Thanks for all the amazing feedback on the What do you do? update.
It was a lot of work so it was great to hear all your kind words (especially Rinaldo’s!)
And here’s the latest one for you all: Fruit Market!
In exchange for helping me check through to make sure everything (spelling, buttons etc.) is OK (or raving about it in the comments if you don’t find any mistakes! 🙂 ) VIP members can download it and use it in class right now for free. (Thank you so much for supporting me by buying the packs!)
Can’t say fairer than that can you!
What’s changed:
– Loads of new graphics
– Higher Quality Sound
– New “Words 1” section
– New Fruit Basket game – can you make it look as good as the picture above!?
– New Class “Menu” game – this is a totally new one (thank you Margit for the request!), a speaking based game. I’d love your feedback on this as the teacher has to do a little work here! Is it easy enough to figure out what to do? And if anyone could proof read the game instructions I’d love you forever!
To install:
1. Safely back up your Download Pack / USB ( because you know *something* will go wrong somewhere!)
2. Right click and select “save as” ( or Apple Key + Click for Mac users) on this link https://genkienglish.net/clipart/FRUIT.SWF
3. Copy the file into your Download Pack / USB folder (overwriting the previous version)
Please write up in the comments if you find any mistakes, or if you don’t, to let me know it’s all OK!
It’s always a lot of work coding, mixing and designing these so the nice comments really do help!
Be genki,
Richard
P.S. It’s Friday night, do I deserve a beer now?
P.P.S. Again those of you on the homework programme, just wait a day or two till we get the OK on here and then ask your students to bring their USBs to class so you can give them the free update. Parents *always* love getting extras!
P.P.P.S. For those of you using the physical CDs, I’m working on a way to get you upgraded!
The improved graphics make a HUGE difference! And I noticed the improved sound as soon as I launched it. Very very well done.
I have used the new game before, but I love having it available with graphics like this rather than my flashcards on the whiteboard.
GE just keeps getting better and better. Thanks for making all our jobs easier!
Thanks Craig!
The new graphics are awesome!!!
The vibrant colors and lively faces on the fruit is a succes with the children. My class of 5 year olds love the fruit plurals, they crack-up only with the strawberries (I don’t understand why, maybe I’m getting old)
Thank you for the updates and the hard work behind the scenes of GE. It shows me that GE is more than a business or a one-time buy online tool, but really is an ESL teacher’s must have, and it’s topped with an incredible support.
Hip Hip Hurray!!!!
Wow Richard,
this is amazing. I can’T believe you made all this. And it is the best timing I could think of.
The game is perfect. Now, whenever you are bored again, I bet you know what to do with drinks, ice cream, etc.!!!
But for now: Have your beer. A huge one!
I agree! Fabulous and I love the new graphics. The math game has come in perfect time as I’m doing numbers and maths! 😀
I really like the mini lesson on this as I teach in China and plurals cannot have too much work done on them!
The new graphics ARE awesome! And having more games is even more fun and a reason to stay on the fruit topic for repetition is key!
I had a thought about the strawberry. In Asia they often put punctuation on faces to mean something (like * @ #) and the strawberry looks like he has an exclamation – I think that usually means angry but he’s smiling, but ambivalent! haha
ah, not angry but surprise… that’s it.
Just had a quick run through and can’t find any typos or problems. The instructions for the new game seem fine. The game itself looks GREAT! Well done! (I guess Margit doesn’t have the same problems with kids – boys mostly! – cheating as I do. Or perhaps I shouldn’t care, just so long as they speak English!)
Love the new graphics. Especially how they fruit blink and stick out tongues randomly.
I used the original recently and was struck by how ‘old-fashioned’ it seemed compared to the new stuff. Now I can review the topic with this and see the delighted kids’ faces!
Thanks a lot!
I hope you enjoyed your beer(s)! You deserved several!
Thanks everyone – looks like I can move on to the next ones now! Any more requests for which to do?
