Middle school spelling games
Our 10 Favorite Spelling Games for Kids
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by Beth Werrell
Learning how to spell can be tedious for kids, and tedium can make anything boring. Every parent is well acquainted with just how little patience most children have for boredom. So ditch the boredom—and the resulting resistance—by "gamifying" spelling exercises. By making learning fun, you increase children’s motivation to do the work. And with their brains more fully engaged, they learn faster.
We’ve put together a list of our favorite spelling games. Pick a few to try with your little learners to see just how much fun building neural pathways can be.
Games for Individuals
Word Searches
You may have never considered them in this way, but word searches are a good way to teach students the visual appearance of a word. Often, there will be a number of near misses, and your child will have to separate the correct choices from all the mistakes. The word search is a great option for visual learners. If you want to create your own word searches, there are a number of resources that allow you to create them using any words you want, and several of them are free, like the one by Discovery Education.
Crossword Puzzles
Similar in concept to word searches, but with an added twist, crossword puzzles are an excellent choice for young readers because they require not only spelling skills (children will trip themselves up if they spell the words incorrectly) but also reading comprehension and problem-solving (in that the crossword clues are similar to riddles). You can also vary the difficulty, making the hints obvious or obscure. If you want a free resource for crossword puzzles, then Discovery Education has your back again with this one.
Games for Groups
Spelling Bees
A good way to test spelling knowledge is to hold a spelling bee.
Since it’s not an official competition, you can modify the rules slightly, giving children a chance to rebound from mistakes or keeping a tally of correct answers. That way, nobody is ever eliminated, and everyone gets to feel some accomplishment as they spell some of the words correctly. (Fun little prizes are always a nice surprise, too!)
Hangman
A classic game, hangman helps kids work together as a team and can help them learn where they’re spelling a word wrong without feeling solely responsible for mistakes. Be sure to incentivize the team by awarding points or handing out some form of reward to get them excited about winning.
Vanishing Man
Vanishing Man is like hangman in reverse—you break the players into two teams (which can be as small as one player each) and draw stick figures for each team. The goal is to get the stick figure to disappear one body part at a time as the contestants spell words correctly. The team that makes their vanishing man invisible first wins.
Feel free to vary the difficulty of words if you have players of different ages and ability levels.
Spelling Battleship
We borrow this one from Deceptively Educational: “Take the traditional game of battleship and turn it into a spelling game.” This is a great choice for groups of children at similar grade levels who can be paired up.
Active Games
Phonics Jumping Game
This one, which we found on Learners in Bloom, is great for kids who like to make a little noise. “To play, we turned the words over and the girls (and Mom) took turns picking a word. For each turn, the player [who] picked the word had to sound it out and then jump on the letters in order. I usually called out the phonetic sounds of each letter in order as they jumped, but older kids could be invited to remember the order of the letters themselves by sounding out the word slowly as they jump.” And it’s always great to pair movement and learning!
Slap the Word
Another great game for getting the wiggles out, Slap the Word is very simple.
Put a group of similarly spelled words on a board, and give two players each a flyswatter. Call out words from the board. Whoever correctly locates and slaps the word wins a point. If you have more than two players, have them take turns to share in the fun.
For Advanced Students
Scrabble
It’s been said that “good artists borrow; great artists steal” (a quote that, fittingly, has been attributed to nearly every prominent writer). We’re not encouraging the theft of this board game, but we are suggesting that you don’t necessarily have to build your own activity when someone else has done the work for you. Pick up a copy of the game, or pull your old Scrabble board out of the closet, and start playing.
If you want to aim at specific spelling words, try setting up the board with the words partially spelled already, or pick out the letters you give to the players.
Spelling Pong
This game, which comes by way of Busy Teacher, is a little more free-form and requires the players to have a larger repertoire of words they know how to spell.
Take a collection of cups (preferably disposable ones) and write a letter on the bottom of each of them. Then line them up in a grid on a table. Each player takes turns bouncing a Ping-Pong ball into one of the cups. Then the player has to spell a word using the letter on the bottom.
