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Here’s a brief description of ten uses of an online grafitti creator for your English Language Learners.  They require very little preparation and I’ve included some tips on how to use them.  All these games were chosen because they are free, easily accessible, engaging and fun for English Language Learners.

1) Project titles – Make any project work stand out a little more by using the grafitti creator to write the titles.  Great when the topic is music, stars fashion, youth culture, videogames or even grafitti.

2) Folder decoration – Young learners love to personalize their folders by decorating them with doodles, tags and pics of their favourite singers and stars.  Why not a little grafitti?  The (English) words their oyster.

3) Fave words – Why not poll your learners on what their favourite words are in the English language?  Then write them out as grafitti and print them off and decorate a corner of the classroom?  Their favourite word can be based on meaning, sound, association or simply the look of it.

4) Posters – Poster work displayed on the classroom wall can be made a little more eye-catching with the prudent use of a little grafitti.  Names of the authors, titles or just simple decoration.

5) Song Lyrics – Get learners to research the song lyrics to some of their favourite songs and bands.  They may be surprised when they focus on the meaning of the lyrics.  Ask them to choose a line they like and turn it into grafitti.  They may need to screencapture short segments and string them together as the grafitti creator has a limited amount of space.

6) Quotes – Famous quotes or quotes that hold a special meaning for your learners.  A line from a book, a proverb, a well known expression or saying or even a line from a poem or a song.  All great candidates for grafitti.

7) Personal Expression – Why not let your learners get a bit creative and write what they like?  Brainstorm a few ideas in the classroom and then let them play away.  Oh yeah!  It has to be in English.

Name tags – I’m terrible with names at the beginning of a course so I get my learners to write their names using grafitti generator.  True they are a bit more difficult to read but I have an excuse to pick them up and take a long look at them – I”I like the colours here”, “What’s this letter?”, “This looks cool!” etc

9) Vocabulary bag – Get learners to make their own vocabulary bags by making grafitti word tags at home and adding them to a vocab bag in class.  Great for a word activity when they have tidied up at the end of class.

10) Flashcards – create grafitti word flashcards for pelmanism, labelling, pictionary cards or any other use you can think of!

Well that’s all from us for this year.  We´ll be back in the new year.  All it leaves for me to say is:

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1  Dark wood

Level Low Level Primary learners in a connected classroom

Play Read the story in your best scary voice and encourage your learners to join in.  When it comes to the ‘spot the cat’ bits in the game  get your learners to describe where the cat is or build dialogues between you and the class:

“Is it under the tree?”              “No!”

“Is it behind the tree?”            “No!”

“Is it in the tree?”                   “YEAH!”

2     Pumpkin carving

Level Low Level Primary learners in a connected classroom

Play Why not drill the language of giving directions (“up, down,  left,  right and stop”) in a fun way.  Carve an online pumpkin blind man’s bluff style.  Blind fold a learner who listens to their classmates instruct them on how to carve the pumpkin.  The class can rate their classmates pumpkins out of ten after each learner has taken their turn.   Declare the winner/s at the end of the activity.

3 Ghost Hunter

Level Any Level Primary or Juniors in a connected classroom.

Play Do you award points in class as a way of maintaining discipline?  Well what do points make? Prizes?  How about points make seconds  which they play a game?  In one really difficult class I  gave points for everything – the person who opens their books on the right page, whoever completed the exercise first and whoever got the answers right.  Points for just using basic classroom language.  I took points away just as quickly – last to open their book, not listening and not working on their exercises.  At the end of the class, count up individual’s points, convert into seconds and let the highest scorers play first.  The learners to score the highest in the game get to leave the class first.

4 Funny Halloween

Level Intermediate Juniors in a computer room

Play Done that unit from the book on clothes?  Then why not set a writing activity using a game.  As learners play this game they write down the description of what their character is wearing.  Each Learner then swaps descriptions with another learner and try to reproduce the character’s costume.  The learner who wrote the description can then judge the reproduction saying what differences there are between the reproduction and the original.

5 Garfield Scavenger Hunt

Level Intermediate and above Juniors in a computer room.

Preparation Print a copy of the walkthrough

Play Do a relay dictation using the game’s walkthrough and the game itself.  Blu-tac the walkthrough to the door in the computer room.  Learners can now take it in turns to go to the walkthrough, read and return to their ‘ game playing’ partner and relay the walkthrough information that they remember.    Learners  swap after 3 minutes.  Encourage them to ask you to define difficult vocabulary.

6 Halloween wordsearch

Level Any Level Primary or Junior learners in a computer room.

Play This is a fun vocabulary activity.  Learners note down the vocabulary and when they return to the classroom they can make a Halloween poster using the new vocabulary items for inspiration.  Ask about what they are drawing as you monitor and take an interest in what they are doing. Finally, Learners label the objects they drew on the poster.

