Family Activities to Support Speaking

1. Guess the Object: This is a fun game for kids to practice the power of description. Cut a hole in a box that is large enough for their hands. Make sure they understand that they are not allowed to peek into the hole. Place an object in the box. Have the child describe what the object feels like and guess what the object might be.

2. Picture Telling: Collect a variety of pictures. Give each participant a time limit and let them describe what they see in story form. During this exercise, they are processing visual cues and using their ability to speak about them to someone else. The other players practice their listening skills.

3. Guess Who: Each player chooses a secret character and takes turns asking each other yes/no questions about characteristics in order to narrow down the choices and guess the other person’s secret character first.

4. Headbanz: Kids love playing this game because everybody gets to look silly with a headband on their head. Each player draws a card with a food/person/animal/item and, without looking at it, places it on their headband so all other players can see it. Players must ask questions about the picture on their card, remember the answers, and use this knowledge to guess who/what they are.

5. Scattergories: In the original version of this game, a dice is rolled to reveal a letter of the alphabet. All players have a list of categories (food, famous person, movie title, etc.) and must try to write down something that starts with the letter to fit each category. The goal is to be as creative as possible. (If someone else wrote down the same word as you, both of you must cross it out!) The player with the highest number of original answers wins the round.

6. Online Speaking Activities: In the Hub section of iLEAD Exploration’s website, there are many recommended speaking activities to support EL learners. Simply click on this link, log into the Hub, and search the EL resources by category (domain).