To increase the challenge, see how many words players can spell within a certain amount of time. For larger groups, set up two grids and have two players race to see who can spell a word first.
And there you have it: a variety of fun ways to convince your children to practice their spelling. Feel free to invite the rest of the family or a group of your children’s friends. Odds are, they’ll have so much fun that they won’t even be bothered that they’re learning, which is, of course, the best kind of education.
- Learning Activities
- Elementary School
Spelling Games — Power Spelling
Online Spelling Games - Spelling Bee
Think you have what it takes to make it to the National Spelling Bee? The Spelling Bee Game by Power Spelling starts out at the classroom level.
Win that, and you are off to the School Spelling Bee. Advance to the District Spelling Bee if you are best at the school.
Try this fun spelling game and we believe you will find this one of the best Spelling Bee Games online! Practice with our Spelling Bee Game and soon you may be off to the State Spelling Bee, then Regionals and finally the National Spelling Bee! Good Luck!
Spelling Adventure Game
Word Racer Spelling Game
Take your character on a quest through the thick forests and icy mountains of our 3 different spelling adventures. Spell the words and collect all the food to complete each level. Break bricks and barrels, avoid obstacles and enemies on your way! A great spelling game for 2nd grade and up.
Word Racer is a fun to play spelling game where students hear a word an are asked to spell the word as quickly as they can. This online spelling game tracks the timing for individual students on their leader board, providing the student with an immediate sense of accomplishment.
Letter Seeker Spelling Game
Letter Seeker requires words to be spelled correctly, letter by letter, in order on each level. One of the favorite spelling games online, students collect each letter by running over it as the player character. As an added challenge students must also avoid the enemy miners who seek to stop them from gaining this spelling knowledge!
Letter Quest Spelling Game
Letter Quest is a traditional game that provides students with the opportunity to spell each word by filling in letters one at a time. Rewarding the players with fun animations and treasure that appears on their side of the screen provides a more engaging format for an online spelling game or quiz.
Complete the Word
Complete The Word is a letter recognition game that provides students with the challenge of spelling the word by figuring out which letter is missing from each word.
Students will have access to four possible options for the missing letter and must choose the correct one in order to advance. This has become a favorite spelling game online for grades K-3.
Word Search Unscramble Game
Word Search allows students to search for and highlight spelling words. When students correctly select one of their assigned words the game will speak the word to the player and highlight that word on the right side of the screen.
Letter Pop
Letter Pop allows students to select one letter at a time as the balloons fly around the screen to correctly spell each word from their list. This is a fun spelling game activity targeted to the early learners and there is also a game with kites instead of balloons!
(NEW GAME) Word Builder
Word Builder is an engaging way to build your word lists one block at a time!
Register Now and Give us Feedback on our Online Spelling Games!
Students Play Power Spelling Games Online!Watch the video below to see how teachers create assignments for the students.
Create a word list or assign an existing one, choose the game for the word list and students can practice their spelling words immediately in our spelling games! You can do your spelling test online with Power Spelling!
Linguistic and grammar games in English lessons in high school
... in the game a person experiences the same pleasure
from freely discovering his abilities,
as an artist experiences during creativity.
F. Schiller.
The use of games in English lessons gives good results, increasing children's interest in learning and allowing them to focus on the main thing - mastering speech skills in the process of a natural situation, i.e. communication during the game.
In my opinion, games contribute to the fulfillment of the following methodological tasks:
- creating the psychological readiness of children for verbal communication;
- ensuring the natural need for them to repeatedly repeat linguistic material;
- training students in choosing the right speech option.
In an effort to instill in children a love for a foreign language, the teacher must structure his classes in such a way that the child experiences the same satisfaction from them as from the game. After all, it is in the game that a child’s abilities can manifest themselves especially fully, and sometimes unexpectedly.
