The Alphabet Game

These are some samples of 'The Alphabet Game' ('Pasapalabra') generated by using GenMagic software.

VOCABULARY 1  and OUR VOCABULARY. A couple of games aimed at revising basic vocabulary.

CHRISTMASTIME.  Vocabulary related to Christmas and winter.

Interactive activities to work on the geography of Europe

Toporopa web site presents a set of interactive activies to learn or revise geographical data of Europe. Although most of the contents are more appropriate for Secondary students, some primary students may find it challenging to try Countries of Europe or Flags of Europe, for instance.

Online Photo Dictionary

Online Photo Dictionary website displays a set of thematic pictures (fruit, numbers, fast food...). The image can be explored by dragging the mouse on its different parts. The name of each item can be read and listen to.

Vidtionary

Vidtionary is described as a video dictionary, i.e. words are visually explained through pictures in a short video clip. The entries can be searched alphabetically, by topic, or according parts of speech.  It also includes some quizzes and wordless versions of the videos aimed at guessing the word.

Power Point Games

A good number of resources aimed at developing academic vocabulary at school can be found from this link (type ppt in the search box). These materials include some blank templates of  Power Point Games that can be completed by teachers of different levels and subject matter.

These are a couple of examples:

Holiday Squares is a version of Noughts and Crosses. It can be played with the whole class divided in two teams or in small groups of four (a pair of students make up a team), for instance. Older students could also generate their own games for the rest of the class.

Password game. A students stands on the front of the classroom with his or her back to the interactive board. The class gives the student clues to the vocabulary word on the screen as a clock keeps time. The student tries to guess the word before the buzzer sounds.

Word card generator

Abcteach web site includes a tool to create lists of word cards. The user can choose the topic, font, size and colour of the writing.

Bingo cards

Custom Bingo Cards

Phonetics

These are several online resources that can be helpful to practise and improve pronunciation.

Ship or Sheep website displays some lists of words that focus on the differentiation of a particular sound by comparing minimal pairs.

Oxford University Press: New File.

• This web page introduces the phonemic symbols of English by associating them to pictures that represent a word that contains a particular sound. Phonems and words can be listened to by dragging the mouse on the pictures.

• Stress monsters is a game aimed at identifying the stressed syllable in different words.

Learn English Kids (British Council) also includes several resources to practise spelling and phonetic awareness.

• Phonemic chart

• Tricky words. This section contains matching activities and tests to practise spelling related to a particular phoneme.

Activities for Easter

These are some resources related to Easter and spring:

A story:
The Great Egg Hunt

Handicrafts:
How to Make a Spring Hat

Handouts:
Easter Worksheets

The language of computers and the Internet in English

These are some glossaries and other type of resources that can turn out helpful to learn and practise the languages related to computer use.
About.com Spanish/English and Aprendiom offer bilingual lists of computing terms in English and Spanish.

Common computer terms in English is a monolingual glossary.

The British Council web site offers a song that includes some vocabulary related to computers: My Computer Mouse as well as some other activities on this topic.

The following video shows basic vocabulary on computers:

From Rags to Riches

From Quia-Shared Activities web page we can access a good number of interactive activities created by teachers. Criteria for searching them include type of activity, subject or area of interest and levels. If we choose 'From Rag to Riches' and 'ESL-English as a second language' we can find games such as the following:

- 'a, an, or nothing'
- 'Apartments and furniture'
- 'To be: present tense'
- 'Family words'
- 'Where questions'

Templates and guidelines to create games based on 'Who wants to be a millionaire?" TV contest can be found here.

Educaplay

Educaplay is an educational service that allows teachers to create short activities for their students. All those activities become public and make up a bank of resources for other teachers to use.

An example:


Tutorials

Types of activities:

1. RIDDLE: guessing a word
Example:
Money
2. FILL IN BLANKS: gap-filling
Examples:
There is / There are
Shops
Dialogue
3- CROSSWORD
Example:
Opposites
4. DIALOGUE
Example:
Introductions
5. DICTATION
Example:
English dictation
6. JUMBLED WORD
Examples:
Animal 1
Animal 2
7. JUMBLED SENTENCE
Example:
Tongue twister
8. MATCHING GAME: association
Examples:
Family: match male and female nouns
Oviparous / Viviparous
9. WORDSEARCH PUZZLE
Examples:
Animals
Clothes
10. QUIZ
Example:
Vocabulary
11. INTERACTIVE MAP: labelling for identification
Examples:
Bugs in English
Parts of the face 
Home Sweet Home

Pictures to practice vocabulary and description

These are a couple of websites that provide panoramas that can be used for games such as 'I see with my little eye', 'Find something that starts with the letter...' or as a trigger for oral and written descriptions.

Panoramas dk

Arounder

Christmas activities

These are some online activities related to Christmas from the British Council's Learn English Kids site:
'Santa's Little Helper' story
Whose present?
Balloon Burst Christmas

Garammar and Vocabulary

Grammar and Vocabulary from the Teens section of LearnEnglish offers several sets of interactive activities aimed at working on different vocabulary fields.

Drawing like Picasso

Picassohead website allows to create portraits made up with a variety of features drawn in a 'picassian' style. All features can be altered with regard to size, colour and position. The tool can be used for oral dictation of instructions (e.g. make it larger/smaller, change into blue, drag it to the left...) when using the interactive whiteboard or as a pair activity when sharing a computer.

Story Monster

ACMI Story Monster website allows students to design monsters by choosing different features (eyes, wings, body size and colour...). Once the monster is created, the student uses arrow keys and the space bar of the keyboard in order to choose a verb and a noun. A short sentence is generated and uttered.

  

The activity can be useful to work on definitions, pronunciation, or as a start for creative writing.

Use of pictures in the English classroom

This article presents some ideas about the use of photos in the EFL classroom.

Some websites to find copyleft photos:

Flickrcc
10 banques d'images libres
INTEF: Banco de imágenes y sonidos

Reading: All About Me

It's Fun to Read: All About Me activity allows children to choose the features of a character that would represent them, a pet, a bedroom, and a toy. They can also work on vocabulary related to the house.

A couple of websites to learn and revise vocabulary

Learning Chocolate

Language Guide