I was once visiting a (non-Genki) school and whilst the kids were doing their homework I asked “What are you doing?”

The answer, after the teacher had translated, was a very proud “The present progressive!!!”

So don’t do that.  There’s no point learning the name of a fishing rod if you don’t know how to use it 🙂

The best way to learn, of course, is by doing and my two top games for this are …..

I’m eating! Magic!

1. The week before, set the  Eat! Drink! Dance! lesson and then the What are you doing? lesson as Homework for this week.
2. Quickly review, with gestures,  the vocab and structures to make sure the kids have learnt and understood everything.
3. Choose a volunteer, give them a magic wand and tell them to cast magic spells on the kids one at a time by waving their wand and giving them an imperative i.e.  “Eat!”  “Drink!” or “Dance!”
4. The “victim” student is now under a magic spell and repeats the command and does the gesture for this action over and over!
5. Go round all the class and if the student is already under a magic spell and doing something already they they say “I’m …..” + the action they are doing e.g. “I’m eating!”   The magic is broken and they are now free to sit down!
6. Choose another magician when the whole class is sat down!

Harry Potter Game….

Once the kids have got the hang of this,  it’s fun but quite simple, try it in groups and then for the big finale,  do the Harry Potter Game!   Which is perfect for this time of year! 🎃

Of course the kids can learn all the language in advance with the Genki English Homework  or if they are on Tik Tok I just put up a new video there – which has already had 15,000 students watch it!!  Enjoy!

Be genki

Richard

P.S.  Or if you want some real genki magic …..