In the book “Foreign Language Lessons at School” we find the following definition of the game: “A game is:
- activity;
- motivation, lack of coercion;
- individualized activity, deeply personal;
- training and education in a team and through a team;
- development of mental functions and abilities;
- "teaching with passion".
Game is a specially organized activity that requires emotional and mental strength. The game always involves making a decision - what to do, what to say, how to win? Children rarely think about it. For them, the game is just a fun activity. Everyone is equal in the game.
It is feasible even for weak students. Moreover, a student who is weak in language training can become the first in the game: resourcefulness and ingenuity here are sometimes more important than knowledge of the subject. A sense of equality, an atmosphere of enthusiasm and joy, a sense of the feasibility of tasks - all this enables the children to overcome shyness that prevents them from freely using the words of a foreign language in speech, and has a beneficial effect on learning outcomes. The linguistic material is imperceptibly assimilated, and along with this, a feeling of satisfaction arises - “it turns out that I can already speak.”
Children's play is a broad concept. It represents a certain situation, and during the game this situation can be played several times and each time in a new variant. But at the same time, the situation of the game is the situation of real life. Thus, the game can be considered as an exercise, where an opportunity is created for repeated repetition of a speech sample in conditions as close as possible to real speech communication.
During the game, I usually move from one group to another, noting the mistakes so that after the game (or in subsequent lessons) I can begin to eliminate them. At the same time, it is very important to make sure that the students themselves give the correct version of the phrase or word in which mistakes were made. I just have to write them on the board and accompany them with corrective exercises that best contribute to the development of the correct option by the students themselves.
In his book Educational Games in English Lessons, M. F. Stronin divides games into the following categories:
- phonetic;
- lexical;
- grammatical;
- spelling;
- creative.
Phonetic:
The goal is to train students in pronouncing English sounds.
A funny ball game. Game progress: students stand in a circle; the teacher is in the center with the ball. The teacher throws the ball and calls any English word (it is possible both from the vocabulary learned and new words), the child catches the ball and calls the letter with which this word begins, returning the ball to the teacher.
Build a tower game. Game progress: children are given cards with words, the guys fold the towers. For example: Cinema , Circus , Concert , Cat , City , Cosmonaut , Crocodile , Circle
[s]
CAT CITY
CONCERT CIRCLE
Crocodile Circus
Cosmonaut Cinema
The game "Wide and narrow vowels". Purpose: the formation of phonemic hearing skills.
Game progress: the teacher says the words, the students raise their hand if the sound is pronounced widely. If the vowel is pronounced narrowly, you cannot raise your hand. The team with the fewest mistakes wins.
The game "Who will read it correctly?". Purpose: the formation of the skill of pronunciation of a coherent statement or text.
Course of the game: a small poem or an excerpt from it (counter, tongue twister) is written on the board. The teacher reads and explains the meaning of words, sentences, draws attention to the difficulties of pronouncing individual sounds.
Students read the text several times. After that, 2-3 minutes are given for memorization. The text on the board is closed, and the students must read it by heart. Two or three readers are allocated from each team. Points are awarded for error-free reading, one point is deducted for each mistake. The team with the most points wins.
The game “Who knows the symbols of the sounds better?”. Game progress: the teacher pronounces English sounds, and the guys show the corresponding transcription signs. You can modify the conditions of the game: the teacher shows transcription signs, and the called students pronounce the corresponding sound or a word containing this sound.
The game "Sending a telegram". Game progress: the class chooses a leader. The teacher asks him to imagine himself as a telegraph operator and send a telegram, i.e. spell the words, pausing after each word.
Lexical games:
Objectives:
- to train students in the use of vocabulary in situations close to a natural setting;
- - to intensify the speech-cogitative activity of students;
- to develop students' speech reaction.
Options:
1. Express your opinion.
Use phrases: I like …, because he is …
2. Rate your skills
Use phrases: I can … well / very well
3. Discuss with a partner the menu for lunch.
Use phrases: I like …/ I don't like
4. Discuss with your partner what kind of birthday present to give your mutual friend.
Use phrases: It's great! I like it. It's awful. I hate it.
