ESL Games designed for babies have to be extremely simple. L-L-Laundry is one of the simplest games I’ve seen.
The only materials you’ll need is a set of matching phonic cards and a clothes hanger used for drying laundry. You can pick up one like I’m using at the dollar store. Make sure to buy one with clips.
How to play:
- Hold one of the colored phonic cards up and say the word on the card so that your class repeats after you.
- Pick a student ( I usually try to reward the ESL learner that said the word the loudest) and hand them the card.
- Ask the student to clip the phonic card to the laundry hanger.
- Repeat steps 1-3 until all of the cards are on the hanger.
- Hold up the black and white set facing you and say the word on the first card e.g. “airplane”.
- Once the class repeats the word “airplane” turn the card around so that the students can see the card.
- Hold up the laundry hanger just out of reach while spinning it slowly and let your baby ESL learners try to grab the “airplane” card.
- Repeat steps 5-7 until all of the phonic cards are taken off the laundry hanger.
If you have a large class I’d recommend selecting one or two kids at a time to try and take the cards down. During the game babies are really focused on the cards so you want to minimize any chance of collisions.