IWB friendly games

A three great games to practice pronunciation and spelling

Spelling

http://www.bbc.co.uk/hardspell/

All you need to do is choose which word is correct or incorrect against the clock. Pretty hard words, as developed for native speakers so best for Advanced and above.

This seems good. Click subjects at top and from here you can choose from your typical school subjects. I suppose English (grammar and spelling) and geography would be the most useful.

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

If you click on spelling it just takes you to any random word which you have to choose the appropriate synonym, however if you just quickly do the first the second page then gives you a chance to choose an appropriate level for your class. The fist level would probably suit Intermediate. Hardest is for those who find Countdown easy!!

The bonus is that for every correct answer the site donates 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program.


Punctuation

http://eatsshootsandleaves.com/ESLquiz.html

Based on Lynne Truss's excellent book, "Eat, shoots and Leaves". Simple sentences that you have to punctuate or not! A few tricky ones but Int and above should be ok.

Videojug - Alternative to youtube

Lesson plan robbed from here

http://www.ihes.com/bcn/tt/eltblog/blog/2008/10/videojug-cool-alternative-to-youtube.html

Videojug is not quite your standard Youtube clone, instead it host thousands of "How to do" videos nicely organised into handy categories, for example with Halloween just round the corner we have in the Halloween section "How to do trick or treat" & interestingly "How to survive a zombie apocalypse"

Interesting idea would be to choose a video that your student would have some idea how to do and obviously matches their level/interests, etc, then get them to brainstorm how they would do it. After watch the video and check if correct.

A nice follow up would be to get students to do their own with equally silly titles eg "How to cheat in your exams", etc or how to do something that they are interested in, eg pelota or playing an instrument, which could then be filmed and put online!

Punctuation Problem?

A great game linked to Lynn Truss´s Best Seller "Eat Shoots & Leaves"

http://eatsshootsandleaves.com/ESLquiz.html

Just play and add the apostrophe

Great Halloween Game

Great activity to engage students
Go to page
http://www.123bee.com/play/halloween-pumpkin-room

Elicit/explain vocabulary
Simple idea of game is to escape from the Halloween Pumpkin room. Normally this is done by clicking things and working out various puzzles.
The idea here is you give them the instructions and they themselves go through and do the activity – a nice fun reading with some great Halloween vocab, imperative and prepositions of place!
Instructions
Knife is in the eye of the fire place
H: move logs in the fireplace
A: Left hand wall, top shelf, spin middle pumpkin
L: front wall, single pumpkin on top, click stem
L: right hand wall, single pumpkin in middle top, click stem
O: left hand wall, single pumpkin above poster, nose
W: left hand wall, very bottom pumpkin, use knife to cut mouth
E: front wall, second shelf, slide second and third pumpkin
E: right hand wall, bottom shelf with 4 pumpkins, click stem of pumpkin on right
N: 3rd pumpkin down on right hand of steps
D: left box on floor
A: Puzzle above door, place round pumpkins first, then rectangles, then pear shaped. Collect pumpkin, Open middle box on floor, collect uncarved pumpkin. Place carved pumpkin on bottom shelf above fire place, click on stem.
Y: bottom right hand scroll of flashing poster

Candle: right hand wall, single pumpkin on top right

Put all letters on top of the empty shelf next to door. Click uncarved pumpkin, then use the knife to carve nose, mouth and stem. Place candle in pumpkin, then click stem to close it. Place the pumpkin on bottom empty shelf next to door. You are out!

Opps

Excellent Site For ICT Self Study

A collection of excellent teacher training videos on all the usual suspects in web 2.0 and ICT.

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/


Clear simple instructions, something for all.

Giving Directions?

Nice interactive game - follow the instructions and get the various characters to the respective destinations.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar/texttypes/instructions/flash0.shtml

IWB friendly