Hi Richard!
Thank you for your great work with updating the materials. I like the new things you’ve done.
I have only one concern about Game 2 where fruit must be arranged in the basket. Woldn’t it be more challenging to draw three or four buskets and ask students to aggange the fruit in the empty one to match one of the buskets in the picture?
And in Game three I’d like the sum can be calculated 🙂
Best wishes,
Julia
Thanks Julia!
Game 2 is a funny one, it looks like it would be so boring. But …. just watch what happens when you let the kids loose on it – they get very, very creative – even obsessed!
Game 3: Hey, I can’t make it that easy! 🙂 🙂
Be genki,
Richard
Hi julian,
great you’re around. I should pm you, as I’m wondering very often how things are going. you must be busy these days!!!
About the game:
how could you cheat on this one?
I play it, for example in ES at the digital white board, in class with my computer:
The kids all together ask me: What would you like? I answer several items (depending on their level it might end up to something like 5 watermelons, 3 strawberries ,12 kiwifruits)
and ask “how much is it?”
The fastest raise their hand to answer, and I wait a while to choose one to answer, so it won’t be always the math ace answering.
But I must say, that all in all I hardly came across cheating so far. The only thing where it happens in my classes is with a few kids in the timerace. They might sit down without having done the 4 people requested. But it is really 1 kid out of 100. If it is a really bad attitude, I keep the time running even all are seated and keep silent for a minute or so. Then I tell them, that they in general have done a good job but that the time is still running. They usually try to find the scapegoat, but I tell them not to look for one and think what each of them could do to make all feel comfortable to take part 100%. After that so far the problem was cured.
Richard,
as you’re asking for requests;
I think game three would work great for review etc with:
summer and winter clothes, (in one, even with the accessory like “shades”… is fine)
pets
drinks,
ice cream,
vegetables
breakfast
food in general
christmas presents
software I’m having a bit trouble with is the “this week, next week, last week” in “When, when, when“, but I can’t think of anything more obvious either. Still, my kids are always confused.
Do you think in the next couple of months you will update several more? If “yes” I would like to wait with my student’s USB update.
Well, and if you start working on them soon (sorry, this is very cheeky):
could you give priority to the drink menu?
Hi Margit,
I’ve started work on the foods one now, that’s probably going to be next.
And I could probably do the drinks one after that – there’s not that much that needs changing.
It takes around a full week – that’s full on without answering emails (sorry everyone this week!), doing new things etc. – to update each one so it will be quite a while to go yet!
But I’d ask the parents to bring the USBs in, everyone likes getting a few new things all the time, rather than together in one block!
Absolutely on the beer front, although I’m tempted to suggest Prosecco instead! Amazingly fantastic graphics. My kids love the watermelon and his cheeky tongue! The eyes are great and a real improvement on the old pictures.
Game 3 is excellent and I can see so much possibility for that one. Hours of endless entertainment.
I’m so pleased you’re doing the food next. Thank you!
Ruth
Lovely job! Fabulous! Superb! I love it! But you know what, last class I showed the teenager students I have the Disco Warm Up, the Bear mix. They loved those graphics. That was simply awesome. Have you considered doing this in all of the others? Cause if you do, man I’ll be forever thankful to this awesome thing and I also agree that the disco bear graphics a better than this one. Nothing bad with this one it’s just that the other one is better you know. And as always I have to say that I prefer the remix songs. But hey! No words to express how great this fruit market update is! Great!
It’s much better than the old one. My pupils love more the new games, but I think it’s because they are new for them.
You go on being the best Richard. Thank you.
Thanks so much , and keep it slowly.
Quick question: Do you think all the new themes need backgrounds (like we have here in the fruits)?
The new graphics are much better! The games are great!
But I think the apple, the strawberry and the cherry are quite similar in shape and color! The spots on the strawberry do not stand out well enough. And the cherry should be smaller.