7 Trick or Treat Bear

Level Upper Intermediate Juniors or seniors in a classroom

Preparation Print a copy of the ‘Too many clicks spoil the walkthrough‘ for each  learner.

Pre-Play Learners read the walkthrough and ask teacher about/ look up in a dictionary any of the difficult language.  Learners work in pairs to identify and cross out the repetitive language (verbs) and add a range of different verbs.   They should also expand on any of the text (e.g adding articles) when possible.

Play Learners play the game for homework using their expanded walkthrough.  They should make any changes they feel is appropriate or that makes the walkthrough better.  Next class discuss and compare the changes they made to their walkthroughs at home.

8 Halloween Escape

Level Intermediate and above Seniors in a computer room

Preparation Play the game yourself using the walkthrough to assess whether the content of this game is appropriate for your learners.

Play Learners play the game in order to create and write down their own walkthrough.  As they play they should write down where and what they did in each location.  Monitor, input language and make sure that walkthrough is being written.  If learners are playing the game and not doing the activity then they have to start the game again.

9  Trick or Treat Adventure Quest

Level Upper Intermediate Seniors in a computer room.

Preparation Print a copy of the walkthrough for yourself.

Play This is like a ‘picture dictation’ but more a ‘play dictation’.  Using the walkthrough dictate to your class how to do the game.  Monitor their screens to check on their progress and encourage them to ask questions to clarify any difficult language points.

10 Spelloween

Level Advanced Seniors in a computer room

Play Looking for a quick word building activity for your advanced learners? Then this is a nice little warmer.  Learners play individually or in pairs and when they have finished they compare their score with other the groups.  The highest scorer wins.  As a follow up activity in the classroom, how many can they remember and write down?  Check their spelling and can they describe the meaning of the words to the class?

Notes

Primaries are aged between 7 – 11 years old, Juniors 11 – 14 and Senior 14+.

Computer room = a room with enough computers stations (with an internet connection) for two learners to a computer.

Connected classroom = A classroom equipped with a computer station (with an internet connection and possibly a data projector  or electronic whiteboard).

Classroom = You, your learners, writing materials and printed worksheets and a Whiteboard/ blackboard.

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1)                 Fowl words – Seven hens have laid an egg each with a letter on.  Use the letters to spell as many words as you can before time runs out.  Great for pair work in the computer room.  One learner can use the keyboard and type the word then press the enter key while the other can use the mouse and click the letter then click the enter button on the screen.  Get them to note scores and challenge them to beat previous class scores.

2)                 Flip words – Click on the red letters to link them into words.  Great to play in open class and a real ‘shout ‘em out’ favourite.  No time limit here so it gives individuals some time to think or maybe even use a dictionary.  Stop the game and declare the winner when someone guesses the category at the top.

3)                  Boggle – Nice little three minute team activity.  Present the game in open class and get teams to shout out words.  While you type them in someone in each time should write down the words their team said.  You can decide whether you accept all words or question any you’re not sure about.  When the game ends teams can check what points they got for each word, add up their score and see who the winner is.

4)                 Bookworm – Play the web game version at the beginning of a class.  If you see any yourself you can help out by giving the class a definition to think about or a translation to look up.  Don’t forget to give the class time to read and ask you about the instructions that pop up.  Keep a record of scores to beat for when you play in another class.

5)                 Alphabet jungle – Make sure your learners understand the instructions and start the game.  You don’t even have to play it.  Learners look at the six letters and use a dictionary, a pen and a piece of paper to write down any words they can make.  When time runs out the game gives them the list of correct words and all they have to do is count how many they got right!

6)                 Scrabble blast – A fun computer room warmer or fast finisher activity.  Learners read the instructions and play the game.  It’s a lot like the popular board game ‘scrabble’. Your learners can either try to beat previous class scored records or play to beat another team head to head.

7)                  Text twist – Use the letters to spell as many words as you can before time runs out.  Great for a ‘shout ‘em out’ activity in open class.  Teams take it in turns to send a member up to the computer.  The team has to describe a word to their colleague at the computer who has to think and type fast if they are to pass the turn to the other team.  The team who has a member at the computer when time runs out is the loser.  Don’t allow time wasting – that’s cheating!

8)                 Spot the difference – An open class activity for higher levels.  Can teams spot the differences and write them all down before another team can?  You can set your own time limit with your watch to challenge them a little more.  First team to get them all written down and delivered to your table is the winner.

9)                 5 Spot difference – Can the class spot the differences and tell someone with the mouse where they are before time runs out?  Don’t let them use words like up, down, left and right – it’s a little more difficult that way!

10)             Puzzle maker – why not get your learners to make their own word game?  This site is great for recycling vocabulary and you can use word searches for lower levels or challenge higher levels with writing clues for their own crosswords.

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