Teaching English as a Second Language.

Work is just beginning on this part of the site. Feel free to use what's here, and once in a while you can check back for more.

Games

Teacher Eric's Gamebook - Obviously a draft version, but there's some damn good stuff in there.

Bingo - A classic game; use aquarium gravel as markers. You can draw a 6x5 grid on the whiteboard, and erase the four corners so there are 26 squares. Students then throw a sticky ball to select a letter.

Tornado - My finest work. Students pick a card randomly after completing a task. Ideally you can make a gameboard by taping plastic sleeves onto a firm backing. Students then play with 20 to 30 of the 96 cards given, so that each game is different and full of surprise. Contact me if you want this one.

Checkers & Tic Tac Toe - Simple, traditional games.

Snakes & Ladders - This can be played as a stand-alone game, or a fun way to keep score and add interest to any other game.

Animal Pairs - For a memory matching game ("Concentration"), these can use the same gameboard as Tornado. You can use them for phonics lessons or other games as well.

Ninja Mountain - A great game for elementary students. I've made an amazing printable with mountain landscapes and movable ninjas and weapons, but you'll have to contact me to get it.

Each of 2-3 teams is given a mountain and up to three ninjas.  Draw them on the board or ask Eric for the beautiful printable. Mark the distance between the mountains by drawing 5 line segments between them with marker, or 7 for a longer game.  On each turn, a team first decides if their ninjas will use a bow & arrow, shield or sword.

If shooting an arrow, the team rolls a die to see how far it goes.  If it goes far enough to reach or overshoot a ninja, it kills that ninja.  If it doesn't go far enough, it can be moved farther in a following turn.  If it lands on another arrow, it can strike it and make both arrows fall off the board, or simply pass by, as the teacher chooses.

The shield protects one ninja from all arrows.  A one-turn duration can be placed upon it to speed up the game.  If an arrow overshoots a shielded ninja, it can kill one behind.

With the sword the ninja charges toward his opposite mountain.  A die is rolled to see how far he goes.  While running, he can stop to use arrows but cannot use his shield.  The opponent's arrows must be precise to hit him, so if they overshoot him they miss.  When he reaches another team's ninja, both teams have a swordfight by rolling the die.  The winner survives and ties go to the attacker.  The teacher can give a +X bonus to any team's roll to increase the drama.

Other Printables

Feeling Faces - Teach kindy kids to name their emotions with these photo flash cards. Real kids' facial expressions including happy, sad, angry, calm, crazy, upset, hungry, sleepy, thirsty, loving, silly, proud, sick, surprised and scared. Also available in A4, or without captions in B5 or A4.

Weather Flash Cards - photos including sunny, rainy, cloudy, windy, cold, hot and dark.

The Wordless Book - Adult students can fill in the speech bubbles with creative writing. Also available in A3 size. (32MB each)

36 Methods - Some old Chinese fables for adult students. Parallel text in English and Chinese. (115MB)

ABC flashcards - Taken from another site and rearranged for 2-sided printing, at A5 size.

Nouns & Verbs - a simple wall hanging to reinforce grammar concepts.

Months of the Year - Not original, but a nice little wall display.