My kids also asked me: Why aren’t there any eyes on one grape? (In Words 1)
In Words, the watermelon is big,but it is quite small in game 2, so when put in the basket, it doesn’t look like an ordinary watermelon.
The background of the fruit market is mountainous, which seems irrelevant to the fruit stall. Could you try another background?
Thanks very much for this new fruit software. I really love it.
You mean something like the moving clouds here,?!
I think a one colored back ground or the original background you have in the topics would be fine.
I did have fun to pull the fruits into the colds instead of in to the basket with game 2, but it’s nothing really “needed”, I think.
Hi Richard!
Everything worked perfectly fine, my only comment would be that the peaches don’t look like peaches to me.
…
Another great lesson otherwise, perfect for Spring time. I love the design of the market fruit stall!
Oops. Looks like you’ve already moved on. So, just a couple quick thoughts.
Only one problem I noticed: there’s no kiwi fruit on the table in game 1. But if it’s never called, maybe it doesn’t matter.
Other than that, WOW! So many new things. Especially appreciate: faces on the fruit (the kids really love the pop-up graphics, such as the tongue sticking out on watermelon); the sliced fruit in words2; the new games.
Two things I’d change if I could:
1. the peach would be an orange-y color rather than lavender, and
2. the watermelons would be larger in the fruit basket game.
Well done, sir!
Hi Margit, thanks for remembering me! I’ll send you a PM through the forum, but you are quite right – I’m VERY busy, so don’t hold your breath!
In a nutshell, all is fine though! 🙂
Hope you’re well too.
Hi Richard,
Just tried game 3 in class and we all found the numbers very hard to read, especially from the back of the room. Maybe if they had tags like an old fashioned price tag with the numbers on it and the numbers a little larger, it would give it a nice white contrast.
One other thought occurred to me while playing – I’d like to use local currency rather than be forced into dollars. Maybe the price tag could just have a number on it without a symbol. The fact it’s on a price tag might be enough and it’s up to the teacher then as to which currency to use.
Anyway, my kids haven’t done multiplication yet so was a little more challenging! But we stuck to low numbers so all was fun!
Great game – thanks!
Thanks for that Belinda! Certainly let me see what I can do about the font size!
It makes a huge difference.
Kids just love it.
Lots of fun
I can´t download this software upgrade either!! What am I doing wrong?? HELP!
Hi Jennifer,
It should work OK by following the instructions at the top. Where are you getting the error?
I’m a vip member and love GenkiEnglish in my classroom. It’s a life saver! The kids love it! On subject to the new fruit download, I love the new fruit images with faces. Is the new Progress sheet displayed at the top of this page available to download anywhere? I’ve looked and can’t find a link. The fruit basket image would be nice to have as well! Great to laminate and display in the classroom. Thanks as always! Keep up the good work!
Patrick
Never mind, I found the new progress sheet in the workbook. Sorry! How ’bout the new “fruit basket” image, though?!
Patrick
Hi Patrick, glad you found them! (They’re here if anyone else is looking: http://genkienglish.net/evaluationsheets.htm )
I hadn’t thought about the Fruit Basket image, you mean just like an A4 poster??
Is it better to have the Fruit Basket or the Fruit Market image?
Re: Fruit Basket image
Well, the Fruit Market coloring page is always good to leave with the JTE to use as a review activity on a rainy day, so to speak. The new Fruit Basket image is really cute perhaps as an A4 poster to laminate and hang in the classroom for the kids to refresh on their own (Hora! “strawberry” desu!).
Thanks again!
Hi Richard,
I am using the physical CD’s. Should I be downloading these updates as well? – because this doesn’t seem to work. I can open them and test them, i just can’t download them. Do you have a different solution for those of us on the CD’s?
Thanks.
Hi Martina,
I’m working on something that will work for the CDs! If you can just hang on a little while hopefully I’ll get it ready for you!