Drawing Directions

Drawing Directions
by Naree (adapted from http://waze.net/oea)

1. Introduce shapes – square, circle, oval, triangle, pentagon if you want, etc... Introduce different types of lines – straight, curved, horizontal, vertical, parallel if you want...

2. Introduce descriptions – shaded, striped, spotted, etc...

3. Introduce directions – top, bottom, in the middle, in the corner, left, right, top-left, northeast, etc...

4. Choose one student to be the “artist” who will stand at the board with their back to the class.

5. Show the rest of the class a pre-drawn drawing that uses the vocab you just taught.

6. Have the artist's classmates shout out directions to help him draw what they are being shown. (You should probably call on people so the artist isn't confused by all the noise)

7. Afterwards have the artist look at your drawing and see how close they were. Give them tips on how to improve their directions.

8. Now have the class draw a picture using the shapes and words you just taught.

9. Collect and re-distribute and pair up students. They CAN NOT show their drawing to the other person.

10. Have one be the artist and the other give directions.

Alibi

Alibi by Anjali

Teach the various relevant vocab (alibi, detective, suspect, crime, innocent, guilty, etc). Pick four or five students to come to the front of the class and explain that there was a robbery yesterday at 12:06pm and that these four students are the suspects. Send them out of the room and have them come up with their story of where they were when the crime was committed (tell them that they should think of as many details as possible—if they were eating lunch-- how much was the bill, who paid, who served them, how did they get to the restaurant, etc.).

Meanwhile, tell the rest of the class that they are detectives and should come up with as many questions as possible. Then, I brought the first suspect into the class (the others still outside) and had the class ask him/her questions. After the class was done with the questioning, I sent him/her to the back of the class facing the back wall. Then, I brought the second suspect in and the students asked him questions, then the third, etc. The goal was for the class to find five differences in the suspect’s stories (one student said that a woman had served them, another said it was a man, etc). If they do find five discrepancies, the suspects are guilty! My students came up with some brilliant questions. I was really impressed.

Matchmaking

Matchmaking by Anjali

1.Divide the class into 8 groups and tell them that they are parents. Give four of them daughters and four of them sons. Explain that their children are around the right age to start thinking about getting married. We want to pair up the four boys with the four girls.

2. Go over the various vocab that will describe their child (name, appearance, profession, personality (you’ll also have to explain outgoing and introverted), interests, ideal mate, etc.) and give them about five minutes to come up with their child’s profile. Meanwhile, divide the chalkboard into 8 parts and write the team number and gender of the child at the top of each column.

3. Ask each group to pick someone to come to the board and draw their child (face only is ok). They really get into this part but make sure they don’t spend too much time on the drawing—around 5 minutes. Do not skip this part—the lesson will not be the same without it!

4. Ask each group to tell the class about their child and take notes on the board next to the child’s picture as they speak.

5. After all eight groups have presented, give them a couple of minutes to discuss who they want to set their child up with and why (do they have similar interests, etc). Then pick one group and ask them who they want to set their child up with and why. Ask the parents of the other child if they agree to that set up and why or why not. If they agree, then there’s a match (and the whole class cheers!) and you can ham it up by linking the two pictures up with arrows and drawing a heart. If the parents of the other child don’t agree, then ask them who they want to set their child up with. Keep going until all the children are paired up. Lots of fun and worked like a charm in all of the classes.

NOTE: in each class there is always one really “undesirable” child that no one wants to be with. Save that one for the end because the last remaining child will have to be paired up with the undesirable one!