tag:www.eltnews.com,2011:/columns/david_lisgo//11 2011-07-21T04:08:23Z English Teaching Materials, Games and Activities Movable Type 3.35 tag:www.eltnews.com,2011:/columns/david_lisgo//11.2812 2011-07-21T00:13:01Z 2011-07-21T04:08:23Z

Hello. I was asked recently by Chris Sharp to describe one of the card games found on my new digital data CD-ROM BAH 4, which is available through ELTbooks. The name of the game is "Heads and Tails" (Hungry Dog)....

David Lisgo West Side English School Chris Sharp to describe one of the card games found on my new digital data CD-ROM BAH 4, which is available through ELTbooks. The name of the game is "Heads and Tails" (Hungry Dog). I first perceived the game during a discussion on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ETJ-Activities/ about a "Sound Dominoes" card game produced by Peter Warner, whilst looking at a game on the Genki English website called "shiritori", which is a popular game in Japan. There are three different sets of cards on the disk, the red, the yellow and the green set and the cards can be used to play two different games. In one game we match the tail of the dog to the nose of a dog by matching the final sound of a word with the initial sound of a word to form a closed loop with the cards. Here's an example of a completed loop using the yellow cards: crab-bed-dog-golf-fish-ship-pen-nut-tennis-snail-lunch-chick and back to crab to complete the loop. No matter which card is played first the loop will always be closed successfully. Here is a sample from the yellow set: 　 It's more challenging to move from head to tail as the Japanese game, shiritori, moves from tail to head. 　 To play the "Hungry Dog" version, place the picture of the hungry dog, with its bowl of food, at the finish. If possible have three teams playing this game together, the green, the yellow and the red. Scatter each team's cards face up at three different start locations and have them (or yourself) choose a start card and place it with the nose of the dog pointing towards the food, as it is sniffing out the food. Now teams race to match the heads to the tails so that the beginning sound of one word matches the final sound of the following word so we may end up with this line: ship-fish-golf-dog-bed-crab-chick-lunch-snail-tennis-nut-and pen which will take you to the bowl of food; it's challenging to turn these words around in your head. To celebrate, with fun, the winning team gobbles the food and points to the other children shouting "Hungry dog!", which I find far more satisfying (pun intended) than "We won!", which you sometimes hear (not in my class). Then they exchange colours and play again. They always want to play at least three games. If one team is always losing, then the balance of the teams is not good, so the teacher perhaps should have the final say on who is in each team. Here is the "hungry dog". 　 If your students are used to playing phonic games or have used the loop cards which are found on the disk, then you probably don't have to give them any instructions or help for the first game, though with this second game they could very well need help. I sometimes race against them, and of course win, without giving them any instructions when we play "Hungry Dog", there always seems to be a perceptive child who works it out without any help and I usually ask that child to keep it a secret as I want the child to think about initial and final sounds of these target words or by himself/herself. Whenever a child doesn't know one of the target words, then they just ask "What is it?" Here is a sample from the English Land set, which is found on my disk BAH 4: The example loop card uses vocabulary from English Land by MariNakamura　 If you don't have the disk and want to try out the game (Heads and Tails), then I'm happy to send you one of the colours. 　 Regards, David Lisgo]]> tag:www.eltnews.com,2011:/columns/david_lisgo//11.2785 2011-06-16T11:50:48Z 2011-06-23T23:34:25Z

It's an awful long time since I wrote anything in this column and for that I apologise. I was so busy renovating my house and then moving into it and into a new schoolroom that almost everything was forgot about....

David Lisgo West Side English School And teaching here. 'Go for a walk' or 'take a walk'? Well, I'm very comfortable with using either of these phrases in my everyday speech and writing but in the classroom they are different because one is a book and the other is a CD. Perhaps my favourite book for using with young children is "Going for a Walk" by the late Beatrice Schenk de Regniers, which is sadly out of print. It's beautifully illustrated by Robert Knox and the story within it is simple and lovely. Let me quote a little from the book: "The little girl goes for a walk. She sees a cow. The little girl says Hi! The cow says Moo. The little girl walks on." And so the story goes on with her walking past various animals until she meets up with the little boy and off they go to play in a sandbox together. My young students love to shout out "Hi!" together with the girl and of course make all the necessary animal sounds. It's also easy to role play this story by having the children play the various parts, for example one child will play the little girl and she will take a walk around the classroom meeting up with the various animal characters who are now played by other students. It can be freely done or the teacher can use it as a listening exercise so that the child follows the order spoken by the teacher. A confession. I have no musical ability and find it extremely difficult to keep any kind of rhythm and when I hear a familiar tune I will sing along "It's been a hard day's night..." or "I can't get no, no satisfaction..." and the words of the song fail to materialise, so how could I ever be someone who teaches children's songs and music. Often I would go to meetings and find that I was the only native speaker of English apart from the presenter, all the other participants would be female Japanese teachers of English and certainly they could all hold a tune and all play the piano. I dreaded it when the presenter decided to introduce some kind of chant or song which involved some kind of clapping and slapping of the hands whilst singing at the same time as I would be the only one unable to keep the rhythm going. Perhaps there are other teachers out there who like myself have been hiding their impediment and avoiding public situations where one has to carry a tune and rhythm. Well, I have to tell you that all is not lost and that a great new resource is now available so "Let's Take A Walk". That is the title is of a new creation is from EFL Learning. I only got my CD last week and already the class I'm using it with is able to sing along easily with two of the songs. I went to their primary YouTube address and together with my students we watched the "Hello Song" twice and then we sang and danced the song whilst listening to the track on the CD. After class we met with each of parents and gave (they are not so expensive) them a CD and asked that they play it in the car and at home for the children to listen to. For me the beauty of the song is its simplicity and its catchy tune, let me quote it: Now, it's time to say hello, say hello, say hello. Now, it's time to say hello. Hello everyone. And the second verse...? Well it's exactly the same. Great for me and easy for the kids. Today, we learned another song and again success, though I must admit I had some difficulty with the clapping. The title of the song is "0 5 10". I have to say that I was surprised at how quickly the children learned to sing the song. Here is how I used it: First we listened and watched the "fast" version of the animated display on YouTube and some children, who must have been listening to their CDs, began singing along, then the children laid two lines of large number cards from 0-10 and we listened and sang to the "slow" version of the CD whilst pointing to the appropriate cards. After that we moved onto the vast version, though I was avoiding the clapping which could be heard in the background until one perceptive child began to clap along impressively, soon we were all giving it a go and enjoying singing the song. You can find more videos from elf learning here and become Facebook friends with them. I look forward to next week's lesson and another new song, though I will have to practice my clapping somewhat. If you want to give your young charges a love of music and song, then this is an ideal starting place. Note. EFL Learning have decided to donate 5% of their proceeds from the first 1000 CDs to assist with the tsunami relief effort. A good cause for us all. You can order the CD version here or you can download from CDBaby. ]]> tag:www.eltnews.com,2009:/columns/david_lisgo//11.2268 2009-12-22T12:46:09Z 2009-12-22T14:09:06Z

Hi, Where do ideas for creating teaching materials come from? Sometimes they seem to come from thin air, they just appear in your consciousness as if they've been there, hiding away in some dark corner, all the time. These ideas...

