The First MABUHAY CLASSROOM TEACHERS WORKSHOP ON HALLOWEEN (October 11th, 2010)

The first MABUHAY CLASSROOM TEACHERS WORKSHOP was a blast! Thank you so much for making it possible. To all fantastic Filipino teachers mabuhay!

Halloween Spelling Race

Divide the board into two by drawing a line. Write HAPPY HALLOWEEN at the right side and TRICK OR TREAT at the left side. Prepare a set of letters for the same words in two different colors (orange and black) and attach magnets at the back of each letter. Hide the letters in random around the room and group the class into two (2) teams. Assign each team a banner HAPPY HALLOWEEN (orange team) vs. TRICK OR TREAT (black) team. Say; "Go!" players start to find letters and form the words of their banner. If a player is on "orange" team and sees a letter for the "black" team he/she just leave it alone. The first team to complete their banner wins.

Note:  To make the game more challenging players are instructed to follow the sequence of the letters on the banner.

The Haunted House

Children sit in a circle. Teacher says; "I went into the haunted house and saw (a black cat)!" All players say; "Happy Halloween!" to other players to their right and to their left. The teacher continues; "I went into the haunted house and saw (a ghost)!" All players say; "Happy Halloween!" to other players to their right and to their left. "I wen into the haunted house and saw (a robot)!" All players stand and change chairs shouting; "Happy Halloween. Let's go!" The teacher quickly grabs a seat too. Now, there will be one player left standing without a seat, that player will be the new 'it'. He stands at the middle and starts the game all over again.

Find Jack O' Lantern

Jack O' Lantern Song

Jack O' Lantern
Jack O' Lantern
Halloween, Halloween
Let's go trick or treating
Let's go trick or treating
Halloween, Halloween!

Children sit or stand in a circle, their backs to the wall. The "it" sits at the middle of the circle, head down and eyes closed. Children pass a small plastic Jack o' lantern (or card), while singing the Jack O' Lantern Song. After awhile, the 'it" shouts; "Stop!" Children stop singing. The player who has the pumpkin hides it at his back, the other players follow. The "it" will approach one of the players and say; "Happy Halloween!" If the player has the pumpkin he will show the pumpkin and say; "Happy Halloween!" If the player doesn't have the pumpkin he will show his hands, but will not say anything. The aim is for the "it" to find the pumpkin. The "it" is allowed to make three (3) guesses.

(Variation)
For big number players, choose three (3) or five (5) players to be the "it". They stand in front of the class facing the board with their backs to the class. All other players stand in random. Pass about five (5) small plastic pumpkins or cards at the same time, while singing the Jack O' Lantern Song. When the five "it" shout "Stop!" The class stop singing and the player(s) who has the pumpkins hide them. The five (5) "it" faces the class and try to find the pumpkins.

HALLOWEEN PECHA KUCHA

What is PECHA KUCHA? It is a six minutes and forty second presentation consist of twenty slides discussed in twenty seconds each. So fast, yet very informative and effective way to show off or sell your work.  Here I borrowed the phrase and given it a new meaning with this game I created for Halloween.

Target Language

noun (Halloween characters)

adjectives

verbs

Players

ten or more

the whole class

Materials

picture cards of Halloween characters

How to play

Divide the players into five (or more) competing teams. Have each team stand at each corner of the room where each team can observe the others. Assign each team a Halloween character and the corresponding verb and action that best describes the character, like;

WICKED WITCH the verb FLY, with action of flying on a broom stick

JACK O' LANTERN the verb ROLL, with action of both hands doing a locomotion

BLACK CAT the verb CREEP, with action of cat like creeping

WHITE GHOST the verb FLOAT, with action of floating in the air

SCARY MONSTER the verb STOMP, with action of feet stomping alternately on the floor

Players say the name of the Halloween character two (2) times, say the verb three (3) times and do the action simultaneously before passing the task to another Halloween character. Example:

Black Cat Team:  Black cat... Black cat... creep, creep, creep to Wicked Witch FLY!

Wicked Witch Team:  Wicked witch... Wicked witch... fly, fly, fly to Jack o' lantern ROLL!

Jack o' Lantern Team:  Jack o' Lantern... Jack o' Lantern... roll, roll, roll to White Ghost FLOAT!

... and so on.

Disqualify any group which commits mistake such as lack of synchronization or wrong action of the verb. Do not allow the action to be passes back to where it directly came.

Have fun. HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 

The Auction

Have you ever been to a subasta before? In the Philippines, subasta means auction , and it is defined as a type of sale where price of the item is negotiated through the process of competitive and open bidding. It is normally, a public sale at which items are sold to the person offering to pay the highest price.