The above examples of tasks are aimed at assessing objects, phenomena of the surrounding world. Such tasks are preparatory for role-playing games, playing which allows you to consolidate lexical and grammatical skills in speaking and dialogue.
Guess the color game. Game progress: the teacher takes colored pencils, hides them in a box or bag, chooses one pencil and holds it in his hand so that the children cannot see. Then he asks a question:
I've got a pencil. What color is it?
Children try to guess:
Red!
No.
Green!
Yes. Come here. Come to the board.
The one who guessed correctly becomes the leader.
Guess the word game. Game progress: the teacher appoints a leader who conceives a word (the name of an object) that is well known to students.
Students take turns asking questions to the facilitator:
What is it? Is it a pen?
What is it? Is it Mary's desk?
What is it? Is it Pete's bag?
What is it? Is it a flower?
The one who guessed the intended word takes the place of the leader.
Game "Who ran away?". Game progress: students are offered a picture that depicts animals. They examine it for 1-1.5 minutes. Then I show another picture that has some of the animals in the first picture. The students must say who ran away.
The game "Who is more?". Game progress: in a certain time (2-3 minutes) you need to write as many words as possible on the sheets, using only the letters of the compound word written on the board.
For example: examination, constitution.
Riddles on the theme "Colors".
Fields with ripe wheat
We are pleased with the color yellow.
Curly Very Negro Jack
from the Sun became completely Black.
I love blue skies,
I wear blue jeans.
Here is a portrait of Santa Claus,
He is there in a red dress.
Trees always have the same color,
In winter and summer it is green.
Puzzle games. The teacher reads riddles to students, students must guess them. For example:
1. It is a domestic animal. It likes fish. (a cat)
2. It is a wild animal. It likes bananas. (a monkey)
3. It is very big and grey. (an elephant)
4. This animal likes grass. It is a domestic animal. It gives us milk. (a cow)
Teacher and student game. During the oral introductory course, students get acquainted with a large number of lexical units. Great help in mastering words is provided by the game "Teachers and students.
" Game progress: a student in the role of a teacher asks questions to another student, showing a picture of a certain object, to which he answers. Then the players change places. It is desirable that a weakly prepared student work in pairs with a strong one.
Target shooting game. Game progress: the student writes or names a word that begins with the last letter of the word spoken by the previous student, etc. The whole class participates in the game. Come to the board as you wish.
Teacher: Let's help Pinocchio get ready for school.
The student takes the items on the table, puts them in a briefcase, naming each item in English:
This is a book. This is a pen (pencil, pencil-box).
The student then briefly describes the object he is taking:
This is a book. This is an English book. This is a very nice book.
The game "Flower-seven-flower". Equipment - daisies with removable multi-colored petals.
Game progress: the group is divided into two teams.
Schoolchildren one by one in a chain name the color of the petal. If the student made a mistake, all the petals are returned to their place and the game starts again:
P1 : This is a blue leaf.
P2 : This is a red leaf., etc.
Match the picture game. Game progress: each team is given an envelope containing 12 parts from the picture. You need to quickly assemble a picture and give its description using structures: I see ...; This is …; He has got…;
She has got…; It is blue (grey, etc.).
Grammar games:
Objectives:
- to teach students how to use speech samples containing certain grammatical difficulties;
- - to create a natural situation for the use of this speech sample.
Game "What's in my briefcase?". To conduct the game, the teacher, together with the students, prepares a set of objects (or pictures with images of objects) that can be in someone's portfolio. The selection of subjects should correspond to the actual stock of vocabulary of students of a particular class.
The driver, who is familiar with the contents of the portfolio in advance, addresses the class with the question: “What’s there in my bag today?” (What have I got in my bag today?) Students take turns answering:
There is an apple in your bag.
There is a pencil in your bag.
There is a book in your bag.