David Lisgo West Side English School ESL printables, and gain inspiration from the thousands of creative teachers who inhabit this wonderful online world. I've been an active member for over a year. It has over 280,000 members and there are a little over 6000 members in Japan, but less than 10% have ever uploaded a worksheet and probably only 1% could be considered active; the rest of the world membership is similar. ESL printables is a site set up by a teacher for teachers. We share our materials with each other. These materials always remain the property of their creator, but by putting them up on the website we give permission to other members to use them freely with their own students. This means they are welcome to use them in their own schools but since the material is not shareware, it should not be distributed, nor sold, to anyone else. If used in the classroom, they should be given to the students (the students shouldn't pay money for them). Many people join and find that they don't have the ability to create their own materials so they steal materials on the Internet and from fellow members and upload those in the hope of gaining some miserable points, which will allow them to download materials. This is a big problem for this site and there is an active moderators list of volunteers to help deal with this daily and growing problem. More recently a bigger problem arose. A member of ESL printables a publisher for a publishing company (AFS Yayincilik, also known as AFS English) in Turkey has illegally published some books full of worksheets belonging to ESL printables members. He even invented some fictitious authors and illustrators to make his books seem genuine. The owner of the ESL printables site, Victor Gayol lives in Spain, he reminds me of David Paul somewhat in that he doesn't usually get involved unless absolutely necessary, and now he is trying very hard, along with many other members of ESL printables, to right this wrong. He recently started a Blog to campaign against this "illegal and unethical behaviour". I have great respect for his efforts because the individual teacher can do so little when the problem lies on the other side of the world. I write about this problem in my column in support of teachers around the world. Please visit Victor's Blog to read more about this problem. Sincerely, David Lisgo ESL printables member ]]> tag:www.eltnews.com,2009:/columns/david_lisgo//11.2222 2009-11-03T12:33:07Z 2009-11-03T13:06:30Z

Try asking your students are a few simple questions such as "What's an elephant?", "What's a table?" or "What's a cat?" Last week I asked several university students the question "Where is Japan?" before someone answered "It's in Asia." and...

David Lisgo West Side English School Finding Out was published because one of David's students asked two simple questions of some visiting dignitaries, "What do you do?" and, to the answer "I'm a publisher.", "What is a publisher?" David has incorporated both of these questions into it's Finding Out book 2. I'm going to look at the second question which is found in unit 5 page 32 in the activity "Aliens", here I quote from the book: (Alien) "What's an elephant?" (Boys) "It's gray." "It has a long..." It doesn't seem like much, but it has great potential. Unit 5 concentrates on "this/that" so I wanted to create something that would practice these targets as well as the more difficult descriptive language and so I decided on the game "I'm an Alien Zookeeper". Of course, to my knowledge, there was no such game. First of all I created 40 question cards featuring an alien zookeeper asking questions about the animals of this planet. Most of the vocabulary (animals) is taken from my 'animal habitats' cards. Here you can see the poster from this set. Then I wrote a simple description for each of the animals using this pattern: It's... It has... It eats... It lives in... Notice that a boy or girl gives each description. Initially I wasn't going to put a picture of the animal on the card, but then I thought that the students would take too long in finding the correct card and then everyone would get bored with the pace of the activity. Then I made a set of small flashcards featuring each of the animals. All these cards have the same backs, which I hope you find interesting. Here are a few activities which the cards can be used for. 1. Scatter card Language target: "What is a...?" and "This is a..." Material: animal flashcards and alien zookeeper question cards. Procedure: scatter the flashcards on the floor or table, pretend to be an alien and ask the students "What is an elephant?", then try and elicit the answer "This is an elephant.", whilst holding and showing the picture, also have the children use the answer "I don't know.", when they don't know. Do this until the students have almost got it and then break them into small groups and one student from each group pretends to be an alien for a set number of questions before passing the question cards to another student. Alternatively have the children sit around the cards holding fly swatters, then one child, acting as caller, asks the question "What is an elephant?" A child covers or slams the correct picture saying "This is an elephant." and receives the calling card as a reward. Children take turns as caller. 2. Animal mimes Language target: "What is a...?" and "That is a..." Material: selected animal flashcards and alien zookeeper question cards. Procedure: limit the cards to known easy to mime animals. Select someone to be an alien and another person to answer the alien's questions and then deal out the flashcards (face down) to the other students, then the alien asks the question "What is (an elephant)?" All the other players mime an animal, but the player holding the elephant card must mime an elephant. Then finally the student answers the question by pointing to the player who is miming an elephant and says "That is an elephant." This sounds like an interesting game. I must try it myself. 3. Scatter card: animal descriptions Language target: "What is a...?", "This is a...", "It's...", "It has...", "It eats..." and "It lives in...". Material: animal description cards and alien zookeeper question cards. Procedure: scatter the animal description cards on the floor or table, a player is chosen to play the part of the alien and asks the question "What is an elephant?" A student finds the right card and answers the question using the information given on the card. Play proceeds as in the first "scatter card" game. After playing such game you should find your students more open to using 'this/that', when asked "What is a...?" and more open to using descriptive language. "I'm an Alien Zookeeper" is available directly from myself for ¥1500 plus postage; please e-mail your order. The pack contains: 30 picture cards 30 question cards 30 description cards The cards are the same size and quality as Switchit cards. That is, printed both sides colour, laminated, machine cut and corners rounded, then packed in a sturdy box. If you want to make your own, then you can either design them yourself or wait until the materials come out on a new Blending a Hand CD. I'm hoping to have a CD covering units 1-7 of Finding Out book 2 available in December. ]]> tag:www.eltnews.com,2009:/columns/david_lisgo//11.2199 2009-09-23T13:50:14Z 2009-09-23T14:21:21Z

Just when I thought I had taken care of likes and dislikes, I reach unit 4 of New Finding Out 2 and find that I must now combine 'I like/I don't like...' with colours and plurals. I had this brief...

