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Topic “P8”
Two part instructions with prepositions and plurals
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Hunt the treasure Something to use as 'treasure' - an interesting object or toy. | Explain that one person will be the person to hunt the treasure (the 'pirate' if appropriate!). The other children will hide the object and think of an instruction of where to look. The person hunting closes their eyes / goes out of the room. Hide the object, and think of an instruction to give a clue of where to look. Make sure the hiding place is not too easy, so that the instruction is long enough to be challenging. (For example: "walk two steps and look behind the cupboard below the window"). Bring the person hunting the object back, and explain they need to listen carefully to the instruction. Give them the instruction. They have to follow it to find the 'treasure'. | You may need to support the person hunting the treasure to remember the instruction, by using memory strategies. If they forget where they need to look, encourage them to ask questions of the group. It is recommended that the group only answers yes / no - i.e. the child must formulate a precise question such as 'is it near the window?' rather than asking 'where is it?' Alternatively, the person hunting can say 'give me a clue'. The other children must then give them a further instruction to help them, but not tell them exactly where the object is, for example 'go forward 2 steps and look up' You may need to support the children to do this. |
| Simon Says Imagination! | The instructions you give do not just need to be actions - they can involve the children finding objects, touching particular colours, etc. | |
| Selection challenge A range of objects laid out on the table. | The objects can be everyday classroom objects. To make the activity topic specific, use objects linked to a current topic in class or in the language group. Using objects the children find interesting makes the activity more enjoyable. For younger children you could use a box, bag, or basket for them to put the objects they collect in. To help the children develop self-monitoring skills, write down or draw the list of things you asked them to find (use paper or a white board). When they have made their selection, show them the list and have them check if they remembered what they needed to find. | |
| Practical Activities Any practical activity where the child must listen to instructions and carry them out to make something - e.g. origami fortuneteller, craft activities. | This is easily transferable to classroom activities. | |
| Barrier Worksheets A picture to colour - enough copies for everyone doing the activity, and for the adult too. Colouring pens / pencils A big book or folder to make a barrier | The activity is designed so that the child has to listen to, understand, and remember an instruction of 4-5 key words. If you break the instruction up into the different steps, the child will be working with several short instructions instead of one long one. For example, 'colour the robot's head blue'. (Pause, child has chance to start doing this part) 'And then colour two shoes red.' is two instructions not one. Make sure the child listens to your whole instruction before s/he starts to carry it out. There is automatic feedback in this activity, as the child will be able to see from your picture if s/he got it right. If s/he got it wrong, s/he will be able to see what the instruction actually was. |
To follow sequenced 4 to 5 key word instructions
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Barrier Worksheets A picture to colour - enough copies for everyone doing the activity, and for the adult too. Colouring pens / pencils A big book or folder to make a barrier | Explain that this activity is to practise listening, so the child must listen carefully. You will only say the instruction once. Give the child / children a sheet (one for everyone) and take one yourself. Put the barrier up, so that the child cannot see your picture. Give an instruction telling them to colour part of the picture, and colour it yourself. Make sure the instruction has at least 4 key words, and involves doing one thing before something else. E.g. if you have a picture of a robot you could say: 'Colour the robot's head blue and then colour two shoes red.' The words underlined are the key words, and there are 2 steps to the instruction. When you have all finished that instruction, hold up your picture, so the children can check if they got it right. | The activity is designed so that the child has to listen to, understand and remember an instruction of 4-5 key words. If you break the instruction up into the different steps, the child will be working with several short instructions instead of one long one. E.g. 'colour the robot's head blue. And then colour two shoes red.' is two instructions not one. Make sure the child listens to your whole instruction before s/he starts to carry it out. There is automatic feedback in this activity, as the child will be able to see from your picture if s/he got it right. If s/he got it wrong, s/he will be able to see what the instruction actually was. Topic vocabulary from e.g. a science topic or a history topic could be used, and simple worksheets created using software such as Clicker or Communicate in Print (see www.commtap.org for links to suppliers of this software). |
| Barrier Patterns 2D shapes in several different colours Something to use as a barrier | Make sure you say the pattern as one instruction and don't break the instruction up into the different steps. Otherwise the child will be working with several short instructions instead of one long one. E.g. 'A blue circle. A red square. And a triangle' is 3 short instructions. Make sure the child listens to your whole instruction before s/he starts to carry it out. You can use almost anything to make patterns - compare bears, mini beasts, small world toys etc. Pictures of topic vocabulary could be printed out and cut to make cards. The barrier pattern could then be made using a pattern of pictures. E.g. 'fire, fire, bucket of water, diary, diary' (linking to the Fire of London topic). | |
| Simon Says Imagination! | Make sure the child listens to the whole instruction before doing it. Make sure that you give the instruction as one long one not several short ones. |
Recall key information from a story
