Mosquito
Submitted by: Raymond Calla Borrowed from or inspired by: Chris Hunt at wisehat & Amy at kiccworld Date added: 12/22/08 Edited by: Tatyana Safronova
Outline: Shoot down mosquitoes and absorb language in this engaging game of marksmanship.
Procedure:
- Prepare the target vocabulary flashcards and spread them around the room or on a table at the front of the classroom.
- Act out an encounter with a mosquito by buzzing and moving your head as if you're watching one flying around near you. Say "A mosquito!" and clap your hands together as if you just squished it. Repeat this as many times as you feel is fun, having the students model it along with you. The following is a fun way to introduce the phrase "there is" as well as introducing sentences that give the locations of things.
- "A mosquito!"
- "There's a mosquito!"
- "There's a mosquito on my <body part>" and slapping that body part.
- Take the mosquito flashcards from Wisehat's website (link is located in 'Materials Needed') and stand them up on top of the vocabulary flashcards you spread out on the table.
6. Now for the fun. Give pairs or teams of students an elastic band / ball / nerf crossbow / whatever can be used to kill those pesky insects and call out, "There's a mosquito on <vocabulary>!" and have the students try to shoot down the mosquito that is on that particular flashcard. Of course, if they don't know what the word is, this is fine, and they can shoot at a random mosquito they believe is the correct one. In doing so, they naturally associate the new vocabulary and the image representing it on the flashcard.
7. When all the mosquitoes are toppled, the game is over.
Teaching Suggestions:
- Prior to the game, you may or may not need to go over the vocabulary. If you do, try using a slap game (karuta). Also, I personally like mixing words they know with words they don't know and having them discover the meaning of the unknown words throughout the game.
I thought that was brilliant, because the lesson becomes a well-rounded speaking, listening, reading, writing (if only the circling of words) activity full of TPR (total physical response) and contextual language learning. You may wish to incorporate this into a larger lesson as well.
Variations:
- Put random points on the back of the mosquito cards and tally up the points at the end.
Have the students who hit the correct mosquito call out the next mosquito.
An ALT at our school used this game to launch into a word search puzzle where the pairs / groups of students had to race around the room finding the vocabulary words - from where the mosquitoes where just knocked down - written on paper (with the picture there as well), then run back to their partner and spell the word for their partner who would search for it on the word search puzzle sheet.
Cautions:
Don't overuse the game, because the kids will begin to lose interest in it, and it will become stale, rather than something they ask you to play all the time.