David Lisgo West Side English School New Finding Out 2 and find that I must now combine 'I like/I don't like...' with colours and plurals. I had this brief inspiration and wrote some notes on a scrap bit of paper and then yesterday I began developing this game not knowing how it would end up. I worked on it for about four hours yesterday and again today, making many changes and adjustments until I was satisfied. I played the game with two classes this evening and it was great, just what I worked and hope for. Here's a picture of some of the finished cards. It so difficult for Japanese students to grasp the idea of plurals and the idea of countable and uncountable nouns. With this game they get lots of practice with colours, simple expressions of like and dislike and a lot of repetition regarding plurals. This will certainly help them to gain a natural grasp of the language instead of trying to understand everything through a grammatical sense. Here are the "Rainbow Colors" cards, which are the equivalent of special Switchit cards or jokers. Individual cards can be used for pairwork in large groups and writing activities, but if possible play the game in small groups. I will describe how to play in groups of 3-5. You need eight of each card, preferably with the backs printed. Deal seven cards face down to each player, put the remainder of the cards face down in the centre and turn over the top card. If, for example, a card with a red border is turned over, then the player to the left of the dealer must place another red card on the open card and make a suitable sentence, such as "I like purple grapes.", then the next player must play another card with a red border or a "grapes" card If the player doesn't have a card with a red border or picture of grapes, then he can play a "Rainbow Colors" card and change the colour by saying "Rainbow (orange)." And play then passes to the next player on the left who must now play a card with an (orange) border. When a player cannot play a card, then he or she must pick up a card from the face down pile. The winner is the first player to get rid of all of his or her cards. This is another brick laid in my task of producing another Blending a Hand CD in support of Finding Out and all the teachers who use it.]]> tag:www.eltnews.com,2009:/columns/david_lisgo//11.2170 2009-08-24T04:29:00Z 2009-08-24T05:09:51Z

Long ago I attended a weekend seminar for teachers and remember distinctly being pulled up in front of all the other teachers for saying "I don't like cucumber." I should have said "I don't like cucumbers.", but the thought of...

David Lisgo West Side English School New Finding Out 2 introduces the concept of plurals, orally, in unit two through games and song, but does not actively teach it until unit six. The game which specifically uses plurals is a chain game which focuses on the words "like/likes". Here I quote partially from the teacher's book: "Get her to throw the stuffed animal to another child, who says I like (bananas), Maria likes (dogs) and (David) likes (rabbits). Encourage the other children to help the child who is speaking, or get them to say all except the first sentence together. It's fun to make the sentence longer and longer." It is fun, but many children will make mistakes and say "Maria likes dog." and "David likes rabbit." And in Japan, neither dish is eaten. How do you get around this problem? Well, you could pull up the child and say, "No! Not 'dog', but 'dogs'". But all that will do is take the fun out of the game and upset the child. Let's consider a few alternatives. 1. Do nothing. The focus is on "like/likes" and the minor problem of plural endings will be sorted out in units 6 and 7 where the emphasis is on plurals. 2. Use plurals cards which have words and pictures. Each time a new 'like' is expressed, a child takes a card to match that expression. If a child makes a mistake and says the singular instead of the plural, then encourage him to read the word on his card as he expresses himself. There is a set of NFO flashcards, which includes plurals that the children are quite capable of reading. Initially, all the cards can be kept in view, but once they get used to the game, then cards may be hidden in order to make the game more challenging. Later, you can do the activity without cards. 3. Play the "I like/I don't like..." track race from BAH 4 (not yet published). The focus is now on expressing likes and dislikes of animals, fruits and vegetables. Here's one way of playing (usually played in pairs): You need a dice and counters. Jan-ken by saying "What do you like?" The first player rolls the dice and moves forward that number. If a 3 is thrown then she says "I like peas." or "I don't like peas.", whichever is true. If a 4 is thrown, then the dice is thrown again and the child moves forward the number thrown and expresses her like or dislike (unless she lands on the "I don't like..." place). If a 6 is thrown, then she throws the dice again and moves back the number thrown and expresses her like or dislike (unless she lands on the "I like..." place. The winner is the first child to reach the end with an exact number. The 3 "I don't like..." and exact finish means that there is a good chance of moving backwards in the game, therefore heightening the suspense and giving more practice. The "song" which is used to practise plurals is a version of an old favourite "Old Macdonald", which David Paul cleverly simplified. The teacher's book has a number of tips and suggestions for its use. Children love learning animal sounds so I've made some animal flashcards (20 in all) to go with the song. These cards are also useful for practising the expressions "I'm a..." and "You are a...". Let's play with 'I'm a dog.' and 'You are a dog.' 1. I'm a dog (double chip). Lay the cards face down in a 4 x 4 grid. The first child says "Quack, quack. I'm a duck", turns the card over, confirms that it's a duck and puts two chips on the card. The next child goes "Cluck, cluck. I'm a frog.", turns the card over, sees that it is a chicken and puts one chip on the card. Played competitively, then the child with the most points is winner. You can also record the individual scores and have them compete against themselves the next time they play. 2. You are a dog. The game is usually played in pairs. Lay the cards face down in a 4 x 4 grid. The dialogue goes like this: "Quack, quack." "You are a duck." "That's right!" Or like this: "Squeak, squeak." "You are a bird." "No, I'm not. I'm a mouse." In both cases, the card is turned over and a point claimed. If the pair get it wrong, then the card remains in play. Here are some backs: If you want a full size version of the "I like.../I don't like..." track or the animal sounds flashcards, then please make a request in your comment. Otherwise wait for the disk.]]> tag:www.eltnews.com,2009:/columns/david_lisgo//11.2164 2009-08-17T03:26:55Z 2009-08-17T05:17:27Z

Hello, I'm back! I've been very busy since the beginning of April and haven't had time to do this column justice, but now I'm back and have time on my hands, time which I hope to put to good use....