If the respondent guessed the item, the presenter takes it (or the picture) out of the briefcase and confirms: “Yes, there’s an apple in my bag today”.
If the player did not guess the object, the leader answers: “No, there isn’t an apple in my bag today”.
Students receive a point for each correct answer. The host performs his duties until all the items in the portfolio are named.
Picture game.
For better understanding of the structures in Present Continuous, you can use a game with a picture. Schoolchildren are invited to guess what this or that character depicted in the picture, which they have not yet seen, is doing.
The guys ask questions, for example:
P1: Is the girl sitting at the table?
T : No, she is not.
P2: Is the girl standing?
The student who guessed the action shown in the picture wins. He becomes the leader and takes another picture.
Commentator game.
Game progress: students take turns performing actions and commenting on them, for example: I am sitting. I am standing up. I am going to the window.
The teacher gives the student a card for each correctly named action. The winner is the one with the most cards.
Game “What do you like to do?”. The goal is to activate general questions in the speech.
Game progress: one of the students guesses what he likes to do, the rest ask him questions, for example: Do you like to swim?; Do you like to play football? The one who guesses becomes the leader.
Gift game. The goal is to consolidate the vocabulary on the topic, automate the use of the studied verbs in the future tense in oral speech.
Game progress: the group is divided into two teams. On the board, the teacher writes down two rows of words: the name of the gifts, the list of verbs. The players must say, using the verbs from the list, what they will do with the gifts received on their birthday. Each participant in the game comes up with one proposal. The team that completes the task faster and makes sentences without errors wins.
Numbers game. Purpose: repetition of cardinal numbers.
Game progress: the group is divided into two teams. On the right and left on the blackboard, the teacher writes the same number of numbers randomly, and then calls them one after the other. Team representatives must quickly find and cross out the named number on their half of the board. The team that completes the task the fastest wins.
Round the world game.
In the fifth grade, the structure “There is a book on the desk” is introduced, which will be encountered quite often in the future.
For its strong fixing, you can use this game. The game starts like this:
There is a blackboard on the wall.
In the form of a game, you can also spend a physical minute. When studying the topics "Verbs of motion" and "Verbs can, must" you can play the game "Repeat after me". The essence of the game is simple: you need to show and name the verb of movement. However, as students learn new vocabulary, the game becomes more complicated and modified. At the first stage, the teacher himself calls and shows the movements, the students repeat both the movements and the words. When the vocabulary is more or less mastered, the teacher, and later the leader of the students, only shows the actions, and the students need to repeat it and name it themselves. In the general lesson, a competitive moment is included in the game: the group is divided into teams, a leader is selected from each of the teams. Each of them is given a "list" of 5-10 verbs of motion. Without naming them, the leader must show the movement, and the team needs to guess, repeat and name this verb faster than the opponents.
A point is awarded for each correct answer. The team with the most points becomes the winner. Thus, during the game, vocabulary is consolidated and a physical minute is held.
Spelling:
The goal is to form the skills of combining letters in a word.
The game "The best" / "The best". Game progress: divide the group into 2 teams, build them into a column and, on the command "To start", begin dictating words on the topic covered. Each student runs up to the blackboard and writes the named word, passes the chalk to the next player of the team, and he himself stands behind. The teacher dictates the words at a fast enough pace so that the students do not have the opportunity to spy on other teams.
The game "The letters crumbled." Purpose: the formation of the skills of combining letters in a word.
Course of the game: the teacher writes a word in large letters on a piece of paper and, without showing it, cuts it into letters.
Then he says: "I had a word, but it crumbled into letters." The teacher shows the letters and scatters them on the table: “Who will collect the word faster?”. The first person to write the word correctly on the board wins. The winner comes up with his own word, and the action is repeated.
Telegram game. Purpose: development of spelling and lexical skills.
Game progress: the teacher writes a word on the board. Each player must come up with a telegram in which the first word begins with the first letter of the word written on the board, the second - with the second letter, and so on. Purpose: the formation of the skill of spelling and graphic memory.
