Hammer Buttles

Weronika Poland
Age: 5-9
Times: 10-15 minutes
Materials: Flashcards and two plastic hammers.
Organization: Whole class.
Aim: To practise or revise vocabulary.
Description: After practising vocabulary items on flashcards, children show what they have remembered by locating the correct flashcard and hitting it with a plastic hammer.
Preparation: You need to prepare flashcards with all the words you want to practise/revise. You will need around 10 to 12 cards and two plastic hammers!
Procedures:

1. Ask the children to sit in a circle on the floor. Spread all the flashcards face up on the floor in front of the children.
2. Revise the words and the correct pronunciation of the items on the flashcards. The children can all point to the correct word first, then repeat the word, then individual children can say the word. 
3. After all the words have been revised, give two children a plastic hammer each. Say one of the words on the flashcards. The children locate the flashcard and hit it with the hammer. The first to hit is the winner. 
4. The children pass the hammer to the child on their left and the game continues. 
5. When the children know the words from the flashcards quite well, ask one of them to take over your role and shout out the words.

Notes:
This is a lot of fun and as long as you only have two hammers, it should be fairly easy to control!
Alternatives

1. If there is not enough space on the floor, the flashcards can be attached to the board.
2. If you do not like the idea of hitting the cards, children can stand on the cards or grab the cards (but this can cause arguments). 
3. In larger classes you can do steps one and two using the board, with the children sitting in their seats. You can then divide the class into two circles to play the game. In this case, you will need two sets of cards. 
4. If you do not have hammers, you can play an alternative version. Carry out steps one and two as explained. Then start to turn the cards over by asking the children in turn to identify a word and then turn it face down. When all the flashcards are face down, repeat the process. This time it is more difficult as children have to remember where the flashcard was!

Reference 
Crazy Animals and Other Activities for Teaching English to Young Learners Download PDF