One word picture by Keith Toda – teacher draws students suggestions based on teacher prompts

4 Corners – have signs based on the target structures and have them on opposite sides of the classroom. By Lugar Para Pensa

Spoons  -Masuk akal vs tidak masuk akal- Terry Waltz in her webinar mentioned the game (possible/impossible) whereby a teacher says a phrase and students decide if it’s possible or impossible. Martina Bex has a post about a fun game called spoons which takes the impossible/possible game to a new level! If your target structure is makan (eat), you would have a list of sentences based around the target structure eg batman makan hamburger (masuk akal) or batman makan kursi (tidak masuk akal). You say them one at a time and  if the sentence ‘masuk akal’ the first student to grab the spoon between them gets a point. If they take the spoon when the sentence didn’t make sense ie, was impossible, their partner gets a point.

People Searches- What a great way to get students up and moving around the room and filling the room with highly scaffolded output. Each student has a 4×4 grid with  16 statements. One per box and each based on the target structure containing familiar vocabulary. All each student has to do is ask classmates the structured sentence adding their name to the blank line and if the person to whom they are talking to replies in the positive, they write that students name on the line and then move on to one of the other statements. Would be great for the target structures: punya, suka, mau, bisa, pakai, bermain plus 100’s more!!

“Que lindo gatito” (what a cute cat/ kucing lucu sekali )  – (credit Katie Folke Savilla from Facebook )  One person is the “kucing/cat. Kucing (buaya/harimau) walks around the circle and looks each student in the eye and says their best “Miauuuu/meong”. Each student must then say “kucing lucu sekali” without laughing. If they laugh, they become the new kucing and the process continues. I just play for about five minutes or so and I actually forget if there is a way to win! You could change it up to suit your needs, maybe if they laugh, they are out.

Good Idea/Bad Idea – Indwelling language  All you do is a say a sentence in the target language. All students do is say whether it represents a good idea or a bad idea. Follow the link for some English examples.

Backwards Charades – La Maestra Loca A good activity for repetitions and also for when we (the teacher) needs a break.

Sesudah/sebelum– photo roulette. Great idea!!

Countdown – Cynthia Hitz  

4 corners – on four different walls stick up 4 different target structures. Students choose one structure and stand next to that wall. Teacher randomly calls out (eg draws one out of a hat) one of the structures and who ever is at that wall is the winner.

Splat – can be adapted for whole class small groups or even pairs. Basic idea- students are given 3 cards in front of them. Teacher reads out a word – those with the word repeat the structure and turn it over. First to turn 3 over win.

The Marker Game – Fun warm-up game that is a combination of hot potato and the fly swatter game. Write a bunch of words/phrases on the white board that you want to review. Have students sit in a semi circle and choose someone to be the “DJ” who starts and stops music. Use two different colored markers and start them passing around the circle while the music plays. When the music stops, call out a word or phrase L1 and the two students with the markers have to run up and circle the L2 word with their marker. Whoever gets it circled first wins a point for that color. Keep playing until all the words are circled and add up the points for each color and declare a winner and cheer! I like this variation of this game because in the past students would get upset with each other for not getting a point for their team, in this version they just end up cheering for whichever color they want. About half way through the game my students realized that the points didn’t matter but they kept playing competitively. Created by Alana Torraca

What’s the time Mr Wolf – shared by Kayla Rideg on Primary Indonesian Language Teaching FaceBook group

(Indonesian greetings version) Instead of a wolf – choose an animal from a story eg buaya/kancil, harimau etc.
Class: Apa Kabar
Buaya: Baik-baik saja (class takes a step)

Class: Apa Kabar
Buaya: kurang baik/lapar (class runs back to starting point)

Tingo, Tingo, Tango –

In preparation for this game, all you need is a space where your students can sit in a circle and an object to pass around. I use a small ball made of fabric. I try not to use anything that will bounce off their hands because then it becomes a distraction for the students. Students sit in a circle. Choose one student who will close her eyes and will be the one chanting “tingo….tango.” The children in the circle will be passing the object while she chants “tingo, tingo, tingo…” as much as possible. When the student who is chanting “tingo” says “tango,” the student who has the ball stops passing, and says to the person in the middle, a target structure phrase and then says nama saya? and then the person in the middle has three goes at guessing who the last person is.