David Lisgo West Side English School Blending a Hand 4, a digital data disk full of support materials for New Finding Out 2 (NFO2) by David Paul, which I hope to publish before the end of this year. I have already created many of the materials, but have yet to sort them and write about them. Perhaps writing about them in this column will be beneficial for us all. Let me start off in unit 1 of NFO2, where the main targets are "I'm..." and "Where do you live?" To teachers who have no experience with these books, then the targets may seem a little sparse, but after NFO1, then on your students should have some good reading, writing, pronunciation and spelling skills and be ready to tackle NFO2 with gusto. The pronunciation "I'm" or "I am" is usually not easy for Japanese children as they often don't touch their lips together when speaking these words. I will help the children practice by using songs such as "I am five." from (American) Get Ready! published by OUP. My version of the song goes like this: I am five. Yes, I am. I am. I am five. Yes, I am. I am. I am five. Yes, I am. I am. I'm a little (big) boy (girl). I am five. We also sing a version of the song "Are you hungry?" from Super Simple Songs. These songs really help the children focus on the pronunciation of "I am". Page 5 of NFO2 has the children doing simple introductions such as "I'm David." I like to expand on this and have the children do some easy introductions using "I'm...". For example: Hello! I'm Mayu. I'm seven. I'm from Japan. I'm happy. That's me. For older or more experienced children then I have them fill in a worksheet and practise self introductions. Here is the worksheet: This can also be used to introduce a classmate and for pairwork when one child asks the questions and the other answers. I sometimes have the children memorise and practise their introductions; this is great for impressing parents or surprising ALTs. NFO2 is designed as a student centered course, so you'll find very little overt drilling and repetition. The "drilling and repetition" is built into the many games and activities which David Paul writes about in the Teacher's Book. So, in developing support materials I also try to look at the book from a child's perspective and create materials which children will enjoy. If they only want to play the game once, then the game needs scrapping or redesigning. A game or activity needs to be fun, every time it is played, and needs to practice or review/preview target language. There is one more game from my up-and-coming disk which I would like to share with you, today. It is the "I am track.", which can be done competitively or cooperatively. Here is the game: 1. Played competitively There are two tracks, the blue track and the red track, and the target is to be the first one to reach the end of your track. The two players start in the bottom left and right hand corners and say: "Hello! I'm Takashi." (or "Hello! I'm a boy.") "Hello! I'm Satoshi." Then they each race along their tracks saying "I'm a cat. I'm a rabbit. I'm a cow. Etc. (I'm a dog. I'm an ant. I'm a mouse. Etc.). When they meet in the middle, they 'jan-ken' by saying "Nice to meet you." and the loser goes back to the start. Once someone wins the game, they reverse positions and play again. 2. Played cooperatively "Hello! I'm Takashi." (or "Hello! I'm a boy.") "Hello! I'm Satoshi." "Woof! Woof! I'm a dog." "Meow! Meow! I'm a cat." Etc. You can of course throw in "Nice to meet you." If you like. When they meet in the middle, they reverse positions and do the activity once again. You and your students can probably think of other valuable ways to use these materials. If you want a full size version of the board or worksheet, then please make a request in your comment. Otherwise wait for the disk.]]> tag:www.eltnews.com,2009:/columns/david_lisgo//11.2079 2009-05-15T04:10:31Z 2009-05-16T07:20:48Z

Hi, Today, I want to talk to you about a new game which practices reading, spelling and pronunciation skills. I am indebted to Kelly Rowlingson who supplied me with the name of the game and the original idea. To learn...

David Lisgo West Side English School here. Here's what you need to play the game. 1. Base board 2. Playing (or Star) board 3. Stars 4. Task cards 5. Read!, Spell! and Say! cards 6. A dice 7. Some great students Note: all the printing is A4 size. Here is the base board. You need to print it out and preferably laminate it. The base board is just a place to hold your Read! Spell! Say! cards and keep them tidy whilst playing. Here is the playing board. Print it out and laminate it, then take self-adhesive Velcro dots or strips and stick a dot (hook) in the centre of each square. One board for each student, though it is possible for students to share a board. These are the stars. If you want to use more than one colour, then just fill each star using MS Paint or some similar software program. Print out the stars, laminate them, cut them out individually and, if possible, round corners of the stars. Then take your Velcro dots (loops) and stick one on the back, in the centre, of each star. The Velcro dots need to be pressed down firmly, use some kind of tool to do this otherwise you will end up with a very sore thumb. The adhesive on the backs of the dots usually needs to cure for about 24 hours to reach full strength, so make your materials today and play tomorrow. Next are the task cards. Print them out, laminate them, cut them into individual cards and round corners. I usually give four of each (12 cards in all) to each pair of students or group of three. The Read! Spell! and Say! cards. I use the Read! and Spell! cards from Read! Spell! Do! This way it's easy for me to quickly select Read! (sentence) cards and Spell! (word) cards of a suitable level for each class of students. It's also possible to use Switchit cards in place of the Spell! cards. Here's a little more information on some of the Read! and Spell! cards: Level 1 is for students who are able to use the 26 single letter sounds of the alphabet to successfully read and write words. Level 1 Pack 1: 80 'spell' cards (single syllable). Level 1 Pack 1: 80 'read' (sentence) cards. Level 1 Pack 2: 80 more (all different) 'spell' cards (mostly multisyllable). Level 1 Pack 2: 80 more (all different) 'read' cards. Level 2-1 is for students who are able to use the 8 double letter sounds below. Double Sounds: ee-ea-ch-sh-oo(spoon)-oo(foot)-ou-ar Level 2 Pack 1: 80 'spell' cards. Level 2 Pack 1: 80 'read' cards. Level 2-2 is for students who are able to use the 8 double letter sounds below. Double Sounds ow(cow)-or-oy-ir-oa-ow(window)-ai-ay Level 2 Pack 2: 80 'spell' cards. Level 2 Pack 2: 80 'read' cards. Levels 3-1 and 3-2 are also available. I use Switchit Junior for the Say! cards. Sorry. You will have to supply your own dice and students. How to play. The game itself is very simple. Place the Read!, Spell! and Say! cards face down on the 'base board'. Shuffle the 'task cards' and put them in a pile. They will fit on the base board, but they are passed back and forth among the students. A child rolls a dice and then the other (another) child counts off the number by taking cards from the top of the 'pile' and placing them at the bottom. After the cards have been counted off, the top card is turned over and then the child is asked to read, spell or say one of the target cards. If the task is completed successfully, then the child takes a star and places it on the appropriate place on his or her playing board. If a 'read', 'spell' or 'say' row is already full, then no star is taken or given. The winner is the first person to fill his or her board with stars. The dice adds randomness and so it's not always the most knowledgeable student that wins. Also, if there is a great disparity in the levels of the students, then you can have different levels of Read! Spell! Say! cards for each student. The game can be played cooperatively simply by giving each pair of students a single playing board and letting them use a single colour of stars. This way there is no physical record of who was most successful. I'm sure that you will find this a great resource, very versatile and able to be used by all ages, from preschool to adults. Let me introduce you to a couple of other ways of using these materials. Star Boards: for use with preschool and elementary school children Preparation: Scatter a lot of of picture cards or picture/word cards, if the children are reading, on the floor, carpet or table. When using picture cards, then your pupils should be familiar with all of the pictures, if using picture/word cards, then use mostly familiar pictures, but throw in some unknown or relatively unknown cards so that the children have to use their word attack skills to decipher the word. Place a number of base boards around the room. Play: Children pick up individual cards, bring them to you and identify the picture. You give them a star which they place on any base board and then they get another card. This is a great opportunity to check and help with individual pronunciation. You can also use Say! (Switchit Junior), Spell! or Read! cards for this activity. At the end of the activity see how many base boards they were able to fill and give some lavish praise. Read! Spell! Ask!: can be used all the way from elementary school students to adults Preparation: if you don't have Read! Spell! Do!, then you'll have to make your own Read! cards. You can take sentences from whichever textbook you are using. The Spell!, as I've said, can be Switchit cards or you can make your own or use 'student cards' if available. I have made my own Ask! cards. Some of my Ask! cards are for asking student to student and other cards for asking student to teacher. I find the student to teacher cards particularly useful for senior high school students, university students and adults as they tend to have a greater personal interest in their teacher. Student to student questions and backs. Student to teacher questions and backs. If you want the files for Read! Spell! Say! and the all the Ask! question cards, then please e-mail me or make your request through the 'comments'. I will send you the files together with further information on Read! Spell! Do! and Switchit. To learn more about Switchit Junior, then please read my article. I originally made this game so that I and other users of Read! Spell! Do! could get more and better use out of the game. I hope that it serves its purpose well. Thanks for reading; hope you enjoy the activity. Sincerely, David Lisgo ]]> tag:www.eltnews.com,2009:/columns/david_lisgo//11.2025 2009-04-07T12:50:35Z 2009-04-07T14:11:43Z

