by Bill Ralens
Intro: That right, I invented the Fruit Basket Game. Um… Ok, maybe I didn’t invent the game but I did write this page and that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Nearly everyone (I think) knows the Fruit Basket Game. Well I’m including it here because, I reference it on this site, for completeness and for anyone who doesn’t know this game. This is a really fun game to use in your ESL class if you have a little bit of room for everyone to run around.
Skill Used: Listening, Repeating
Level: Easy
Ages: 5 and up (maybe younger)
Group Size: 10 or more people, the more the merrier. (1 person is the Game Master)
Setup: You will need some flash cards or classroom cards (preferably laminated). You will also need as many chairs or benches(we have benches) as you have students (teacher also plays) or as many as the number of students minus one (40 students, use 39 chairs).The benches or chairs need to be arranged into a large circle.
How to Play: With your classroom vocabulary cards on the chalk board, ask the students which card they like. I’ll use fruit for this example. Let the students pick three or four cards (maybe apple, orange, and banana). Now with the children sitting on the chairs assign teams. First student is on apple team, second student, orange team, third student, banana team, fourth student, apple team and so on.
To start out with, the teacher is the Game Master. The Game Master calls out, “What fruit do you like?” The students then chant back, “What fruit do you like?” The Game Master then calls back, “I like apples and oranges.” Everybody that’s on apple and orange team changes seats. If the Game Master yells out, “I like fruit baskets.” Everybody changes seats. The last person without a seat becomes the new Game Master.
End Notes: This game can be played with any vocabulary. I like to try and trip up the students by calling out all kinds of weird things for “Fruit Basket.” Fruit basketball, fruit bikinman (a cartoon character), Fruit bachan (grandma in Japanese) etc.

Our third-grade-elementary school classes study Halloween as part of their ESL curriculum. When the Japanese Teacher of English (JTE) approached me about how to add a little culture to the lesson, it was easy. I recommended that the school get a copy of
It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown (スヌーピーとかぼちゃ大王 Snoopy to kabocha daiyou (Japanese title)). For any American, this video epitomizes Halloween like nothing else. Things that stick out as cultural besides Halloween as a holiday, are the orange falling oak leaves, raking leaves jumping into leaves, playing football, carving pumpkins, making Halloween costumes, trick or treating, jokes of Halloween, Halloween parties, bobbing for apples and lots more.

Well after the video I had the idea for this little skit which targets the phrases, “Who are you?” and “I got ~.” To be honest, because this skit is used in an introductory capacity, the children will probably be unable to perform the lines without help, so be prepared to whisper their lines to them.

The scene takes place much like the trick or treat scene form It’s the Great Pumpkin. Charlie Brown and the gang are trick or treating and poor Charlie Brown gets rocks instead of candy.

Ages: 8 and up

Props: A door drawn on the chalkboard, some Halloween masks, toy candy, a couple of rocks, and a few bags to hold the treats.

Dialog:

Class All Together: 3, 2, 1 Action!

***two children and the ALT wear the Halloween masks and hold the bags. They then knock on the door. The JTE, holding a bowl of candy, pretends to open the door.****

Children and ALT: Trick or Treat!

JTE: to first child Who are you?

Child 1: I’m a ghost.

JTE: gives candy to child 1, turns to child 2 Who are you?

Child 2: I’m a witch.

JTE: gives candy to child 2, turns to ALT Who are you?

ALT: I’m a skeleton. JTE give ALT a rock.

***Children and ALT say thank you and goodbye to JTE and pretend to leave the house***

Child 1: holding up candy I got candy.

Child 2: holding up cookies I got cookies.

ALT: holding up rock Boku wa ishii da! [I use Japanese because it's like the punch line to a joke and so the children really get a good laugh. Also we perform the skits twice--skit as an introduction, a short discussion with the children about what they understood, what English they heard etc--so if you do this, the second time you perform the skit, the ALT should say Mata ishii (again a rock)]

Class All Together: And Cut!

