Creative Ways to Help Kids Learn English Through Play
As parents and educators, we know that finding effective and fun ways to teach children new skills can be a challenge. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of games that not only help kids learn English, but also keep them entertained and engaged in the process.
Whether you’re a teacher in a classroom setting or a parent looking for ways to support your child’s language learning at home, these games are a great resource. From traditional board games to interactive apps and activities, there’s something for everyone.
Not only do these games make learning English more enjoyable for kids, but they also help to improve language skills such as vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. So, let’s get started and explore some exciting and effective ways to teach English to kids through play!
Let’s see how game-based lessons benefit the young English learners
1. Use Games to Promote Interaction
Many a times, children are hesitant to interact with each other. That’s when a teacher can step up with a game of board games, charades, puzzles, or card games. As these are games played in groups or with others, it increases conversation and allows children to get to know one another. Some of best games are listed below.
a. Board Games – Some of the hit board games are Scrabble and Upwords. Both these games are similar in that the children will have to make words from a collection of letters they have received. As they play, you can introduce unusual vocabulary and rules to make the game enjoyable.
b. Charades – Team charades can help break the ice when the children are new to the classroom and are not familiar to each other. Through a game of charades, children learn to use and understand non-verbal communication, and at the same time laugh and bond together.
c. Puzzles – Give a box of puzzles to small groups of children, they will be busy figuring it out for quite some time with plenty of discussions regarding the position of puzzle pieces.
d. Card Games – Card games in the form of Matching Game can especially be a lot of fun for small kids, whereas speaking cards will encourage older children to speak and express themselves.
2. Use Games to Promote Learning
Are games meant for fun only? The simple answer is no. We can always gamify our class with lots of learning outcomes. Take, for example, word games. There are so many types of word games we could play to make kids interested in learning. Word chain is one such game in which the kids will tell only one type of words, such as verbs or adjectives.
A game of Pictionary can help kids to make associations between words and their pictures, hence, imbibing the words in their memory. Speaking of memory, isn’t it cool to include memory games in the end of a session to quickly recap the day’s learning in an interactive way.
Stories are loved by all. Story telling is a traditional way of promoting aural comprehension and it’s a good one. How about a small change in story telling? Teacher can start by saying, “I went to a market to buy vegetables when…” and the kids will continue building up the story with a sentence each until everyone has had one chance. If there are very few kids, go around twice.
3. Use Games to Enhance Vocabulary
If I told you that there are ways other than weekly dictation tests to improve one’s vocabulary, would you believe me? You better, because I am about to tell you about it all.
a. Word Matching – Using flashcards with words and/or pictures to help kids learn spellings is not a new thing. Introduce new words similarly – using visual aids enhances learning to a great extent as many kids are visual learners.
b. Word Scramble is a game in which the letters of the word are scrambled/jumbled. The kids will have to figure out the right spelling. To aid pronunciation, the words can be read aloud at the end.
c. Hangman is a popular game among kids. Kids will have to guess the words under a limited number of chances. Add your own rules to enhance learning as well as fun. There are many websites which provides hangman under a variety of topics.
d. Word Bingo – School children would have played bingo with numbers at least once. Try giving a set of words to create their own bingo table and let them play by the rules of bingo game.
4. Use Games to Teach Grammar
Want to teach sentence structuring to your kids? There are tons of sentence structure games out there, with verbs, tenses, prepositions and other grammar aspects, it is easy to teach as these games associate actions with pictures, making sentence structuring all the more fun to learn.
Kids are often confused while learning tenses. Speed up the learning with tense games.
There are many other grammar games to utilize, two such games are grammar quiz and grammar relay. Customize the grammar quizzes as MCQs through Kahoot games and start the game with kids. Kahoot is a visually pleasing interactive platform for quizzes. As the time ticks, the kids have to think quickly to give the right answer.
One way to play grammar relay is by showing a flashcard with a sentence to one student who will pass it to the next student by reading it aloud who will in turn write the sentence while intrinsically reviewing grammar as well as spellings to pass to the next student. This game focuses on grammar, speaking, pronunciation, writing as well as listening skill.
5. Use Games to Teach Writing
As much as speaking is essential, so is English writing. To improve one’s writing, fun activities and games such as character creation and description can be included.
a. Character creation: This game involves creating a character, either by writing a detailed description or drawing a picture. Students can then use this character as the main character in a story, which can help them practice their descriptive writing skills.
b. Story writing: There are many games that involve creating a story, such as “Story Cubes” or “Mad Libs.” These games can help students practice their creative writing skills and come up with interesting plots and characters.
c. Sentence writing: Games that involve writing sentences, such as “Sentence Scramble” or “Word Ladder,” can help students practice their grammar and vocabulary skills. These games can also help students learn to write clear and concise sentences.
d. Poetry writing: Poetry writing games, such as “Poetry Roulette” or “Diamante Poems,” can help students practice their rhyme and meter skills. These games can also encourage students to be creative and come up with unique and interesting poems.
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Where would you find a platform that provides games-based learning?
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