From time to time people asked me to create Switchit for younger children and this thought had been in the back of my mind for some time, then last December whilst attending the Fukuoka ETJ Expo, I met up with...

David Lisgo West Side English School Switchit, a game they often play with their students. Well, David also asked me to create a Switchit game which could be used by kindergarten children. When I got back home to Shibushi, I was consumed with the thought of creating such a game and had the irrational fear that someone else was going to create the game. This somehow knocked me into a creative mood and within a day of returning from Fukuoka, Switchit Junior had become a reality. You can see the first edition cards here. First edition? Second edition? The first edition cards are designed to be printed on A4 sized paper or card, laminated, cut to 10 by 7 centimetres and the corners rounded. Pack 1 (level 1) has 104 picture cards and 15 SuperSwitchit cards, Pack 2 (level 2) has 64 picture cards and 10 SuperSwitchit cards. A number of teachers asked me to make the cards for them and I was happy to do so, but the cutting of the cards was being done by a rotary paper cutter, guillotine and corner rounder. I would have eye strain after making each pack. So I decided to make a set which could be machine cut, so I redesigned the game. Level 1 now has two packs of cards, with 65 picture cards and 10 SuperSwitchit cards in each pack, level 2 has 80 picture cards and 10 SuperSwitchit cards. How is the game played? Well, it's an Uno type game and the rules are very similar to regular Switchit. Here are the rules: SWITCHIT JUNIOR RULES 1. Deal 7 cards to each player. 2. Place the pack facedown, turn over the top card and place it by the pack. 3. Each player in turn plays a card, when playing a card, the letter/s must be sounded out and the picture identified. 4. A 'SuperSwitchit' card, which can't be your last card, changes the color of the card to be played. 5. A player who cannot play takes a card from the pack. 6. The object of the game is to get rid of all your cards. How long must children study before playing the game? I've been playing the game with a group of students who have only studied the short vowels 'a-e-i-o-u'. We used three sets of the short vowels cards (first edition), 70 cards in all including the SuperSwitchit cards. We started off by playing concentration (Kim's game), then snap and finally Switchit Junior. I don't like playing the traditional game of snap as it is often highly competitive and there's always the possibility that fingers may snap instead of cards, so we played it this way. All the cards were dealt out, face down, evenly among the players and surplus cards were scattered in the centre face up. Each child picked up the top card from his or her pile, looked at the card and then in unison they counted 1, 2 ,3 and placed the cards down in front of themselves, identifying the target sound and picture, saying "/e/ elephant", "/u/ umbrella" etc. When they couldn't identify the picture, then they said "I don't know. What is it?" and I told them what it was. When two of the same cards were displayed, either player to player, or player to centre, then the children called out "Match!" and the players with the "match" then did 'jan-ken' by saying "My cards." and the winner took the cards and placed them under his or her pile, all other cards were left in position. And so the game went on. What do other teachers say about the game? I haven't had any negative feedback concerning Switchit or Junior Switchit from teachers or students. Two teachers, Janina Tubby and Leonard Crawford-Goto have given me permission to quote them. Leonard helped me to finalise the vocabulary, he's always helping me with that, perhaps he's a dictionary in disguise. Here's what Leonard had to say: "A quick word on the two new Switchit packs I've been using recently - the Junior a-z and double sounds. First - the students seem to like the bigger size cards as they are easier to use. Having said which, I personally don't mind the smaller ones either, plus the boxes are very handy! I've been doing the usual format game, except that rather than stopping when one student gets rid of their cards, I give that student a coin and another card. That way we play until the whole pack is used up or no one can play any further cards. In addition, I've been using double sets of the double sounds - so 144 cards total. You get a longer game plus the chance to get a bonus point if you play the same card directly after someone else i.e. Taro puts down 'sea' and Hiroko follows that with 'sea'." Using a coin (or chip) is a great idea, which I've been using regularly, especially with Switchit Junior. And here's what Janina had to say: "Hey David Thank you thank you for my early Christmas present. I love it. I've played with everyone from my four-year-olds up. It's very useful even for my older reading well students. With the younger students we have used the cards for identification, snap type games, memory and Switchit as you have explained more or less. The younger kids love it especially because there is usually one or more child who has an older sibling who loves the real Switchit and they have anxiously been awaiting their chance to play. So they are thrilled, which raises the energy and expectation level for everyone. With the older kids we have used it to review pronunciation in a Go Fish game. "Do you have b?" (not allowed to say "book") and the advanced version, "Do you have "b" with b mouthed silently (i.e. no sound) thus really forcing the students to pay attention to lip and teeth positions. "Well, you have to pick up" rather than "Go fish". For the less able "Pick up please". When they collect a set, they say "I have buh book, bag, bat and..." whatever the words are, I can't remember now, and then put the set down. The cards themselves are very appealing for the youngest kids. The choice of graphics and the design are great. It's so smart to have the anchor there at the top and the vocab choice is excellent since knowing these words ahead of reading will help them understand what they learn to read (of course you know that but it's a great realization). All in all, it really fills a hole in my curriculum and I feel it requires no feedback for modification. Reading your mail (it arrived after I had written most of this) I agree there might be one or two words that could be replaced but I'm very happy more or less. Thank you very much!" What can I say, Janina says is all. How can I obtain the cards? You can get ready-made second edition packs from me. Here's the price: Switchit Junior 1 Second Edition ¥1400 per pack Pack 1 Aa-Mm Pack 2 Nn-Zz Switchit Junior 2 Second Edition ¥1700 per pack Pack 1: sixteen double sounds If you are short of money, have access to a printer and laminator (and a pair of scissors) and have a lot of free time, then I can send you the first edition. Just e-mail me for further information, or orders. Enjoy the game. Regards, David Lisgo]]> tag:www.eltnews.com,2009:/columns/david_lisgo//11.2014 2009-04-04T02:59:49Z 2009-04-05T10:48:50Z

