For decades, learning English becomes a crucial issue for students. In elementary school, students start to acquire basic English grammar and vocabulary in the classroom. Teachers need to utilize different ways of teaching methods to make learning more interesting. Therefore, E-books, tablet computers, interactive blackboards and board games have become a trend of teaching materials recently. However, some schools may be lack of digital devices mentioned above. Hence, simple board games can be easily altered for teacher to make use of them. It’s a win-win situation for teachers to prepare the class in no time and for students to review the content of the book.

Activity One

Grade: 4th graders

Aims:

• Students will be able to practice sentence patterns.
• Students will be able to read out the target sentences.

Language focus:

• Sentence Patterns:

  ■Do you like _________? Yes, I do. / No, I don’t.
  ■Does he/she like ________?
  　Yes, he/she does. No, he/ she doesn’t.

• Vocabulary: cat(s), dog(s), bird(s), rabbit(s), fish

Materials: dices, pieces, board game boards

Procedure:

Before the Activity

1. Review the target sentences and vocabularies
2. Divide students into several teams
3. Hand in each group a board game board, dices and pieces.
4. Encourage students to assist slow learners in each groups to play the game

During the Activity

1. Students will have to throw two dices during the game. One of them represents the subject (You, He and She) and the answers (happy face stands for yes and sad face stands for no), while the other represents the moves (from one to six).
2. Students who throw the dices will answer the question, while the other team members need to ask the questions.
   ■For example: Student A got a 2 and a 5.
   　The other classmates: Do you like rabbits?
   　Student A: No, I don’t.
   
   
3. Students will take turns throwing the dices and proceed the game.
4. The first one who reaches the “Finish” box wins the game.

After the Activity

Reward the students who win the game in different groups.

Students are more willing to speak out and practice when playing games. There is no pressure and time limits for this kind of board game.

Students are more willing to speak out and practice when playing games. There is no pressure and time limits for this kind of board game.

Activity Two

Grade: 4th graders

Aims:

• Students will be able to read out phonics words.
• Students will be able to distinguish the difference betweendifferent phonics rules.

Language focus:

• Long O, Long U, ow and ou words

Materials: pieces, board game boards

Procedure:

Before the Activity

1. Review the target phonic words with different rules.
2. Divide students into several teams, and each team has four or five people.
3. Each person has two pieces to put on the four sides.
4. Hand in each group a board game board and pieces.
5. Encourage students to assist slow learners in each groups to play the game.

During the Activity

1. Students will have to read out the words correctly in order to move the pieces.
2. Students take turns playing the game.
3. The pieces can move in forward and backward directions, but must always jump forward toward the opponents.
4. A piece is allowed to do multiple jumps during a single turn.
5. Whentwo pieces reachthe other side, the one who owns those pieces is the winner of the game.

After the Activity

Reward the students who win the game in different groups.

Reflection:

1. The purpose of both games is to review the target focus of different topics. Therefore, it can also become a teaching material for remedial class since it’s not too difficult for most students to play.
2. Teachers can apply extracurricular supplement of vocabulary into the board games to make it more challenging for higher level learners. Teachers can even ask the kids to spell the words or write the sentences down to practice writing skills.

The board game board of the phonics games	Even slow learners dare to challenge themselves and play the games.