TPR Warm Up Game!
Here's the first part of my online workshop videos.
And here is how to use the warm up to review in each new lesson....
Or when you have done several lessons you can do a warm up like this...
This is a game that is great do at the beginning of nearly every lesson.
Its gets the kids lively and active and helps their listening skills, and
if they can learn to stand up and sit down quickly you won't be wasting
time later on in the lesson! From then on you add in new words each week,
and is really effective. It's basically TPR, total physical response, although with limited class time it's usually
better to get the kids repeating the words as soon as you can.
At the beginning you simply shout out commands at the kids. First of all
simple things like "Stand Up" or "Sit Down" are OK,
along with "Good Morning" (great to practice the Good Morning Song! ). Also, try tricking them by saying "STAND UP" when they are
already standing up!
As you meet the kids more you can add words such as JUMP,
SPIN (a big favourite), EAT, DRINK, CHEER, CLAP,
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| GOOD NIGHT (they go to sleep) | GOOD MORNING ! |
Later BOY, GIRL can be added (much laughter when boys
stand up when you say "GIRLS STAND UP"). Also
BIG, SMALL e.g. BIG JUMP, LITTLE JUMP and QUIET, LOUD
e.g. QUIET CLAP, LOUD CHEER.
Even 1st Years can get quite advanced with things such as "GIRLS,@5
BIG SPIN JUMPS"
Or try using "PLAY" e.g. "Play Piano, Play
Tennis" or things like "Watch TV"
For "Clap" or "Cheer" get them to vary the volume as
you raise or lower your arm - it's a great "volume control" for
the moments when you do want them to be quiet!!!
If you want some more words, try "cry" or even "zip it!"
Once you get past these basics, try some other topics from the songs, and then start using series of phrases that the kids can use. You don't
just have to stick to commands!
Then try the past or future tenses, i.e. basically do the same thing but
point to a calendar on the wall first.
Then you can start moving on to stories. A good way to do this is to get
your kids to think of stories in groups in their native language, translate
them and use them in the next class! For the stories, things like Spiderman,
Harry Potter or famous characters are best!
| Basics | Funky Stuff |
Routines | Past Tense | Famous Stories | ||||
| Stand up Sit down Spin Jump Bow Watch TV Play... etc. |
Surf in Hawaii Do sumo wrestling Eat hot kimchi Walk on a hot beach Go on a waterslide I like sweet apple pies She's eating sour lemons (( get the kids to think of their own!) |
Open your eyes Wake up! Stretch your arms Yawn Get out of bed Have a shower Have breakfast |
I left the house I got on my bike I looked at my watch I was late! I rushed to school I crashed my bike! |
Hello, My name's Harry Potter I'm a wizard I have a magic wand I can cast magic spells This is my friend Hermione My favourite sport is Quidditch Today I.... |
Here's the game in action with a real class
Here's the first 10 minutes of my standard demo class. Hopefully
you'll get some ideas and see how good even beginner students can be
with a little motivation and music thrown in there.
It's of a small school where I taught all the grades together. They have had a few lessons before, but the Rock, Paper, Scissors song was their first time.
It starts off part way through my warm up,
Then Genki English Rule 1: Think you can and you can!
Then intro of Rock, Paper, Scissors i.e. each word twice and then once
through the mini-lesson.
As you can see the kids pretty much got it just from this.
Then Genki English Rule 2: Losing just means "try again!"
Then another couple of goes through the song very fast.
Then the song itself.
Altogether
it's 10 minutes. You'll see how much Japanese I use and how much
emphasis is put on motivation talk. These were really good kids, but
their speed was about the same as most good classes.
Or if you're looking for more ideas, try these from teachers in Okayama!
Climb Mt Fuji
Throw a big ball
Cheer the Hanshin Tigers!
Do synchronised swimming
Dance with Tom Cruise
Paint a big picture
Row a canoe
Ride on a motorbike
Be a monkey
Fall in love
Be a Genki English teacher
Walk like a model
Be a samurai
Be a big lion
Spin like a spinning top
Run like a penguin
Brush your hair
Swim in the sea
Cry loudly
Eat a big hot dog with lots of mustard
Open the biggest book in the World
Walk underwater
Dive into the water
Rock climb in the Grand Canyon
Touch you knees and smile
Walk like an elephant
Eat hot noodles
Stand on a balance ball
Shampoo your hair
Walk or run like an upset alligator
Train your muscles
Play the trombone
Towel on the head, take a hot spring bath
Swing quickly
Play the guitar and shout
Walk on a rope
The idea is to keep adding in more and more each lesson based on what you
have taught previously, check out this video!
Here are some of the tricks you can use to kick your students' English
levels through roof!
Gumby wrote in asking how I review all the previous lessons in the first
5 minutes of each lesson (as per the lesson plan.)
It's actually quite straight forward and very powerful! Have a look at
this video.
(The song is the Where is Baby Monkey? Rooms of the House song.)
The great thing about this is that you can easily mix and match the different
phrases as you teach new themes.
For example in the video we'd done "I like ..." with animals and "I'd like some ...." with breakfast food.
So in the review you can ask the kids to translate sentences that mix and
match them both
e.g. say "I'd like some pancakes" or "I like pancakes"
or "I like bears" or "I'd like some bears"
(stupid sentence but it gets the kids excited and making sentences!)
Build & Build
As the kids remember all the grammar & phrases naturally from the
melodies in the songs,
you can keep building and building like this using previous themes in new and varied ways.
For example after this warm up, the lesson we did was Under, on, in prepositions.
So in the next warm up we can mix this with the rooms of the house to get things like "Where is the kitchen?"
"It's next to the living room" etc.
Anything you want to say!
Now imagine that you can build up an almost infinite amount of English
for the kids to speak.
This technique, and by carefully controlling the language used in the curriculum, is how I manage to build up to the
"be able to say anything you want to say" goal of Genki English.
You can can see it's very powerful.
And lots of fun!
One other tip for reviewing, always remember it's "not what you've done but what the kids can do" that is important!
What do you think?
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Readers' Comments
A friend told me about a game called "iro oni", which is like a combination of
tag and the TPR warm-up.
Like in oni gokko (japanese tag), you have the oni ("it" - it's also the Japanese word for a "devil" - Richard), and they call out a color. Then everyone has to run and touch
that color. Anyone not touching the color can be tagged. This
could help liven up TPR if its getting old or used as color review (or with the colour song - Richard). You can also have the students touch desks and anything else you
might do in a TPR. - Thomas
Readers' Comments
Just thought i might add another to your TPR list. One day i was
on the playground and one of my kids asked me to do a "Mario jump".
I thought it was a brilliant idea and so i added it to the start of the
class warm up and they love it. Just ask one of your kids to do it
for you. They'll know what you are talking about. - Derek
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Richard,
Ifm totally surprised. I thought I knew most of the GE style tricks. But this is amazing. (And so simple~Ifm kind of shocked how little creative I am)
First of all I was surprised about the Japanese you are using, the translation techniques. It never came to my mind to do this. Only with the gHow do you saycin Englishh
all my reviews have been Q+A (me doing the Q or having the students do the Q), or gestures, but this translation thing is actually really interesting.
Second surprise: How you use the Download pack. You should put these videos up on the download pack site, as when watching them I wonft want to use anything else anymore.
To use the gwords 2 section with the under on in topic~itfs just fabulous.
Hey: more tricks we donft know yet? I bet so. So itfs us asking questions to become better.
gumby, thanks for being so resistent with your request!!!
And Richard, thank you!