressed,

Going to the market,2. The rest of the students are asked to guess the specific three steps pretended by the acting student. There will be some guesses that are correct, but were not intended by the actor as one of the three steps. What it teaches?

Temporal concepts: first, second, next, then. Routines, pretend play. Children benefit from as much experience interpreting actions at different levels of symbolism as the teacher can provide. Water Play

Materials:

- Bring in an assortment of plastic containers, buckets and cups

- Water

1. Allow the children to play with the water. Guide their play with conversation. For example:

a. When a child is transferring water from one water container to another, make predictions about how many cups of water will take to fill the bucket.

b. Look at the different containers and talk about which ones are bigger, which ones are smaller

c. Use words like wet, dry, more, less, lots, spill, fill, empty etc.

2. You could also add some other objects like stones, wood, and toys. Talk about which ones float and which ones sink. Can the children predict whether or not it will sink?

What it teaches?

Water play provides a great opportunity for working on foundation math and science skills. There is opportunity for questioning, measurement, prediction and testing hypothesis. Be sure to ask open ended questions to provoke childrens thinking.

A Look at Rocks

This kind of classroom enquiry can be done with any number of things besides rocks. For example: It might fit better in your curriculum to look at leaves rather than rocks.

1. Start this activity by posing a large question to the group. For example:

What makes rocks different from each other?2. Ask the students how they think you should go about trying to answer this question. Write down their suggestions. Try and incorporate as many of these suggestions as possible into the lesson plan3. Take a rock collecting walk with the children around the school. When each child has at least one rock come back to the classroom. Once in the room give the children ample time to look at each of the rocks.

4. As a group talk about the similarities and differences of each rock. Be sure to make a list with the children. There are many aspects to explore the surface area, the size, the weight, the smell. The possibilities are endless! See which rock is the favorite and why. Be creative.

5. think about having the children dictate stories about their special rock. Where would they take it? If it was alive and living how would they take care of it? 6. Feel free to do some classifying and grouping with the rocks. Be sure to place the collection where the children can access them.

What it teaches?

Concepts: rocks, sensory, comparison, classification.

Vocabulary: rock, surface, smooth, rough, weight, heavy, light, color words, shape words, collection, examine, specimen, identify, edge, flat, roundRamps and Construction

Materials:

- Do this lesson using the blocks in your classroom and assorted other objects from around the room. 1. Gather the children in the block area and start this activity by posing a large question to the group. For example:

What is a ramp? Does everything roll down a ramp?

2. Show the children how to make a ramp. Use flat blocks or a piece of cardboard against the edge of a shelf/table or against a stack of blocks.3. Provide materials for the children to construct their own ramp. Have a variety of objects for them to use in this experience. A natural object would be a small vehicle but come up with other classroom staples small blocks, stones, a ball, marbles, markers, rocks, small manipulatives. 4. Model for the students how to make an object roll down the ramp. Give the children one object at a time. Make predictions as to whether the object will roll down the ramp or not. Help the children think critically about why an object will or will not roll. Allow the children to experience rolling the objects down their ramps. Revisit their predictions. Keep this experience alive by talking to the children about the angle of the ramp. Have the children change the angles with their ramps. Make predications and re-roll the objects. Revisit the predictions again. Did anything change? Was it easier for any of the objects?What it teaches?

When learners are physically engaged in an activity that makes them question how and why something is happening, we know they are learning! Both this activity and the rock one above are activities that promote science at the primary school level.

Concepts: construction, motion

Vocabulary: ramp, motion, angle, roll, object names, fast, slow, move, incline, slant, steep

A Final Word:

The key to all these activities is in the adults interaction with the child..

As a teacher you are needed to prompt your students to think, learn, speak, explore, write, read, question, problem solve, discuss and narrate. The quality of the teaching is in the teachers interaction with the students. Their speech, language and communication development is reliant on your ability to meet them at their level and lead them gently to the next level. Good luck, and remember.. it should be fun!

Activity:

Before reading on, what are some materials you have in your classroom? On a separate piece of paper try to come up with a list of twenty items you could use as teaching materials

Was this easy? Hard?

Compare your list to that generated by Kenyan teachers below. What had you forgotten?

( VSO Jitolee 2008

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