[little sage]

THE SITUATION:
I have a few classes of 4 students or less. They are beginners or high beginners, so I can't have very long natural conversations. I've sort of used up my repetoire of activities and lately I feel like the lessons need some new oomph!

THE QUESTION:
Does anyone have some good activities for teaching very small groups of children?

Thanks in advance.

Karen

[mesmark]

Othello or Reversi: vocabulary practice, sentence formation, conjunctions - great for one-on-one and low number classes

I also play Othello a lot. I've used my cards to make an Othello game. One side has the pictures (white) and the other side is the backing (black.) The students must use the vocab on the cards in a sentence to flip them (or just say the vocabulary - simple.) For example:

Simple: "This a boy playing the piano." / "Play the piano."
More difficult: "Yesterday, I saw a boy playing the piano."

As the card number increases I usually tell the just pick 3 cards to say, the rest can just be turned over. However, I try to get them to make some sense out of the string (but funny non-sense is also a lot of fun.)

"Yesterday, I saw a boy playing the piano and he was eating a hamburger. But, he wasn't reading a book"

The kids use Othello rules on a 6 by 6 board. It's a lot of fun and the kids will repeat the clause many many times and internalize the pattern. You don't need a board just define the center (the first 4 cards) and tell the students they can branch out 2 cards in any direction from the center and that's the border or boundry.

It works really well with small classes. They can play as teams of 2 or get two games going.

I hope that helps.

Mark

[little sage]

Hi Mark,

Sorry for the late reply. I've been enjoying doing nothing over the long weekend!

Thanks for suggesting some games. I can almost understand the idea, but I don't know the game Othello or Reversi.

Could you explain how to play? I'm assuming there's a 6x6 grid with vocabulary cards face down. Then what?

I think I grew up in a game-deprived family.

Karen

[mesmark]

Karen - Othello starts with 4 cards in the center in a checked pattern

white - black
black - white

White starts play.

Students then lay down one card sandwiching one or more of the opponents' cards with theirs. They then capture those cards and can flip them over to their color.

Play continues like this until all the spots are taken or one player can no longer capture any cards.

At the end the cards are counted and the person controling the majority of the board wins.

I hope that makes sense.

- Mark

[little sage]

Yes, thanks, that helps.

Also, just now I found an online Othello game that seems like could very well become very addictive... Uh oh.

Can't wait to try this with my classes. Thanks again.

Karen