English Speaking Activities for Kindergarten

English Speaking Activities for Kindergarten

1. Tongue twisters

Procedure

Say the tongue twister aloud, bit by bit. Have the students repeat after you. Slowly, build up to the full tongue twister. This can be played till all the students get to say the tongue twister fluently and with the right pronunciation.

Sample tongue twister activity

Teacher: butter
Students: butter
Teacher: some butter
Students : some butter
Teacher : bought some butter
Students: bought some butter
Teacher : Betty bought some butter
Students : Betty bought some butter
Teacher : Betty bought some butter, but
Students : Betty bought some butter, but
Teacher: Betty bought some butter, but the butter was bitter
Students: Betty bought some butter, but the butter was bitter

Below given are some examples of tongue twisters that can be used this way.

• Betty bought some butter
  But the butter was bitter
  So she bought some better butter
  To make the bitter butter better.
• She sells sea shells by the sea shore
• Red leather, yellow leather, read leather, yellow leather
• A proper copper coffee pot
• Mixed biscuits, mixed biscuits

2. Circle games

Circle games are activities that involve all the students in the class, sitting in a circle. Below given are some examples of circle games.

A. Chain drawings

• Each student is given a piece of paper and some coloured pencils.
• Instruct the students to draw anything that comes to their mind while music is being played.
• As the music is played, all the students should be drawing.
• After 20 to 30 seconds, the music should be stopped.
• As the music stops, students stop drawing, and pass their picture to the person to their left.
• Now, play the music again, and they continue the drawing that the person on their right has started.
• After 20 to 30 seconds, the music is stopped.

This continues till every student has had a chance on the pictures. When you have finished each student will have a picture that all the other students contributed to.

Each student is now given a chance to describe the picture, showing it to the rest of the students, and say what he/she thinks it is about.

B. Change places if…………….

This is a highly physical activity and works excellently with kindergarten classes.

To begin with, the teacher is in the middle of the circle and the students sit around her in a tight circle, on chairs.

Now, the teacher gives instructions such as

‘Change places if you are wearing trainers’

Then, all students who are wearing trainers should stand up and exchange seats, and in the flurry of activity, the teacher can find a place to sit. This will leave one of the students without a seat. That student now comes to the centre and gives the next command.

Some examples of commands are

‘Change places if you are wearing a watch.’
‘Change places if your hair is curly.’
‘Change places if you like pizza.’

Image courtesy: michiganradio.org