Summary: This skit is really popular with the students at our school. After the skit, the children go on to learn the names of different monsters and play games that again focus on “Who are you?” Specifically, they play the Halloween Card Battle Game which sadly, was lost during the recent bandwidth explosion.

Props:
Use whatever props are relevant to your skit.

Setup:
For this Three Little Pigs skit, the ALT has a straw man paper puppet and the Japanese teacher has a little pig paper puppet which you can get here.


ESL Communication Skit Dialog:

3,2,1 Action!


teacher: Hello


ALT: Hello

teacher: Wara please. (Wara is Japanese for straw. Please use your student’s native language.)

ALT: (confused) Excuse me? Water?

teacher: No no, wara please.

As the teacher pretends to realize that the ALT doesn’t understand her Japanese, she politely asks the ALT to, “Please wait.” Now talking to the students in their native language, she asks what can she do to help the ALT understand what she is trying to say. The students might suggest that she try a gesture or draw a picture on the chalk board or touch a picture of some straw from the story book. Upon hearing their ideas she returns to the ALT to try out their ideas.

teacher: What’s this? (mimics student’s suggested gesture for straw)


ALT: (pretends to not understand and starts dancing (comedy is important))


teacher: No no, what’s this? (points to the picture that the children have drawn)


ALT: (suddenly understands) Oh I get it! You want straw.

teacher: Yes! Straw please.


ALT: You want straw. Here you are.

teacher: Thank you, goodbye.

ALT: You’re welcome, goodbye.

And cut!


ESL Communication Skit End Notes:
 From this skit, the students learn a couple of things. One, don’t give up if you forget your English and two, there are other forms of communication besides just oral.

When we’re dealing with skits for children, especially in the context of teaching English as a second language, there are a few elements that are important for making a skit effective. Skits must be simple–no Shakespearean plays here–keep the dialog simple. Skits need to be repetitive. Repetition helps children understand the context of the language they’ll be learning without requiring them to understand the language used. Skits should be quick, lasting only a minute or two. In this way, skits can introduce the lesson. Finally, skits must be fun! What’s the point of even having class if it’s not going to be fun? All of the skits on this page have been written with these points in mind, simple repetitive, quick and fun and through experience and time, they have been tweaked to maximize these traits as well.

So if you’re looking for something to do in your ESL classroom, give these skits a try.

ESL Communication Skit – The first skit on this page isn’t necessarily a particular skit but rather a strategy on how to use skits to teach ESL.

For Halloween, It’s the Great Pumpkin Halloween ESL Skit Charlie Brown, gives children a fun way to learn English and American culture as it relates to the Halloween holiday.

By Bill Ralens
Intro:
The Charades Race Game is a great game to play and it uses TPR. If you are familiar with the game Chinese Whispers also known as the Telephone game, the Charades Race Game should be easy to pick up.
Skill Used: Gesturing (TPR), Speaking
Level: Easy to difficult (depends on the vocabulary)
Ages: 6 and up 
Group size: 16 or more people. (This game might be ok with slightly fewer people.)
Setup:
Students form teams with 6 to 10 people in a team. Each team forms a line. Your lesson should include one gesture for each vocabulary word or phrase and the students should be familiar with the gestures and vocabulary.
How to Play:
In the Telephone Game, the teacher whispers something to the first person on each team. After the teacher yells, “Ready…go,” the first person whispers the “answer” to the second person, who then whispers the “answer” to the third person and so on. The last person on the team to hear the answer runs to repeat it back to the teacher. The Charades Race Game is very similar except that instead of whispering a word or phrase, the students gesture to each other with the last person on the team whispering the answer to the teacher. Because gestures are visual, it’s best to show the gestures out of view of the other students, say out in a hallway. It’s also a good idea if to have the students do “heads down” during game play. Also after one round is played the first person goes to the back of the line and the second student now becomes the first.
Scoring:
Because this is a team competition, scoring adds to the excitement. In our classroom, we score based on the number of teams. For example, if you have four teams, the fastest team gets four points, second fastest, three points, third fastest, two points, and last place, one point. For the younger students, the fastest team gets four points and all the other teams get three points.
End Notes:
The game starts when the teacher yells, “Ready…Go!” Through the students off a little by yelling, “Ready…Gorilla!” or “Ready Gohan!” (gohan means rice in Japanese). It’s also interesting if the teacher moves around the room so that the last student has to hunt a little to find the teacher.

