Thursday 14 May 2009

Fruit salad!


Lots of variations on this one! The basic version first:
Divide participants into about four different groups (depending on number! The groups don't need to be equal in size). Each group is allocated a fruit as a team name.

Arrange chairs in a circle facing inwards, with one chair less than the number of participants. Everyone takes a seat, with the person who is left standing in the middle.

The person in the middle names a fruit and each person in that team has to try and swap seats with someone else, while the person in the middle also tries to get a seat. Hopefully someone new is left standing in the middle. Instead of naming one fruit, they can instead call "buah-buahan" (or similar) and everyone has to scramble for a new seat.

Explain safety rules before starting (no pushing / shoving / dangerous or silly behaviour) - I usually add a rule that says that students must move at least 3 seats away from their last seat, or at least go into the middle before moving to the new seat. You might like to add rules to control noise etc also depending on the group!

Variation 1: To help with learning meanings, the student in the middle can call the fruit out in either English or Indonesian, but must mix it up (watch out for students who try to always use the same word, or always use English etc)

Variation 2: The student in the middle calls out a colour in Indonesian. If a student is visibly wearing that colour, they must swap (extra rule - can't call anything that targets just one student). Call out "pelangi" or "berwarna-warni" to get everyone to move. (great for free dress days, but works with hair ties, jewelry, watches, sports shirts...)

Variation 3: Kalau Anda memakai... to practice clothing. great for free dress days or days when some students are in sports uniforms, or let students bring in a couple of items specially, or let some take off their shoes / socks...

Version 4: (this is actually the version I use most often) The student in the middle makes a statement (eg - "Kalau Anda beradik", "kalau Anda tinggi" or "Kalau Anda suka bermain bola basket" dll) - if the statement is true for them, students must swap seats with someone. I make a rule that says that you are either one thing or another - tall or short, blue, brown, grey or green eyes - not anything wishy-washy that can't be stated... ad once they have made their decision they must stick with it. Personally, I am happy for the shortest student in the class to decide that they are "tinggi" as long as they stick with it throughout. Again, nothing that targets just one student, and obviously no put downs! I encourage students to be creative and will give some kind of reward for the best or most original statement(s) - great to encourage experimenting with language. Obviously, this can become more varied as the students cover more topics.

1 comment:

  1. Allison Beeston suggests:
    Look at Circle games in the Theatre Sports book:
    “Yes let’s - play games to ignite learning”
    by Angela + Michael Sanderson-Green
    ISBN 0 – 9750093-1-1 www.theatresportsoz.com
    There are lots of ideas to copy and adapt to practise LRS. Sitting in a circle helps to move easily onto different activities, including the Inside-Outside circle which is great for conversation practice.

    See pages 83, 88, 112, 120, 128, 144 – among others!

    ReplyDelete