Hi, What is Blending a Hand? Well, it's a huge collection of work which includes the digital data CDs, Switchit, Switchit Junior (the game has since been updated and expanded), Read! Spell! Do! (you can download the board for free,...

David Lisgo West Side English School digital data CDs, Switchit, Switchit Junior (the game has since been updated and expanded), Read! Spell! Do! (you can download the board for free, but you have to get the playing cards from me) , Dog Dog Dog and BAH Workbooks (these are just the front covers) plus much much more. I started work on the materials long before I ever got a computer, which was in 2001, in fact I started work on it in 1986 when I created my first phonic posters by cutting out pictures from a children's encyclopaedia and pasting them onto card for my then young children. That was before I started teaching. I would like to do a series of low key articles writing about some of these materials and how they are used. If anyone has any questions about Blending a Hand, you can always e-mail me or leave a comment; this would help me get going. ]]> tag:www.eltnews.com,2009:/columns/david_lisgo//11.1912 2009-02-07T13:09:52Z 2009-02-20T14:12:58Z

Hi, Today I want to write to you about the development of some new materials and their usage. How does something move from concept to product to customer, what steps are needed, how do we know it's good material and...

David Lisgo West Side English School I wanted to produce a game that would be as interesting and addictive as the highly popular Switchit game, which concentrates on sounds/letters and words, but this time I wanted to use sentences, but I didn't want to use the same design as Switchit. When I first designed the game I had 8 main characters: an ant, a frog, a rabbit, a hippo, a fox, a pig, a dog and a cat. The game had and continues to have: 60 sentence cards 10 dog dog dog cards (for use with the sentence cards) 60 picture cards I first made the game a couple of weeks ago and tried it out in three different classes, but there were some problems. It was difficult to find suitable graphics, especially for the 'ant' character and the game was too slow to play out, so I redesigned it, with just six characters and was confident it would work just fine. I then printed out two more sets of cards, laminated them, machine cut them, rounded the corners and put them in labeled boxes ready to be used. But the game wasn't balanced, the dog had 15 sentence cards, whilst other characters had either 5 or 10 cards each. So once again I went in search of suitable graphics and didn't stop until I had 10 pictures of each character. The keywords are now "dog", "cat", "hippo" (there wasn't room to put the word 'hippopotamus'), "fox", "rabbit" and "pig". The irregular word "I", is also used and the word "hippo", which has a long vowel, is reasonably easy for students to decode as the stress falls on the first syllable. For all the other words, students just need the single letter alphabet sounds. Let's have a look at some of the graphics. These are the 'cat' pictures and have settled on. There are actually two games, the sentence card game and the picture card matching game. The sentence card game focuses on decoding skills and the matching game focuses on decoding skills with comprehension. Here are the rules for the sentence game. DOG DOG DOG SENTENCE CARD RULES 1. Shuffle the cards and deal 7 cards to each player. 2. Place the pack facedown, turn over the top card and place it by the pack. 3. Each player in turn plays a card, reading their sentence card, which must match the enlarged key word of the previous card. 4. A 'dog dog dog' card changes the key word of the card to be played. 5. If a player cannot play, then he or she must take a card from top of the pack. 6. The object of the game is to get rid of all your cards. I went through the whole process of making new sets of cards and trying them out again, but I still wasn't satisfied because the game seemed too focused on the reading rather than on the game (I wanted it to be like driving a car where the main focus of the driver is on the road and what's happening around him, not on the actual driving.) so I decided to increase the randomness of the game by adding a small animal picture to each sentence card. Now a word could be changed by either playing a 'dog dog dog' card or by playing a matching animal card. Perhaps it's difficult for you to imagine so I'll show you. First, the 'dog dog dog' card. And now some sentence cards with the small animal icons. More printing and laminating, but confidence was growing that this was one game which would not end up in the rubbish bin. Now it was ready for more testing in the classroom. First I would play the matching games, focusing on decoding with comprehension. With my beginner students, who haven't yet tackled double sounds, I gave 10 picture cards of the same animal to each pair had them lay the cards in a column and then search and find the related sentence cards and match them. Once they had done that, they called me to check their cards and then started on another set. They all thoroughly enjoyed the activity. With other classes, I just scattered the picture and sentence cards on the carpet and had them match the cards, bring them to me, read the sentence, get a chip and then match another two cards. A little like Kim's game or concentration, except faster and more involved. I can think of many games we can play with these cards. After playing the matching games we were ready to play 'dog dog dog' with the additional rule. 7. A matching picture can be played instead of a matching word. In other words, if someone plays the word "dog", with a picture of a "fox", then the next player can only play a 'dog' word, a 'fox' picture or a dog dog dog card. I played the game with elementary school students from first to sixth grade, then junior high school students, then high school students and finally adults. Everybody enjoyed the game and wanted to play more. Still, I wasn't entirely satisfied and I didn't like the small animals on the sentence cards. They looked like an afterthought. So I changed the design again and made another printing. How many is that? Here is the new and final design. There was one final touch before making the game available to customers. Some of my students had suggested that I call the game "hippopotamus, hippopotamus, hippopotamus", but I hadn't called out that because I was using the word "hippo" in the game, when I mentioned it to some other teachers, one teacher thought that I should go ahead and changed the name. I didn't want to do that because it would mean changing the design of the backs of the cards and I quite liked the present design. Let me show you the backs. Anyway, I made a 'hippopotamus hippopotamus hippopotamus' card which acts in the same manner as a 'dog dog dog' card and gives the teacher the option of replacing the dog dog dog cards, with the hippopotamus hippopotamus hippopotamus cards. Now the children have fun changing the target word by saying "hippopotamus, hippopotamus, hippopotamus; hippopotamus". Now I'm having fun. And here are the 'hippopotamus hippopotamus hippopotamus' cards. Now the product was ready and all I needed were some customers. I wrote to several teachers whom I thought might be interested in the cards, describing the cards and how to use them, then I had to put a price on the cards and I came up with this for the boxed sets: Dog dog dog sentence cards, ¥1200 per pack. Contains 60 and 10 'dog dog dog' cards AND 10 'hippopotamus hippopotamus hippopotamus' cards. Dog dog dog picture cards, ¥1200 per pack. Contains 60 picture cards. The sentence cards don't use a lot of coloured ink, so both packs cost me about the same to produce. Three teachers responded and each ordered both packs. So how long did that all take, well, I didn't calculate how much time I put into this endeavour, but from receiving the idea from New Zealand to getting the first packs into my customers hands took just 10 days, including a public holiday. Now I can tell you that it's a great game, but what about the reaction from those teachers? Janina Tubby has kindly given me permission to quote her and here I do so: "Love it! Actually much prefer it to Read! Spell! Do! which we don't use that much relative to Switchit. We were able to use it at a number of different levels, too. From the five-year-olds to the eight-year-olds who are reading well. We get them to choose a tense card and they have to change the sentence they read to the past tense or whatever, or make a sentence using past tense. Actually I'm not sure we're playing it "right". No idea what to do with the hippo cards and I ended up taking out most of the 'Dog' cards because the game finished too quickly. Maybe it's because they read well. I'm also thinking of adding a '+' card in a separate pile so they have to continue the sentence or maybe 'because', 'and', 'or' and other conjunctions, also. The five-year-olds also use it as a memory game, which works well. we take out a few cards and they read and match with the picture. So we've color coded the packs to enable us to find the cards quickly. It's fun fun fun!" Janina Janina has exceptional students. She made a good point about the "Dog" cards. There are 10 cards in the pack and this, together with the animal pictures, adds a lot of randomness to the game. Removing some of the "Dog" cards is like taking out the jokers, it increases the level of skill needed to win the game. I recommend playing it with six 'dog dog dog' cards. I will talk about "Read! Spell! Do!" and Read! Spell! Say! at a later date. I like the way Janina experiments with the cards. Some teachers prefer to have exact instructions, I'm a bit like that myself, but I don't like giving exact instructions as teachers and students can often find more and better ways to use the teaching materials, games and activities. Thanks for staying with me right to the end. For anyone who is interested, the cards are for still for sale at the prices above, you can contact me by email or through the comments. I promise not to publish your order if you choose to order that way. Who wants to be first? Watch out for Pack 2! Sincerely, David Lisgo ]]> tag:www.eltnews.com,2009:/columns/david_lisgo//11.1891 2009-01-27T14:42:12Z 2009-12-07T11:13:05Z