This reinvention of auction for EFL classrooms doesn't have items up for sale and it doesn't have currencies or toy money involved. What is negotiated in this reinvention is vocabulary (target language), and the means of exchange are number cards. The aim of the game is to put up the highest number (from 2-10) possible to win. This is a "winner takes all" game, meaning the player to put up the highest number takes all the other cards.

Target Language
(In this video)
Class            What do you have?
Player           I have (some paper).

Also best for practicing:
(Occupations)
Class            What does (he) do?
Player           He is (a doctor).

(Places)
Class            Where are you going?
Player           I am going to (the park).

Players
four (4) or more

Materials
picture cards
number cards (tramp cards)

How to play
1.  Determine the order of play.
2.  Shuffle one deck of tramp cards (minus the Kings, Queens, Jacks, Jokers, and  Aces), make two piles, and place them face down on the playing surface. Place a  picture card (target language) between the piles of number cards, for example;  picture card of ribbon. The class asks the question: "What do you have?"
3.  The first player answers: "I have (some ribbon)." He then takes a number card from the pile; place the card in-front of him, but keeping it facedown.
4.  The second player takes his turn. The class asks the question again: "What do you have?" The second player answers: "I have (some ribbon)." He then takes a number card from the pile; place the card in-front of him, but keeping it facedown.
5.  The third player takes his turn and does the same. When all the players have had their turns, the teacher calls out: "Turn over your card now!"
 6.  Players turn over their cards at the same time. The player with the highest number takes all the cards. If there's a draw (two or more players with the same number), they do rock-scissors-paper, and the winner takes all the cards. The game continues until there are no more cards to turn over. The winner is the player with the most number of cards.

PALAYOK : Reinvention of a Traditional Game for EFL Classrooms

Ask any Filipino about Pukpok Palayok or Hampas Palayok, and chances are they played it or saw it played at least once during their childhoods. The game is so immensely popular that any celebration or town fiesta is not complete without children (oh yes, sometimes adults) playing it. Having colonized by the Spaniards for three hundred and thirty three years, Pukpok Palayok is the Filipino version of Pinata, and just like the fiesta, Spaniards used the game to attract the natives to their ceremonies and convert them to their religion. The Filipinos, known for reinventing things to suit their needs out of limited resources, adapted it by using a clay pot instead of the Mexican painted paper Pinata. In those times paper and paints were scarce and expensive, whereas clay pots were plentiful and cheap.

In the Philippines, pukpok means to hit, and palayok is a clay pot, so the game literally means to hit a pot. Traditionally, the game is played with the decorated clay pot filled with goodies (candies, sweets, coins, and sometimes peso bills), suspended by string in the air, high enough for players to reach and smash it. A player is blindfolded and a  long bamboo stick is used to hit and break the pot, so that other players as well as by-standers can grab as many goodies as they can. The player who breaks the clay pot wins a prize, usually a gift or in currency.

For EFL classrooms, Pukpok Palayok uses no clay pot, nor a bamboo stick. Instead, the game makes use of the white board, picture cards (with magnets attached at the back), and an ovesize party hat (my children hate to be blindfolded with a handkerchief). In this adaptation, hitting is not  permitted; children make use of their sense of directions, understanding of the commands given, and using their hands to feel for the targets. In my experience, the game works wonderfully for preschoolers, for teaching the alphabet, colors, shapes, animals, fruits and vegetables. While for elementary graders, it works very well for practicing specific target language like; ("I'm hungry! What do you want? I want ... Go find it!" or "Where are you going? I'm going to ... Go find it!"). In addition to target language, this is also a great way to reinforce language for giving directions like: go straight, to your left, to your right, stop, that's it,

Target Language

S1 :       I'm hungry!

Class :   What do you want?

S1 :       I want (a hamburger).

Class :   Go find it!

S1 :       What's for lunch?

Class :  (Spaghetti) is for lunch.

             Do you want (spaghetti)?

S1 :       Yes, please.

Class :   Go find it!

Class :    Where are you going?

S1 :        I'm going to the (park).

Class :    How are you going there?

S1 :        I'm (riding a bicycle).

Class :    Have fun!

Players 

Two (2) or more the merrier

Materials

picture cards

board

magnets                             
a party hat (oversize) or a blidfold

How to play

1.  Determine the order of play.

2.  In random, using the magnets. attach all the picture cards on the board.

3.  Instruct the players to remember the placements of each card.

4.  The first player takes his turn. He stands 12 steps (more is better) away from
     the  board. The  other  players ask the question; for example, "What do you  
     want?" The first player answers "I want (a hamburger). The other players                
     answer back "Go find it!"
5.  The first player puts on the oversize hat (covering his face), and turns around
     three (3) times.
6.  The other players give directions, starting with "Go straight!" or "To your
     right!" "To your left!" etc.

     The aim is for the player to find the target by following directions given by
     players (class).