Get Me Talking

1. Flash Cards

The following materials are included in this package:

thousands of "Get me Talking" picture flash cards divided into vocabulary and grammar for English, German, Spanish and French. They are ready for downloading on heavy card stock which the teacher laminates and cuts up. They include texts that the teacher prints on the back sides of the pictures.
85 classroom-tested games divided into listening, reading, and production games. Teachers start teaching the vocabulary with the 21 listening games followed by the reading and production games.
many additional game cards to play these games.
80 Valentines are also included. Each student receives a valentine on which he writes his favorite saying (included). Students can also stick a small magnetic strip (bought in rolls at a craft store) on the back for their lockers. Great promotion of your language!
friends pictures - These are 8 1/2 x 11 pictures which can be copied in color or grayscale. Give each student a different friend to talk to about. Students can give them personalities by giving them names and ages and describing their physical appearance and personality traits. I used these friends all first semester first year for many different activities, and students loved them. During my party unit they had to mingle with others and introduce their friends and talk about how special they were. They can be used al any level. All you need is a little creativity!! There are 22 suggestions included for working with these friends.

This is a tremendous bargain!! Just $34.95 gets you unlimited downloads for one year!!

Students:

can have fun while learning.
are very actively involved.
have a MUCH better attention span.
can use the flash cards to tutor other students.
can work alone or in pairs or groups with the games.
learn vocabulary and grammar faster and better because of the repetition.
speak more fluently.
are HIGHLY motivated because of the visual interest.
get immediate feedback.
have a fun way to be held accountable.
can easily work with the flash cards when there is a substitute.

Teachers:

can supplement any text book.
download as many sets as needed for every pair of students.
can make color or black and white transparencies of the cards.
can stay in the foreign language without English translations.
can use them for multi-level, large and small classes.
use them for remedial work.
have students drill silently with the cards after taking tests so as not to waste this precious time.
provide much needed listening practice.
can discard any cards with vocabulary that is not being taught.
can use them to teach beginning as well as advanced levels.
can use them with children as well as adults.
can monitor students' learning by observing them enjoying the games.
can use them to review work from previous years or semesters. They are a great way to review material at the beginning of the school year.

2. Classroom Signs

We are all very visual people, and the more we associate expressions with a picture, the better we learn!!

This is a tremendous and inexpensive learning resource for students!!
Students learn a great deal just by reading signs which the teacher hangs on the wall or bulletin board. They are motivated to find out what the expression means by looking at the picture.
There are a total of 100 color picture signs illustrating simple phrases as well as idiomatic expressions to immediately download.
Teachers can also print these signs as transparencies.
There are five sets containing 20 signs apiece.
Each image is 8.5x11.

Each set is only $7.95!!
What a bargain!

WAYS TO USE:

EXPAND! EXPAND! EXPAND!
The teacher can personalize expressions with the students. For example:
a. "I don't know." The teacher asks in which classes students might say this expression and why. Expand to "I am confused." "I don't understand." "It's too hard."
b. "Clean up your room, or you're grounded." Students can vote on how many times they hear this expression per week/month. Are their rooms clean or messy? Do they get grounded for messy rooms?
The teacher can hang up a few signs every week and have students guess what they mean before or during class.
Students write as many words about the picture within a certain length of time.
Students can describe what is happening in the picture. Also students can describe what happened before and/or after the event in the picture.
Students can make up other expressions which could describe the picture.
Students can use some expressions in other contexts. For example, the expression, "_____gets on my nerves." Students can say all of the things/people that get on their nerves and why.
The teacher can teach words which are related to one of the key words. For example, the teacher can teach the words boring, boredom, bored, etc. from the expression "What a bore!".
Students can give definitions, synonyms, or related words for certain words. For example, for the sign "coward," students can give words such as "cowardly," "weakling," "frightened". They can also give examples of a coward such as a soldier who runs away, a hit-and-run driver, a person who can't deal with things, etc. They can also give a definition of a coward.
Students can give advice or commands to the subjects in the picture.
Students can say what they would do if they were in this situation.
Students can change the tense.
Students can learn a grammatical form in certain expressions.
Students can say other expressions or idioms using one of the key words from the expression. For example, the teacher works with the expression "I think so." Students can say "Think it over.", "Think up.", "Think well of.", etc.
The teacher lines up several pictures and gives a situation. The students would have to pick the appropriate expression from one of the signs which they would say in this situation.
Students use different words to fit into a particular expression. For example, the teacher teaches the expression "I have a good idea." They could change "good" to "excellent", "bad", "dumb", "brilliant", "better", etc.
Students can write short stories or dialogues using the phrase or phrases.
Students can give situations to illustrate the expression. For example, the expression is "I'm in trouble." The student says "I don't clean my room." "I get a bad grade." "I don't phone my parents."

3. Card Games

Card games are fun to drill grammar. I have created some card games for students and plan on creating more games for the four languages.

Teachers can download as many games as they want on heavy card stock and laminate them.
Students receive excellent practice for what is usually tedious grammar. They'll actually enjoy learning!!

$6.95 is all each game costs!

Games include:

English

Prepositions with nouns and adjective
Past Tense Draw Stack Game

German

Wissen, Kennen, Können
Dative Old Maid Game
Dative Prepositions Dominoes Game
Genitive Old Maid Game
Past Tense Draw Stack Game
Quartett Adjective Game
Superheld Prepositions Game

Spanish

Saber vs. Conocer
Por vs. Para Game
Preterite vs. Imperfect Draw Stack Game
Ser vs. Estar

French

Savoir vs. Connaître

4. Board Games

Students love to play games, and when they can learn language at the same time, all the better! Many of these games are my original creations. Other games are based on standard games such as clue, chutes and ladders, sequence, and parcheesi. Some have playing cards with them. All games include directions on how to play them.

The games motivate students to practice those vocabulary or grammar items they might otherwise just find on worksheets.
All are color game boards, many with color clip art. There are additional game cards with some of the games. All directions for playing the games are included.
Sets are divided into beginning, intermediate to advanced, and advanced boards. Each set contains at least ten different game boards.
Teachers can make up their own vocabulary or grammar questions to play these games. They can also be played with the flash cards which are available on this website.
Teachers have unlimited download of the game boards. I suggest copying them on heavy card stock and laminating them to preserve them.

Each set of games is a very reasonable $12.95

Game board sets
Beginning:

Body parts game
Face game
Checkers game
Colors game
Animals hexagon (hex) game
Clocks hexagon game
Fruits/vegetables hexagon game
Pyramid game
Ring game board
Switchback game board
Wheel of fortune board

Intermediate to advanced:

Aliens game board (like chutes and ladders)
Haunted house game board (superstitions)
Verb hexagon games (English irregular present/past, German irregular past, Spanish irregular present)
Maze game board
Modals game board
Parcheesi
Pronouns hexagon board-subject, direct object, or indirect object pronouns
School subjects game board-vocabulary of classes
Scrambled words game board
Sequence game board for all languages including cards for German dependent clauses and past tense

Advanced:

Angels and devils game board-Spanish subjunctive "I want you to...", commands, or German zu + infinitive
Challenge game board-lots of vocabulary
Clue game board-the blind date
Euro game board-exchange rate of Euro
Obstacles game board-vocabulary of places in the city
Two Problems game boards-can be used for subjunctive, vocabulary, or situations
Two Snake board games
a. shopping vocabulary
b. traffic vocabulary
Wishes game board-common expressions such as, "Have a nice day."
Weather game board and Celcius conversions