It was New Year's Eve and my family were all sitting in the living room watching the television and killing themselves laughing. I sat for awhile, but for some reason I couldn't get excited about old men singing karaoke and...

David Lisgo West Side English School It's not a bad track, but I couldn't think what to put on the track; pictures, words?, it seemed lacking in purpose so I abandoned it. Back to the TV, but after 10 minutes I thought I had totally lost my sense of humour, so I went back to the computer. Revitalised after my television break, I began to think of how I might use other numbers to create tracks, then it dawned on me that if I used lowercase letters, then I would have 26 Alphabet Tracks at my disposal. When I get a new idea, then I race to completion, it's almost as if someone else has got the same idea and I'm going to be accused of plagiarism, somehow these thoughts help me focus. Anyway, I set to it right away and before the end of the year I managed to create my first three alphabet tracks. Over the next few days I would enjoy making the next 23. Many creations end up in the trash can, but Alphabet Tracks will end up in many a classroom. How can I claim such a thing? Well let's look at some of the good points about them. They are very easy to make, just print them out and laminate them. They are affordable; 26 sheets of high-quality inkjet paper, 26 laminating sheets and ink, which does push the price up by a little. They are attractive, colourful and full of interesting pictures. They have a long shelflife and are easy to store. The rules of play simple and you don't need any special equipment to play. That's nice, but what about their educational value? Well, children will review or learn a lot of interesting words, they will take a greater interest in stroke order and letter formation, and phonemic awareness is built into the boards. For all the consonants, apart from 'X', all the vocabulary items begin with the sound/letter which any particular alphabet track represents. For the short vowels, I decided to use the vowel mostly in the medial position, because of the lack of suitable vocabulary beginning with short vowel sounds. Let me tell you how I first introduced the tracks to my students. Before class proper began, most of the children were busy doing crossword puzzles, word searches or other worksheets and when it was time to start the lesson they left the writing area and came to the 'play' area of my classroom and took their seats. In front of them, on the carpet, were several alphabet tracks. Now I'm sure the children could have just began playing without any assistance from me, but I wanted them to get the best out of these materials, so I asked them if someone would like to play a game with me. Hands shot up and one child was chosen and I asked the others to watch while we played. We used two dice and two small counters. I began. I rolled both dice and moved forward according to the lowest number, identifying each picture as I went. I wanted the game to move slowly and I knew that some children would be happy just to count out the numbers and then identify just the one picture on each roll, this way they would move leisurely around the track and be encouraged to name each picture. By the time we finished this first game, all the children were eager to play. They play in pairs or a group of three if we have an odd number of students. Of course the teacher could pair up with one of the students, but I prefer to stay in the background and make myself available, should anyone need assistance. I told the students to ask me "What is it?", if they came across words they didn't know. It was interesting to watch them play, wondering the best way to use the 't' track and to see them tracing their fingers around the boards without any encouragement from myself. They also began to notice how each track used vocabulary beginning with the same initial sound as in the playing letter. They noticed that the short vowel boards didn't use vocabulary using the initial sound of the playing letter and their asked my wife why this was. We told them that there wasn't many interesting words beginning with these sounds, so we put the sounds in the middle of the words. They noticed it and were quite satisfied with the answer. Most of them were quick to ask me "What is it?", when they came across new words. I used the cards with elementary school students (first-sixth grade), junior high school students, high school students and adults, who happen to be preschool teachers. Everyone, without exception, enjoyed playing. Now available on CD. Contact me for further information or for a sample puzzle. Regards, David]]> tag:www.eltnews.com,2009:/columns/david_lisgo//11.1878 2009-01-17T06:42:14Z 2009-01-19T12:19:18Z

I have a large, 105cms x 135cms Judy Instructo "Learning About Telling Time Play Mat", which I have used for teaching stroke order and letter formation. The children love it and it adds spice to what could be a boring...

