Hi, 

We held a  potluck dinner for both ESL and Basic Education adult students
last winter.  
We played "People Bingo".  Staff made up the bingo card based on the people
who signed up to attend.  "Directions: Talk to different people and ask them
one question on the bingo card.  If that person says "YES" ask that person
to sign that box.  Find a different person who can answer "YES" for each
square. Try to fill all of your squares."  We put statements like:  has
driven a tractor, can eat with chopsticks, has seen the soap opera
"Rebelde", was born in Racine, plays a musical instrument, etc.  This was a
good ice breaker and got our ESL students talking with native English
speakers.

We also played a game called "Life with the Wright Family".  If you do a
google search on Life with the Wright Family, you can find the story and the
instructions.  When I looked, the second result had the instructions.
Everyone stands in a circle and each person as a bean or something to pass.
Every time they hear the word "right, wright, write", they pass the bean to
the right.  When they hear the word "left" they pass the bean to the left.
This worked for all levels because they had to listen only for "right" and
"left", but didn't have to understand the entire story.  By the time we
finished the story, everyone was laughing.  

Our best prizes were gift cards donated by one of our local grocery stores.

Enjoy.

Diane

Diane K. Snell
ESL Education Coordinator
Racine Literacy Council
734 Lake Avenue
Racine, WI 53403
262-632-9495
www.racineliteracy.com
 
-----Original Message-----
From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Ginger Dempsey, LVNRV
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 11:11 AM
To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 871] International Potluck Ideas

We are hosting an International Potluck for our ESOL students and tutors and
are in need of some ideas for games/activities.  Anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks for your help! 

Ginger Dempsey
ESOL Coordinator, LVNRV
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