Game progress: students are asked to quickly look through a list of words and then name words that contain a given letter. Whoever can name the most words wins.
The game "Where is the letter?". Purpose: the formation of the skill of differentiating sound-letter correspondences.
Game progress: the teacher writes a few words on the board and invites students to find three among them in which the letter .
.. is read as .... The one who does it faster wins.
Word-building game.
Game progress: the teacher writes a long word on the blackboard. Pupils (for a certain period of time) must form words from his letters. The student with the most words wins.
Creative:
Purpose: to consolidate vocabulary on the topic, automate the use of the studied structures in oral speech.
Game "Tourist Agency" on the theme "New York". Game progress: students are divided into two teams - tour agency operators and tourists. Then one team asks questions and the other team answers. The teacher fixes the number of questions, their logic, literacy. Then the teams change places, and already the tourists act as operators of the travel agency. The team that asked more correct and logically correct questions wins.
The communicative game promotes intensive language practice, creates contact on the basis of which the language is acquired more meaningfully, and, in addition, provides ample opportunities to enhance the learning process, since its participants are involved in real communication conditions.
The game activates the desire of the children to contact each other and the teacher, creates conditions for equality in speech partnership, destroys the traditional barrier between the teacher and the student. The game should take into account the age characteristics of students, as well as their interests. The game provides an opportunity for timid, insecure students to speak and thereby overcome the barrier of uncertainty. In games, schoolchildren master such elements of communication as the ability to start a conversation, support it, politely interrupt the interlocutor, agree with his opinion or refute it at the right time. Everything is aimed at speech practice, while not only the speaker, but also the listener is as active as possible, because he must understand and remember the partner’s remark, correlate it with the situation, and respond to it correctly.
I believe that games have a positive effect on the formation of the cognitive interests of schoolchildren, and contribute to the conscious learning of a foreign language.
They contribute to the development of such qualities as independence, initiative, fostering a sense of collectivism. Students actively, enthusiastically work, help each other, listen carefully to their comrades; The teacher only manages learning activities.
Using game methods allows you to:
- communicate in English with the teacher and classmates;
- for students to memorize communicatively significant phrases based on the simplest grammatical models;
- make emotionally attractive repetition of the same speech patterns and standard dialogues;
- develop the ability to analyze, compare and generalize;
- activate students' reserve opportunities;
- apply knowledge practically;
- to bring variety to the educational process;
- to develop the creativity of schoolchildren;
- learn how to organize your activities.
The use of games in English lessons, in my opinion, gives good results, increasing the interest of children in learning and allowing them to focus on the main thing - mastering speech skills in the process of a natural situation, i.
e. communication during the game.
Games contribute to the fulfillment of the following methodological tasks:
- to create the psychological readiness of children for verbal communication;
- ensuring the natural need for them to repeatedly repeat linguistic material;
- training students in choosing the right speech option.
* It is important that working with games bring positive emotions and serve as an effective incentive in a situation where the interest or motivation of children in learning a foreign language begins to wane. During the game, students should not be interrupted so as not to disturb the atmosphere of communication. Corrections should be done quietly or at the end of the lesson.
In conclusion, I would like to note that the use of various games in a foreign language lesson contributes to mastering the language in an entertaining way, develops memory, attention, ingenuity, and also maintains interest in a foreign language.
Naturally, this article does not list the complete list of games used in English lessons, it can be replenished endlessly. The main thing to remember is that the game is only an element of the lesson, so it is always necessary to know exactly which skill or abilities are being worked out in the game being played.
The reasonable use of games in the classroom and their combination with other teaching methods contribute to the quality of learning and make the learning process a necessity for students.
Games in English lessons and extracurricular activities / L.N. Artamonova // English. - 2008. - No. 4.
2. Barashkova E.A. English grammar. Games in the lesson: 2-3 classes. M.: "Exam", 2008.
3. Grigoryeva M.B. The use of gaming techniques in foreign language lessons // Foreign languages at school. - 2011. - No. 10.
