Human orchestra

incl. materials

oral

30 min.

Objectives

The learner can recognize and produce vowels, consonants and sounds correctly.

Materials

Cards with a drawing or a word representing the vowel, consonant or sound you want to practice, e.g. if you work on the sound ‘ee’, show a card representing a bee, an ear, etc.

You can work on two or three sounds at a time.

Instructions

• Divide the group into teams of 4 or 5. If the group has 5 or fewer learners, you do not need to make teams.
• Ask each team (or learner) to choose a ‘noise’ that corresponds to the vowels, consonants or sounds you want to work on.
  Example ‘ee’:
  Let the learners chant or sing it.
  ‘t’ and ‘d’: Let the learners choose a sound with ‘ta’ and ‘da’. If they work in a team, the learners must agree on the same intonation and the same rhythm.
• Each group must say the sound in a different tone and rhythm.
• Show the learners the gestures you use
  to start the noise.
  to increase the volume.
  to decrease the volume.
  to stop the noise.
• You are the ‘conductor’. Appoint a team and ask them to make their noise.
• Appoint the other teams one by one, while the other teams keep making their sounds.
• The teams make their noise until they receive another instruction (increasing / decreasing volume or stopping)
• Conduct the teams by increasing and decreasing the volume, by stopping and starting again. The class becomes a human orchestra.
• Let a learner replace you as the ‘conductor’.

Variant

Words containing the vowel, consonant or sound

• Show the cards with the drawings or the words (‘bee’, ‘ear’, etc.) to the learners, name what is drawn and let them repeat the word.
• Give a card to each team (learner).
• Repeat the instructions with the words instead of the sounds.

Tips for the instructor

• Beginners: Let the learners make sentences with the words.
• Advanced: Let the learners make a story with the words.