ESL Weather Games
Games provide a happy conclusion to lessons for English as a second language (ESL) students. Weather-related vocabulary words provide practical and essential knowledge for ESL learners. Integrating games into lessons helps students approach the topic with enthusiasm, and makes it easier to retain the information they have learned.
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Online Games
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The Internet is an invaluable resource for ESL teachers, who should look for games that work with their classroom's existing technology, to avoid student frustration. The France-based Nancy-Metz Academy website (See References) offers weather-focused activities, including interactive games based on how to dress for the weather. These click and drag games boost ESL students' retention and understanding of English as they utilize auditory and visual elements of language. The website also includes weather quizzes and vocabulary lists.
Board Games
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Many ESL teachers reformat traditional board games for use in the classroom. For instance, a commonly used technique is to alter a game like Chutes and Ladders by requiring to make sentences using vocabulary words to move forward on the board. ESL-Galaxy (See References) provides a printable ESL board game for learning weather vocabulary, featuring signposts that direct students to perform actions--such as move forward two spaces or move back to the beginning--as they work their way to the end.
Jeopardy also works well in the classroom and requires little preparation: Cards with vocabulary words written on the back and a monetary value on the front. The object is for the student to be able to pronounce, define or describe the word. For older or advanced students, students could respond to English questions with English answers, to practice sentence structure.
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Weather Across the World
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Geography games further expand weather vocabulary, as regions throughout the world have different types of climate and weather. Some games use large or individual maps, which students look at to guess the weather patterns in countries they have never visited.
In diverse classrooms, games that incorporate the countries and regions from which the students came can be very engaging, as students discuss their personal lives. When a game encourages students to share details specific to where they are from, such as the weather, it boosts their interest and confidence in practicing speaking skills.
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