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  • Kayos
  • The Legend

    • 2451

    • March 31, 2016, 07:13:57 pm
    • NZ
One time English program ideas.
« on: September 28, 2021, 10:31:26 am »
Hey, it's me again.
My new principal, who is a former English teacher, wants to make a 1-day program event thing for winter vacation. This will mix elementary students with our current middle school students.
My co-teacher said, we could be getting students as young as grade 4 or 5 in elementary, and they want to mix them with all 3 of our grades, to spend the day showing off English related things (to try attract more students to our school for future years).
My co-teacher has already chosen things for writing, listening, and reading, but wants ideas for speaking. There is already a big gap between our grade 1 and 2 students this year (The grade 1s still struggle with grade 3, first year elementary, levels of English; with grade 2, I'd personally recommend around half the class to try go for the scholarship to study abroad in an English for a month). And we have no way of knowing the levels of the elementary school students.

I personally recommended getting some low level board/card games that use English a lot, or could be played with a lower level of English, as it would likely be fun for all the students.
I think she is looking for something different, she suggested a play using props, or dubbing, where the students record themselves listening to something in English and then having to repeat it (maybe with a worksheet that has some fill in the blanks). My concerns was maybe they'd be too difficult for the elementary / grade 1 students. So, after my long winded set up.
Does anyone have some ideas for some activities or something that focus on speaking, that would be suited for elementary school students, to middle schoolers that still struggle with how are you, to middle schoolers that have a pretty good level of English - the students will be mixed together (not sorted by grade or ability), so the games/activities would need to reflect that.
The principal also wants it to be fun, so I'm not sure if they will be in a classroom or in the gym.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
(I seem to be getting hit with difficult things this semester >.<)
« Last Edit: September 28, 2021, 10:38:07 am by Kayos »


  • sh0716
  • Explorer

    • 9

    • March 01, 2017, 10:48:27 pm
    • Gwangju
Re: One time English program ideas.
« Reply #1 on: September 30, 2021, 12:28:56 pm »
Assuming that your ct will be there to help them with everything, why not work off of the play idea?

But give them creative freedom and have them come up with the story on their own, as an extension of the writing activity.
The only requirement is that everyone needs to have some kind of a speaking part and that the whole performance needs to be at least (3) minutes.
Allow them to use Papago on their phone and confirm their script with you or the ct to make sure it makes sense.
Provide a starting scene and some random words, statement(s), or question(s) that they will need to work into their scripts somehow to help move the process along and also to make the performance interesting for everyone.
« Last Edit: September 30, 2021, 12:30:49 pm by sh0716 »


  • Kayos
  • The Legend

    • 2451

    • March 31, 2016, 07:13:57 pm
    • NZ
Re: One time English program ideas.
« Reply #2 on: September 30, 2021, 02:59:39 pm »
Assuming that your ct will be there to help them with everything, why not work off of the play idea?

But give them creative freedom and have them come up with the story on their own, as an extension of the writing activity.
The only requirement is that everyone needs to have some kind of a speaking part and that the whole performance needs to be at least (3) minutes.
Allow them to use Papago on their phone and confirm their script with you or the ct to make sure it makes sense.
Provide a starting scene and some random words, statement(s), or question(s) that they will need to work into their scripts somehow to help move the process along and also to make the performance interesting for everyone.

Cheers for the suggestion. I'll pass it along to my Co-T.


Re: One time English program ideas.
« Reply #3 on: September 30, 2021, 03:20:45 pm »
It sounds a difficult task with the wide range of ages and abilities.  I did have a 'brilliant' idea one night when I was trying to sleep but can't remember it anymore - probably not brilliant but it seemed good at the time.

On the idea of doing a roleplay/story
I have done an afterschool class (elementary grades 5 and 6 I think it was) with roleplay (I called it 'drama' not realising that they were expecting it to be tv drama!!!!)
For one session we watched "Pumkin What can you do?" from youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tScUb08F7os)
and then I had them create their own roleplay based on it.  [Obviously any shortish and simple youtube video would work)  I think I gave them whiteboards to write their dialogs on (it didn't seem so much like writing to them as they were using a whiteboard.  I did take photos of their writing at different stages as sometimes they would erase everything!)

Another option was to give them 3 or 4 fairytales/stories to base their roleplay on.

Or to give them a setting, and a couple of props to use (maybe different props for each group so the storylines will be different) - and maybe a few key sentences you want them to use.

I found it useful to have reviewed some key sentences and words that they may want to use before they start the task. 


  • Kayos
  • The Legend

    • 2451

    • March 31, 2016, 07:13:57 pm
    • NZ
Re: One time English program ideas.
« Reply #4 on: October 05, 2021, 07:47:05 am »
It sounds a difficult task with the wide range of ages and abilities.  I did have a 'brilliant' idea one night when I was trying to sleep but can't remember it anymore - probably not brilliant but it seemed good at the time.

On the idea of doing a roleplay/story
I have done an afterschool class (elementary grades 5 and 6 I think it was) with roleplay (I called it 'drama' not realising that they were expecting it to be tv drama!!!!)
For one session we watched "Pumkin What can you do?" from youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tScUb08F7os)
and then I had them create their own roleplay based on it.  [Obviously any shortish and simple youtube video would work)  I think I gave them whiteboards to write their dialogs on (it didn't seem so much like writing to them as they were using a whiteboard.  I did take photos of their writing at different stages as sometimes they would erase everything!)

Another option was to give them 3 or 4 fairytales/stories to base their roleplay on.

Or to give them a setting, and a couple of props to use (maybe different props for each group so the storylines will be different) - and maybe a few key sentences you want them to use.

I found it useful to have reviewed some key sentences and words that they may want to use before they start the task.

Cheers, I'll pass this along to my Co-T. I think she is the one that will be running this thing, she's at least preparing for it.