Messages by Mandy

Hi everyone,

I'd like to get more creative and fun teaching ideas from anyone who's experienced in teaching phonics to children. My students are getting bored with the games I play with them and some of them never want to play any of my games. Here are the ones I have :

1. Phonics dice
I've made 11 dice with all the sounds they've learned on each side so there are 66 combinations. The aim of the game is to form a word with whatever sounds that the 11 dice land on. Sometimes if they are too young and I see a word, then I say it out and they have to find them for me. The younger kids love throwing the dice.

2. Bingo
Every student gets a piece of paper with bingo games on it. When I say the words, they have to cross them out and whoever is the first to call out "Bingo" is the winner.

3. Pass the ball
This is a new game I came up with recently. Get the students to sit in a circle (either on the chairs or floor). Play the music on a cd player and pass the ball around. When the music stops, whoever has the ball has to answer a question regarding the sounds they've learned. If the student gets it right, then he/she is rewarded a token(I often use tokens to reward my students and whoever has the most tokens at the end of the lesson gets a prize.They love it) If the student can't get the answer right after a few tries, then another student gets to answer the question.

4. Alphabets race
This is another new game I came up with. I made a set of alphabets on A5 size papers. Distribute them according to the number of students I have in the class. For example,if I have 4 students, then each one gets 6 and 2 more students get one more each and so on (sometimes I just lay them on the floor and when they hear the sounds,they have to grab them as quick as possible). For example, when I say "grab" , then have to form the word using the correct alphabets and then come out to the front of the classroom and hold up the alphabets they have in hands,in correct order of course : g-r-a-b. And when I say the g sound, the student who has the letter "g" has to put it up and so on... To make it more challenging for elder kids, I only give them 10 seconds to run to the front of the class and form the word. If the order is incorrect, they dont get tokens. One token for each letter they have. The younger kids love this game.

5. Slap
I have made a set of playing cards with all the phonics sounds on them (more than 52) and I distribute them to each students. When I say the "s" sound, they have to disclose their card one by one clockwise/anti-clockwise. Each student has to say the sound of "s" until the "s" letter comes up and whoever slaps his/her hand on the card first is the winner. If they slap their hands on the wrong sound, then they have to take the pile that's on the table. Whoever is the first to get rid of all the cards is the winner. Again, the younger kids love this game a lot

6. Alphabets erasion
This is another fun game I came up with but it only works well with about 4-5 students at the most. Write all the sounds they've learned on the white board. Each student gets a tissue and stand in a straight line horizontally about 5 steps from the board. When they hear the sounds, they have to race to erase them. Sometimes the younger kids get so excited that they erase everything on the board or erase the sounds next to the sound that I pronounce because there are just too many hands.

These are the games I thought of and some of them just aren't interested in any of them which is really fraustrating. I spend a lot of time to think of new games for them and some of them are getting bored with these games. They are difficult to please... If anyone has some new and super fun ideas, please do share :)

Thanks

A helpless teacher in Hong Kong

P.S : The "foreign" English teacher was mentioned in the last paragraph...

"In a vaguely related tangent, my mother was taking the mini-bus in the New Territories when a young gweilo asked her for directions. She said he barely had the English skills to read a map and form full sentences. When she inquired, he said he was a backpacker who had been hired to work as an English teacher. He was from Brazil and spoke Portuguese. Well, he had white skin! At least that's what the other passengers said on the bus. "Oh good! A gweilo to teach English around here."........

Hi I've heard that many times. I'm Hong Kong born Chinese. I received education here but moved to New Zealand 7 years ago before coming back to Hong Kong to start afresh in September 2007. I studied TESOL in the same year I came back to HK and I had a few other jobs before I devoted myself to teaching English to children about 5 months ago. To be honest, a lot of school principals in Asia hire English teachers based on their races and seldom give chances to those Asians who were raised and educated in English speaking countries. But with a bit of luck and hard work, you may find a few oppotunities lurking around. My employer was really nice and she hires teachers based on their credentials instead of the colors of their skin. There aren't many principals like mine around. I was really glad that I got the offer. I've just started my teaching career and I hope to gain at least a year or 2 experience before I move on to another country to explore. I've enclosed an interesting blog for everyone to read. It's about a "foreign" teacher teaching English in Hong Kong whose native language isnt English and why English levels in Hong Kong are declining...

http://joycelau1.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!DFE95C9AB5B43908!1463.entry

Hi Nicole,

I'm currently teaching in Hong Kong and I go to mainland ocassionally (Shenzhen). I haven't been to other parts of China yet so I can't tell you much about it. There's no doubt that China is the fastest growing country in the world.Pollution is a global problem.Every big city you go to,you come across problems like that.I know some people who is teaching or have taught in China and they loved it.Diverse culture,interesting people and food,simple lifestyle,just to name a few.China is one of the most amazing places you'll ever go to.Don't let the pollution hold you back.

Mandy

Hi,

Same problem here.I have 1 more specialization to complete and I can't access it on the website.Please help

Mandy