Especially for the preschool level, it is always really helpful for other teachers to see games and activities demonstrated. One YouTube channel has uploaded videos of one of their teachers playing different English games with some of their very young learners.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbKj7NxhAGo&t=1s
There is no video online for games 53-61.
Here are a few observations I made about the videos.
You’ll notice that in many of the games there is little student-to-student speaking. This makes them less optimal from a learning perspective than other games or activities might be. Also, these are very strong students, and so it would be interesting to see them stretching their abilities a little more.
Another thing you might notice is that in some games, most of the students are waiting for a turn, most of the time. Again, that makes the games less than optimal for maximising the learning. It also means these games are generally not going to be suitable for larger groups of children. I probably wouldn’t use a lot of these games for a class of more than about eight students. About six students would be ideal.
With these types of games, you can see how the teacher’s choice of activity or game feeds back into the classroom management dynamic: you should expect the children to be talking to each other or goofing off as they wait for a turn. In this case, its hard to blame the kids for ‘misbehaving’. It is a natural product of choosing a game where most of the students are not participating, most of time.
You can, of course, adapt some of the games so that more students are speaking, or they’re not so teacher-centred.
Overall, I think the videos are great. The teacher has a good rapport with the children, they’re enjoying the games, and enjoying speaking English! I picked up a few ideas for new games from the series, and I hope you do, too.