David Lisgo West Side English School Now how can we use this? I printed out a large A3 sized clockface for myself and several A4 sized ones for my students. If you need a high-definition copy of the clockface or any of the materials in my column, then contact me and I will send you a copy via e-mail. Laminate the clockfaces and give one to each of your students, then give visual and oral instructions and have the children trace out the letters on their own clock faces with their fingers. In other words, talk them through the tracing of individual letters. Show a picture card and have the children write the associated lowercase/uppercase letter, with a water-based marker, onto their clock faces. Show a letter and have them write it on their own clockfaces. Have them clean the materials and play again. Put the children in pairs and they challenge each other to write (trace) different letters, with their fingers, "write this letter", "write a big /a/ (or 'A' if your children use alphabet names)". Bring their attention to the arrowed alphabet if their stroke order is 'far out'. If you have other ideas on how to use the clockface, then please let me know. Now might be a good time to give your students a letter formation worksheets. I made this first one for a friend who wanted a worksheet in lowercase letters only. Young children can easily lose their place on a worksheet, so I put in a second full line of tracing letters. The second worksheet is taken from Blending a Hand disk 1. A teacher wrote to me and was concerned about having the anchor word printed on the worksheet, he was worried that his students would start sight reading these words. This is why you will not find any words on this series of worksheets. I tried to make them as graphically interesting as possible for young children. Most children enjoy completing these worksheets and they also enjoy colouring them after they have done the tracing. Here's another simple activity related to letter formation. Say that we want the children to form the capital letter 'B'. Give them a copy of the letter and a lot of picture cards beginning with the letter 'b', here's a list for you: bag, bat, bed, book, bus, bottle, bucket, boy, bedroom, bedbug, bank, baby, ball, balloon, banana, bee, bell, bird, and so on. Ask the children to form the letter out of the picture cards. I usually do a few letters at once. I first have the children help me sort the cards according to their initial sound and then in groups they form individual letters from the picture cards. It really makes them think about the letter shape. They need to think about the shape, how the shape is best formed and the sound that shape represents; they may also have to remember the name of that shape. I hope you find some of this helpful. If you have any comments or requests, then please throw them my way. David ]]> tag:neu.eltnews.com,2008:/columns/david_lisgo//11.1773 2008-12-27T12:59:48Z 2009-01-15T12:02:19Z

Alphabet slam is a fun activity for children. I used to play it with flash cards held onto the board with magnets, but magnets go flying and cards fall to the floor. So I made some Alphabet Slam Concertina Cards...

David Lisgo West Side English School This is the Alphabet Slam Cover. It will hang over the back of your board and keep the other cards in place when they are slammed; usually with fly swatters. Sorry to hear about your stiff neck. The cards are on their sides so that the will fit on the page and maintain a high definition. This is the first of three Alphabet Slam Cards. If you want to give to try, then save the pictures to disk, print them out and laminate them. Join them together in a column, with the Alphabet Slam Cover Card at the top. Use wide band Sellotape (cellophane tape) to join them together leaving about five centimetres space between each card. Put the tape down the sides of the cards, front and back. The cards fold into a concertina for easy storage. And the last one. If your board is too high for the children or there is no way to get the Cover Card over the top of the board, then play the game on the floor or carpet using fingers instead of fly swatters, but watch out for overexuberant children. You can have four children to each concertina. One keeps score, three points sees a change in players in my classroom, another calls out the letter sounds or words and the other two play. It doesn't have to be played competitively, I find the whole class can enjoy the activity together when using fingers instead of swatters, and I would advise against focusing on the 'winner'. After we have played this game, which reviews and consolidates letter recognition, letter sounds and vocabulary, I like to give the children a worksheet to do. If it's the first time they have had such a worksheet, then we will probably do it in class, but if not, then homework is an option. The worksheet is called "FO1/2 Listen and Draw A" and is based on a similar activity page found in New Finding Out 1 by David Paul. The worksheet is taken from the workbook Blending a Hand Concept Worksheets 1 by David Lisgo (Oh! That's me!). Here's the worksheet. In my class I would expect my students to make a mental linkage between the activity and worksheet, but if your students are not making the linkage, then you could display the Alphabet Slam Concertina Cards and I'm sure they would get it. They still have to do some thinking on their own as in most cases the letters next to the pictures don't match. Happy slamming! ]]> tag:neu.eltnews.com,2008:/columns/david_lisgo//11.1771 2008-12-22T01:41:57Z 2009-02-20T02:58:50Z

Almost all children's course books have a workbook. Workbooks, also called activity books and home books, are basically collections of worksheets related to the course book, so it's important to understand what makes a good worksheet and conversely, what makes...

David Lisgo West Side English School Almost all children's course books have a workbook. Workbooks, also called activity books and home books, are basically collections of worksheets related to the course book, so it's important to understand what makes a good worksheet and conversely, what makes a bad one. How a workbook is used, both inside and outside the classroom, can have a major impact on the success of your class. Let me give you some suggestions which may help you decide whether or not your workbook is well thought out and a valuable part of your curriculum. 1. The workbook should not only engage the child visually but also mentally. So often there is an information gap which can only be filled from the child's own knowledge. If the page can be completed using purely visual clues, then, unless it's practising hand-eye coordination, it's probably a waste of time and paper. 2. If you are to have a child-centred classroom or/and if the child is to work independently at home, then any instructions on how to complete a particular page in the workbook must be comprehensible to the child. Many workbooks do not fulfil this requirement so the teacher uses up valuable time in order to explain the page to the children. My personal preference is to do an activity in the classroom which will lead naturally into the workbook. I have found that the vast majority of children are able to make the link between activity and workbook page, without major intervention from the teacher or parent. 3. It is related to what you're teaching in the classroom and consolidates what you are teaching or prepares the child for the next step as well as integrating easily into your curriculum. 4. It is easy to check and provides useful information to the teacher in the form of evaluation. 5. A good design will require a number of skills to complete the page. Going back to point 2 above, I should say that the activity should provide a clear link between the course book and the workbook. Often times you can find such an activity in your teacher's book. I find that this point of contact, between course book and workbook, to be inspirational in creating materials, games and activities, and I'd like to share with you some of these "materials, games and activities" in the hope that they assist you in the classroom.