One of the easiest holidays to teach to kids is Halloween as there are
so many great games that you can play. Culture is very important and if
you can add in some new English, you get two birds for the price of one.
One point to bear in mind is that the modern Halloween is mainly an American
tradition, in England or Australia we don't really do that much for Halloween!!
It's still fun though!
Halloween Picture Book & Song
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 Happy Halloween Book |
 Happy Halloween Song + Picture Cards |
Halloween Themed English Practice Games
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 Ask the Dragon. (Reported Speech) |
 Funky Mummy Game ( Body Parts) |
Hallowe'en Spot the Difference Quizzes
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Here's a great Hallowe'en "Spot the difference quiz"
Apple bobbing
=============
This is a cool game to play outside during lunchbreak. Simply fill a deep barrel full
of water and put some apples in. One kid
at a time, with their hands tied behind their
back, comes and tries to pick up one of the
apples with their teeth! If they fail 3 times,
a new kid has a go. (And thanks to Dennis
of Nagano-ken for suggesting using vodka
instead of water for more grown up students!).
Another variation is to have an apple dangling
from the ceiling by a string.
Costume Karuta
================
I had this great idea whilst having a meeting
in Kagawa prefecture. First of all you prepare
several sets of simple Hallowe'en costumes.
Examples could be a sheet for a ghost, a
hat for a witch or a mask for a wolf man,
or whatever!! You split the kids into teams
and each team has a full set of costumes.
The teacher shouts out a word, e.g. "ghost",
and the front kid from each group has to
run to the costumes and put on the correct
one! The fastest kid gets 2 points, if the
other kids got the correct costume they get
1 point!
Halloween Tic-tac-toe
=======================
One of the best Hallowe'en ideas I used to
do was Hallowe'en tic-tac-toe, designed by
Grace Sylvan. It's a simple, calm lesson,
and the kids get to take something home afterwards!!
Check out the game at http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/tictac1.html
Pumpkin targets
=================
I saw this game at Horigane school in Nagano.
You paint a large pumpkin on a piece of card
about 1m square. You then cut out holes for
the eyes, nose and mouth. But make one eye
a square, one a triangle and the nose a circle.
Ideally you would have 3 of these pumpkins.
You put the kids into 3 teams and the front
kid from each team has 2 balls. The teacher
says a "target", for example "The
square eye" or "The round nose".
The kids then have to try and throw one ball
into the correct hole in the pumpkin's face!
They then move one step forward, the teacher
says another word, and they try again! Then
the next kid in the group has a go.
Halloween boxes
=================
This is an old game and works well for some kids, but don't force any one
to do it!! You first of all teach some unusual body parts, such as "fingernails,
liver, brain," etc. You then have several shoe boxes. Each one has
a small hole to fit a hand through, but you cannot see inside it!! Kids
who want to have a go come to the front, stick their hand in the box and
without looking inside they have to decide what "body part" is
inside! Suggested items could be pieces of plastic for "finger nails",
tofu for "brain", peeled grapes for "eyes", a plastic
glove filled with water and frozen for "hand", noodles for "intestines"
and the clincher is "liver" - a real liver!!! The kids love it
when the tough kids come to the front thinking "Yeah, no problem"
and then they pull their hand out of the last box covered in blood!! Dim
the lights and it adds to the atmosphere! Of course you have to be careful
with this game, in Japan it's easier to get away with this type of thing,
in other countries you may have to respect different customs!! And don't
force any kid to participate!!
Talking about Hallowe'en?
========================
The idea of Hallowe'en tends to appear on the syllabuses of most Japanese
schools, and hence many schools would like their foreign teacher to talk
about it. There are three approaches to doing this. One is to speak to
the kids from your own experience, in Japanese! The second is to work with
the Japanese teacher and get them to explain to the kids. This can be difficult
as they probably don't know much about the tradition. This method does
have the advantage that the Japanese teacher can ask you questions during
the class, showing that they are attempting to speak and communicate in
English! The final approach is to do the whole speech in English. The reasoning
behind this is that it gives the kids listening experience.The idea that
this like putting water in a jar, the kids hear lots of English and one
day the jar will overflow and the kids will begin to speak English. Personally
I don't think this is a very good method, especially if your lessons are
maybe once or twice a month, but if you keep the speech short, lively and
full of props and gestures it can be effective! One point to watch is that
the Japanese teacher shouldn't simply translate your speech, this creates
a barrier between you and the kids. Barriers are what we are trying to
remove!!
Also Check out how to make Jack o Lanterns
in Aygo's Talking Craft Corner with the NEW Jack o Lantern Worksheet!
Or here are some links to other Halloween Ideas :
http://www.benjerry.com/halloween/
http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/halloween/print.html
http://www.eslkidstuff.com/HalloweenGames.htm
http://familyfun.go.com/parties/holiday/minisite/halloween-main/halloween-main.html
http://www.englishraven.com/Halloween.html
Happy Halloween Picture Book
Enjoy and be Genki,
Richard
======================
Richard J. Graham
Primary School English Games, Songs
and Activities
www.genkienglish.com
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