Activities for "Happy Communication" Club

 Good communication is very important to success both in the classroom and in personal life. For students, being able to express their thoughts clearly and listen effectively can greatly improve their learning ability and build strong relationships with classmates and teachers.

In the Erasmus+ "DoiT" we tried to find ways to improve communication skills for students, including experiential activities in the classroom that can further improve these skills.

1) Activity "Listen Closely" is one of the simplest virtual communication games to play. All you need is paper and pens. In each round, one player describes an object while the others draw it, one shape or line at a time. For example, it could be a sun, a tree, a stoplight, or a cat. The goal is for players to guess what the object is before the drawing is finished.
The game shows how important it is to give clear instructions, and it’s funny to see how different the drawings can turn out from what you expected.
The students of B1 class enjoyed it!

 

 

2) Activity "Express it with emotion" is a game that helps with understanding feelings. Here’s how it works: -Each round, a player gets a random phrase and a random emotion. -The player reads the phrase showing that emotion, and the others guess what the feeling is. The game is more fun with tricky emotions, like “nervous after a long meeting” or “confused about which subway exit to take.” The speaker can ask for more detailed guesses and give points based on how accurate they are. 

The students tried really hard to express their feelings, and they they achieved it with great success!

 They practiced at the following emotions and occasions:

• Nervous after a 7 hour class at school
• Confused which way to go
• Surprised at the grade I got on the test
• Scared by the horror movie I'm watching
• Disgusted with the okra he has for food
• Shy with someone talking to me
• Jealousy because the person I like is looking at someone else
• Outraged because I was unfairly, wrongly accused of cheating on the exam

 and the Phrases:

• "I missed the bus."
• "I won the lottery!"
• "I forgot to turn off the light."
• "I got a bad grade on the test."
• "The food is cold." 
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3) Activity "Microphone or Beyond?" is a game where players identify objects by asking yes-or-no questions. In each round, one player (the thinker) picks an object, and the other players (guessers) try to figure out what it is by asking questions that compare it to different
categories. The first question is always, “Is it more like a tree or an artist?” The thinker then chooses the closest category and answers based on that. For example, if the object is a pumpkin, the answer would be “tree.” If it’s a wooden nutcracker, the thinker uses their judgment to decide. The game keeps going until the object is guessed or players give up.

The kids of the third grade described things like

School supplies: Pencil, Notebook, Eraser, Bag.  -   Household items: Fork, Lamp, Pillow.  -  Nature: Leaf, Rock, Flower.  -  Technology: Phone, Computer Mouse, Headphones.

 

 

4) Activity "In other words" is a game about finding different ways to say the same thing. Here’s how to play:
-One player starts by saying a common phrase.
-The other players take turns coming up with similar phrases until no one can think of any more.
For example, if the phrase is “the end of the work day,” you might come up with “quitting time,” “happy hour,” or “commute home.”
You can play in two ways: either see who can come up with the most phrases (the last person with an idea wins) or work together as a team to find as many phrases as possible. The goal is to see how many different ways you can express the same idea. Feel free to get creative with new phrases or descriptions!

 The students tried to find different ways to say the following expressions:

Phrase: "Good luck" (Best wishes, I hope all goes well, I wish you the best)
Phrase: "Have a nice trip" (Have a nice trip, Have a nice time)
Phrase: "Thank you" (I am grateful, I appreciate it very much, You are very kind)
Phrase: "Too late" (We missed the chance, It should have been sooner, Time passed)
Phrase: “Quick-quick” (in greek slang: mani-mani ... off-off ... chuck-bam or chuck-chuck or chuck-chuck or taka-taka ... on the pitch fuse ... on the pi and fi ... pat-cute ... just say cumin)

5) Activity "Whisper Down the Lane" is a popular team-building communication game. Here’s how to play: -One player whispers a phrase to the next player. -This continues until the last player hears the message. -The last player says the phrase out loud, and the first player compares it to the original phrase. The game highlights the importance of clear communication and good listening. Another fun version has players take turns writing or drawing a phrase. At the end, you compare the final result to the original message to see how close it is.   

The kids played with funny and strange phrases like:

• A unicorn runs above the clouds.
• My cat drinks lemonade in the sun.
• The parrot plays the guitar under the chair.
• The butterfly wears red sunglasses.
• The elephant dances zeibekiko on the beach. 
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