Learning English with board games is a fun way to teach English vocabulary to toddlers and young children aged 2-5. You can give preschoolers early English language exposure before they learn to read and write with educational music, children's TV shows and ESL board games which are my favourite tools for boosting natural English language acquisition.
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Best English Board Games for Learning Colours and Shapes
I love the Orchard Toys board game collection and I think that they make the best ESL board games for preschoolers. I always make a point of stocking up on their games if I am travelling back to the UK. They are good quality, made of thick card and can withstand being handled roughly even in a busy ESL classroom setting. You can also have them shipped internationally to Japan from Amazon UK. Orchard Toys has a large range of board games for teaching colours, shapes and basic vocabulary to young English learners. Let's look at three that I have played with my children at home and also with my young ESL learners.
Top ESL games For Preschoolers To Learn English Vocabulary
If you can only buy one educational board game for children, I would recommend
Dotty Dinosaurs.
Teaches: Colours and shapes
Skills required: Turn taking
Number of players: 2-4
Game play: Dotty Dinosaurs has 4 double sided dinosaur boards. One side shows colours and the other has shapes. Roll the dice and collect the coloured or shaped tokens to complete your dinosaur.
Language to use: Call out the shape or colour that is rolled in English "Yellow!" "Square!"
Before each turn ask the children "What colour do you need?".
Encourage players to praise and support each other with phrases like
"That's too bad" "Better luck next time" or "Good job" and "Well done"
How To Create An English Immersion Environment With Board Games
Also popular in our household is
Mucky Trucks which is a perfect preschool ESL activity.
Teaches: Colour nouns, clean and dirty adjectives
Skills required: Turn taking
Number of players: 2-4
Game play: Each player starts with several dirty trucks cards in different colours. Land on the corresponding coloured circle and you can flip your truck card over to reveal a clean truck. Watch out for the muddy splats which make a truck dirty again.
Language to use: Call out the colour which is landed on "Green!" "Oh no, a muddy puddle" "Wow, you can clean any truck!"
Before flipping over the truck to clean it, use the soapy sponge token to mime a scrubbing action and say "Wash, wash, wash" or "Scrub, scrub, scrub".
Before each turn ask the children questions "Which trucks are still dirty?" "Which truck do you still need to clean?"
Stretch Activity: Mucky means dirty. Rhyming sounds are common in children’s language activities. In this game the uck of mucky and truck makes them rhyme. Ask the children if they know other words that rhyme which can boost their phonietic awareness.
Use English Phrases to Praise and Encourage Game Play
For very young children (under 4 years old) The
Post Box Game is an easy and effective choice because of it's simplicity. It matches well with the lift-the-flap storybook
Postman Bear, a great way to intergrate storytelling and English vocabulary practice. Although my children outgrew The Post Box game quickly at home, it remains popular in my ESL classroom activities. The game isn't a flat board game, the 3D post boxes stand independently and they look like the iconic UK post boxes. When children are able to read, this game could be revisited as all of the envelopes have alliterative addresses written on them.
Skills required: None
Number of players: 1 or more
Game play: The goal is to post the coloured envelopes into the matching coloured post box.
Language to use: When picking out an envelope to send "What colour is this one(envelope)?" "Which one(postbox) does it go in?" "Can you post it?"
When giving praise "That's right" "You got it" "nice"
When correcting "are you sure?" "try again"
These educational board games for young English learners are great because they do not require any reading or writing skills and they can be used with any target language. Whether at home or in the classroom games like these help children learn English naturally through play. What is your favourite board game for introducing English to preschoolers?
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