Intro: 
I’ve heard it said that repetition is the mother of learning. I can certainly agree with that, at least as it applies to me learning Japanese. Well repetition is boring especially when your attention span lasts about 5 seconds. That’s why I like games for practicing English. Anyways, the Magic Word Game is like musical chairs but without the music. 

Ages: 6 and up

Category: ESL Classroom Games

Who should play? 
Students who are being introduced to the lesson’s vocabulary for the first time and there are between 8 and 40 (or more) students.

Equipment:
Chairs, vocabulary cards, magic word indicator, tambourine, chalk/white board

The magic word indicator is just any method you want to use to make it obvious which word is the magic word. You could just draw a star on your chalk board and put the magic word inside of that. I use the tambourineto control the pace (and tension) of the game. 

Object:
To sit down when you hear the magic word.

How to Play:
To play the Magic Word Game, the students make a large circle with their chairs and one student chooses a word to be the magic word. The teacher or ALT is the Game Master. On the command of Let’s Go! the students start marching in a big circle nextto the chairs. Here is an example of the dialog between the Game Master and the students.

Target vocabulary: Fruit
Teacher: Let’s play the Magic Word Game. Who wants to pick the magic word?
Students: I do, I do.
Teacher: Ok, what fruit do you like?
Student: I like kiwis.
Teacher: The magic word is KIWI.
Teacher: ARE YOU READY?
Students: Yes!
Teacher: Ok LET’S GO!

Teacher: What’s this ready go…
Students: What’s this ****clap clap****
Teacher: banana
Students: banana
Teacher: What’s this ready go…
Students: What’s this ****clap clap****
Teacher: apple
Students: apple
Teacher: What’s this ready go…
Students: What’s this ****clap clap****
Teacher: kiwi
Students: kiwi


After all the students are seated, have them stand back up and remove some of the chairs. Also choose a new student to pick a new magic word.

Magic Word Game tip #1: Think Tension!

Game Play:
Like I’ve mentioned in other articles, tension is the spice of gaming. During round 1, there is 1 chair per student and like the example, I go three times with the third time being the magic word. Everyone sits down; no surprises. But when everyone stands back up and chairs start to disappear, the tension starts. And how about this. Let’s say the magic word is “apple.” And using the tambourine, you start the rhythm very slow and then just a little bit quicker until everything is going very fast but always in rhythm with the tambourine. Then, the Game Master breaks the rhythm with a huge pause. Everyone is waiting because they KNOW that you about to yell out the magic word. Suddenly, the Game Master yells out “APRICOT.” You could also use the magic word first. It makes for a short round but you’ll certainly find out who was listening.

Magic Word Game tip #2: got lots of time take the chairs away slowly; short on time, take away lots of chairs.

As far as taking away chairs go it depends on the size of the group. Most of my classes are 40 students per class. So generally we take away 6-9 chairs the first time. By taking away 9 chairs at a time, there are a lot of people who are “out,” which I think is better than just one person being “out,” out of 40. You can also let a student who is “out” pick the next magic word so that they are still involved in the game. After that it really depends on how much time is left. If you’re running out of time, take away lots of chairs and if you have a lot of time, take away less. 

Being “Out”
So what happens to all of the students who are “out?” They can sit in the middle of the circle. They can also choose the new magic word. They could march in the opposite direction of the students who are still “in.” Whatever you do, the Game Master should encourage them to participate in some way.
Magic Word Game tip #3: Lots of people “out” at the same time = fair game.
Winning:
If you have been trying to be democratic about the way you remove the chairs, you should have small groups of chairs (about 12 total (for a class of 40)) equally spaced all around the room and you could simply announce that the few who still have seats are the champions. But because this is mostly a game of luck rather than skill, I like to say that the students with the chairs are the “nabe” (cooking pot) and the students in the middle of the room are the “champon” or noodles.