The Sleepy Tiger - ESL Flashcard Game

The Sleepy Tiger

Scatter props or flashcards nearby. Pretend to sleep. Coteacher whispers the name of an item and chooses 3-4 students to quietly retrieve the correct item and give it to them. If students are too loud, then the sleepy tiger wakes up and will chase them to their seats.

*Explain to the rest of the class that they must softly sing the tiger to sleep.

To make this more playful and fun, you can pretend to sleep restlessly as students get closer. E.g. grunt, raise your head, and scratch your ear, then stretch, yawn, and go back to sleep. During little sleep disturbances, they will want to be extra quiet and stay still. You could even open your eyes, rub them, and look around the room a little bit, but not directly at the students.

Students who are not actively participating should quietly chant a sentence pattern with the word. E.g. "Get the rainbow, get the rainbow." (Now they're reciting a sentence pattern instead of just one word.) The sentence pattern can be changed. "Bring Lulu the rainbow" "I will get the rainbow" "Quietly get the rainbow." - This game can be used to teach a variety of sentence patterns, however do take care to teach the meaning of new sentences and words instead of having the students blindly reciting them.

Once a student grabs the correct card, chase everybody back to their seats. Take the card, and ask, "What is this?" - Everybody should answer. If someone is not participating, single them out until they answer, "It's a rainbow." Singling students out for participation after each phase of a game will teach them that the fun stops if you don't participate, and everybody sees it's your fault. Do this only as needed, and apply to other games until the desired amount of participation and compliance is reached.

Predator puppets are good for this game. The puppet can be what is sleeping. This allows the teacher to talk to the students and to do the game without a coteacher.

Game modifications:

Sly Fox Style: If the tiger opens its eyes, you must stand still. If you move, the teacher calls your name and you must go back to your seat or the start line. This allows the tiger to suddenly wake up, look about, etc. This is more playful and active. Students will try to run. This modification works well 'only jumping is allowed'.

The Tiger is Listening: If the tiger hears you giggle, you must go back to the start line. Make this playful, fun, and challenging by making funny faces, noises, and behaviors.

Freeze Tag: If you catch a student, then they are frozen and cannot move. They can be rescued by having another student touch them. The sleepy tiger will guard their treasure, and frozen students are part of that treasure. Perhaps a frozen student needs to be touched with the chosen flash card.

Switch roles: If a student is caught, they become the next tiger. The teacher can help them to choose a word for the next round of the game. Catch with touches, not by grabbing. Grabby teachers leads to grabby students and you don't want them grabbing each other because they will get rough and will not let go to break contact. This leads to escalation and emotional rivalries.

Get your backpack: If you see that there's only a few minutes of class time remaining, you can put all of the student backpacks around you, and challenge them to get your backpack and return to their seats. This works well with a tiger that is awake, but is also very slow when chasing. While you are chasing one student, the other students will be in a hurry to get their backpacks and return to their seats for safety. They should chant something like, "Get my backpack!" "I can get my backpack." "Quietly get your backpacks." Alternatively to sitting, you can have them line up at the coteacher.