4. Danilova G.V. English language 5-9 grades. Educational games / ed.
-comp. G.V. Danilova - Volgograd: Uchitel, 2008.
5. Zharkova L.A. Game physical minutes at a foreign language lesson // Foreign languages at school. - 2010. - No. 1.
6. Ivantsova T.Yu. Games in English // Foreign languages at school. - 2008. - No. 4.
7. Konysheva A.V. Game method in teaching a foreign language. - St. Petersburg: KARO, Mn.: Publishing House "Four Quarters", 2006.
8. Petrinchuk I.I. Once again about the game // Foreign languages at school. - 2008 - No. 2.
9. Stronin M.F. Educational games in the English lesson. M.: "Prosveshchenie", 1981.
10. Sharafutdinova T.M. Educational games in English lessons // Foreign languages at school. – 2005. – No. 8.
Educational games in English lessons in secondary schools
The game is a complex socio-cultural phenomenon, which is the subject of many philosophical, cultural, psychological and methodological studies. Among them, a special place belongs to the question of using the game for educational purposes.
The learning function of the game has been known for a long time. Many prominent educators have rightly paid attention to the effectiveness of using games in the learning process. Game forms of work contribute to the creation of a favorable psychological climate in the lesson and activate the activity of students. In the game, the abilities of a person, a child in particular, are manifested especially fully and sometimes unexpectedly. The game is a specially organized activity that requires emotional and mental strength. The game always involves making a decision - how to act, what to say, how to win? The desire to solve these questions sharpens the mental activity of students. The use of games in foreign language lessons is also not new. And, nevertheless, despite the obvious attractiveness of educational games, they are not used enough in foreign language lessons, they have not become a true means of learning, part of the overall system. Practice shows that games most often serve as an entertaining moment in the lesson, teachers resort to them rather in order to relieve students' fatigue, using them only as a relaxation.
And at the same time, the game also has a great educational potential. That is why this topic is extremely important for its deep study and especially practical application in schools.
But what distinguishes educational games from other types of games? First of all, the educational game is characterized by a content basis. Secondly, in educational games, players achieve a predetermined result, and not a practical one, as, for example, in gaming activities. Note that it is play activity that is closest to children, since this is a favorite pastime of children, and it is considered by many psychologists and teachers as one of the forms of organizing children's lives. In the game activity, the motivational sphere of the child, the conscious desire to learn, is formed. Under the conditions of this activity, visual acuity is significantly increased; there is a deeper memorization of new material, the psychological readiness of children for verbal communication.
The game has many advantages and should be used in lessons, especially in foreign language lessons.
Speaking about the classification of games, it should be noted that attempts to classify games were made in the last century by both foreign and domestic researchers who dealt with the problem of game activity. Among domestic psychologists and teachers, such authors as N. P. Anikeeva, M. F. Stronin, L. S. Vygotsky, S. L. Rubinshtein and D. B. Elkonin deserve attention.
NP Anikeeva proposes the following classification of games:
dramatization games based on the performance of some plot, the scenario of which is not a rigid canon;
improvisation games, where the characters know the main plot of the game, the nature of their role, and the game itself develops in the form of improvisation;
games to overcome the stages, when the stages are determined, each of which performs a certain task of a cognitive nature;
business games in which situations are played out based on identifying functional connections and relationships between different levels of management and organization.
MF Stronin, the author of a number of books devoted to learning games that are used in teaching foreign languages, distinguishes two types of such games:
1) preparatory games that promote the formation of speech skills;
2) creative games, the purpose of which is to further develop speech skills and abilities.
In this article, I would like to consider in detail the educational games that we most often use in English lessons in elementary school. These games are most liked by children and give a positive result in achieving their goals. Many games our students memorize and ask to play them in high school.
1. Phonetic games practice and develop pronunciation skills: practicing pronunciation and rhythm, individual phonemes, removing phonetic difficulties.
The game “I spy”
The teacher gives the instruction: I spy with my little eye.