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Stories that the child isn't familiar with. Stories could be taken from reading books, or from picture sequence cards. (For example 'And then' published by Schubi). | Read chunks of the story to the child, or tell the story from the sequence cards. The chunks should be around 100 words long (a couple of paragraphs) and/or contain between two and four things that happen. (Use shorter chunks if this is too long for the child). Ask the child to retell the chunk you have read. The child could also be asked to reconstruct the story using drawing, using miniatures (e.g. playmobil), selecting and ordering cards from a set of picture sequence cards. For the child to gain more information from stories and explanations at other times he/she will be assisted by the use of visuals to support this, and also by being asked a question before hearing the story or explanation so that he/she has something to focus his/her listening on. | If the child has difficulties you can help him/her to recall the story using the following: Ask a question relevant to the key information in the story. For example, suppose this was part of the story: "Lucy rode her red bicycle down the hill. At the bottom she couldn't stop and fell straight into the fish pond..." Relevant questions would be 'What did Lucy do', 'What happened to Lucy at the bottom of the hill': avoid asking questions about details which aren't particularly relevant to the story such as 'What colour was Lucy's bike?'; Ask the child the question then re-read the part of the story which contains the answer to the question; Show him/her part of the story using pictures. Try to guide the child to recall the information with the minimum amount of prompts necessary. Try to avoid the situation where you need to say what the answer is. If you keep needing to do this despite using the ideas above then the story is probably too hard. |
Improve listening skills using fun group games
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Dragon's Egg
|
| Prompt all the children to be very quiet so the dragon can try to identify where the egg stealer is coming from. |
| Fish and Chips None | To make the task more challenging, get children to try to disguise their voices (give examples of making voice high pitched, low, monotone etc). | |
| Farmer find your Animals
| It's best to play this game with 10 to 13 children otherwise it is very noisy and difficult for the farmer to locate where the sounds are coming from. Could also play this game with zoo animals/ zoo keeper or a police man/ different types of transport (e.g. ambulance, motor bike, helicopter, train). |
Follow 4 key word instructions with before and after
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Sammy and Marvin's Picnic Two toys, one to be Sammy and the other to be Marvin Picnic 'blanket' (optional) Toy food Pictures of the toy food, and pictures of Sammy and Marvin (can be very rough!) | 1. Explain that Sammy and Marvin are going to have a picnic. 2. Have the child give them the food following your instructions. 3. Give instructions using 'before' and 'after' e.g. 'give Sammy an apple before you give one to Marvin'. 4. Select the pictures of the food you mentioned, and put them with the pictures of Sammy and Marvin in the right order (for who should have got the food first and who should have got the food second). Do not let the child see. 5. When the child has given the toys the food, have them check your pictures to see if they got it right. | Filming the child carrying out the instruction can help them to decide if they got it right by watching it back. The sentence in (4) is four key words because: a) You could say Sammy or Marvin in either order = 1 key word (because if the first one you said was Marvin, the second one the child would expect you to say is Sammy - so they wouldn't need to listen to this word to still get the instruction right). b) You could say 'before' or 'after' = 1 key word. c) You are using the names of two foods - which could be the same or different = 2 more key words the child needs to listen for. Total number of key words = 1+1+2 =4. |
| Queue Game Several different animals or toy people One or two exciting vehicles, e.g. fire engine and police car | Vary this by having the animals get into the vehicles. You may need to only use one vehicle for this. E.g. 'the horse gets in after the cow'. To make this four key words, have two lines - for example one to get in the fire engine and the other to get in the police car. Have some animals which are the same but in different queues. Now give instructions like "put the horse before the cow in the fire engine line". | |
| Super Simon Says Laminated cue sheet with a picture of a person and then pictures of several actions e.g. jump, sit down, turn around, clap your hands. For example:
Dry wipe marker | You could film this using a digital camera so that the child can watch it back and check what they did. To make this four key words you will need to combine more actions: for example "clap your hands and sit down after turning around". |
First next middle last in sentences
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Barrier Worksheets A picture to colour - enough copies for everyone doing the activity, and for the adult too. Colouring pens / pencils A big book or folder to make a barrier | Explain that this activity is to practise listening, so the child must listen carefully. You will only say the instruction once. Give the child / children a sheet (one each) and take one yourself. Put the barrier up, so that the child cannot see your picture. Give an instruction telling them to colour part of the picture, and colour it yourself. Make sure the instruction uses 'first', 'next, 'middle', or 'last'. E.g. if you have a picture of a robot you could say: 'First colour the robot's head blue and next colour two shoes red.' Or 'colour the middle robot red and blue.' When you have all finished that instruction, hold up your picture, so the children can check if they got it right. | Make sure the child listens to your whole instruction before s/he starts to carry it out. There is automatic feedback in this activity, as the child will be able to see from your picture if s/he got it right. If s/he got it wrong, s/he will be able to see what the instruction actually was. Topic vocabulary from e.g. a science topic or a history topic could be used, and simple worksheets created using software such as Clicker or Communicate in Print (see www.commtap.org for links to suppliers of this software). |
| Barrier Patterns 2D shapes in several different colours Something to use as a barrier | If the child is struggling, break your instructions down into shorter chunks. Make sure the child listens to your whole instruction before s/he starts to carry it out. You can use almost anything to make patterns - compare bears, mini beast pictures/models, small world toys etc. Pictures of topic vocabulary could be printed out and cut to make cards. The barrier pattern could then be made using a pattern of pictures. E.g. 'fire, fire, bucket of water, diary, diary' (linking to the Fire of London topic). | |
| Simon Says Imagination! Cue sheet for 'first', 'next', 'last', 'middle' (optional) | If the child is struggling, make your instructions shorter. Make sure the child listens to the whole instruction before doing it. It may help to have a cue sheet with 'first', 'next', 'middle', 'last' written on it and a diagram or symbol. | |
| Origami A very simple origami shape. See: http://www.origami-instructions.com/origami-for-kids.html http://www.tammyyee.com/origami.html Paper for folding. Cue sheet for 'first, next, last, middle' (optional) | If the child is struggling, make your instructions shorter. Make sure the child listens to the whole instruction before doing it. It may help to have a cue sheet with 'first', 'next', 'middle', 'last' written on it and a diagram or symbol. Model the instructions as you say them. |
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