Something beginning with [b].
Children name the words known to them that begin with the sound [b]: bear, big, ball… The winner is the student who named the last word.
2. Spelling games are necessary for training in writing English words. Some of the games can be designed to train the memory of students, and some - to some rules in the spelling of English words.
Mosaic game
Students are given cards with letters. The teacher gives the setting: “I had a word, it fell apart into letters, guess what this word is”
Telegram game
Purpose: development of spelling and lexical skills.
Game progress: the teacher writes a word on the blackboard. Each player must come up with a telegram in which the first word begins with the first letter of the word written on the board, the second - with the second letter, etc.
3. The task of educational grammar games is to teach students how to use speech samples containing certain grammatical difficulties, create a natural situation for using grammatical structure, develop communicative activity and independence of younger students.
Grammar Lotto Game
1.
Seasons.
The teacher invites one of the students to think of some season and describe it without naming it. For example: It is cold. It is white. I ski. I skate. I play snowballs. Students try to guess: Is it spring≤ Is it winter≤ The student who correctly named the season wins.
2. Button.
The verb to have is well acquired in the game “Button” (the English version of the game “Ring”). All students hold their palms like a boat. The host puts the button in the hands of one of them, and the other host must guess who has it. The second leader addresses the student: “Button, button! Have you a button≤" - "No", he hears in response and addresses the same question to another student. The game continues until the leader guesses who has the button in his hands; he can only ask three questions. This game prepares younger students for dialogic speech.
4. Lexical games aim to train elementary school students in the use of vocabulary in everyday situations, to acquaint them with the structure of the English utterance, to activate verbal and mental activity, to develop a speech reaction in communicative blocks.
Game “Learn words using rhyming”
1) The monkey loves semolina very much.
2) I have reached the top in English! A pig, I know it will be - pig.
3) Each of the guys will understand: bird - in English bird.
4) Has a lush red tail naughty fox - fox.
5) In the circus he is a great talent, a mighty elephant - elephant.
Game “Children and animals”
Purpose of the game: fixing the names of animals. The students stand in a circle. The teacher counts the children on the first or fourth. Then follows the command: "All number ones cross the circle as a hare". Those students, whose number is one, cross the circle, jumping like bunnies, etc.
5. Role-playing games form speech skills that allow you to realize the maximum communicative intentions with the maximum strength and flexibility of the skills to use language material. This type of game most accurately recreates the situation and atmosphere of communication.
A certain character is assigned to its participants, they are in certain relationships, which implies a variety of speech reactions, including emotional ones. Children have a need to express joy or grief, delight or indignation, and they must find means to express their emotions.
Shopping game
Seller: — Hello! Come in please!
Customer: — Good morning!
Seller: — What do you like to buy≤
Buyer: — I’d like to buy a bear (a ball, a cat)≤
Seller: — Here it is!
Customer: Thank you very much.
Seller: — You are welcome! Come again!
Customer: Thank you! good bye.
Summing up, we can say that the game is a traditional, recognized method of education and upbringing. This is a unique means of non-violent teaching of children. The game corresponds to the natural needs and desires of the child, and therefore, with its help, he will learn with pleasure. Play is an activity in which a child first emotionally and then intellectually masters the entire system of human relations.
They have a complex effect on the intellectual, emotional, volitional, communicative and other aspects of the growing personality. From the point of view of the organization of verbal material, the game is nothing more than a speech exercise. The game is also considered as a situational-variative exercise, where it is possible to repeatedly repeat a speech sample in conditions as close as possible to real speech communication with its inherent features - emotionality, spontaneity, purposefulness of speech influence. Games contribute to the implementation of important methodological tasks: the creation of psychological readiness children to verbal communication; ensuring the natural need for repeated repetition of language material by them; training students in choosing the right speech option, which is a preparation for situational spontaneity of speech in general.
Literature:
1. Anikeeva N. P. Psychological climate in the team: scientific publication / N. P. Anikeeva.
