Fun Ebook with Active Games: TGFU

Have you ever found yourself with a group of 30 language learners and been told to throw a field day, or teach PE? 
I very rarely have (and never on my own thank goodness), but if I were I wouldn’t worry because I own this: TGfU: Teaching Games for Understanding in Physical Education

While I was familiar with many of the games, there were a significant number I had never heard of, or had forgotten about completely. Each game has a suggested grade level (based on United States Elementary grades)
Equipment: What you’ll need to play. Some of the games involve quite a lot of set up and some require practically nothing. Tactical Problems. This explains what skills the game focuses on (possession, speed, change in direction, footwork)
Rules: Essentially how to play
Safety: What to keep in mind to make sure everyone stays safe variations: Ways to change the game Diagram SUPER useful for people who are unfamiliar with the game.

The book is divided into different categories:
 

Invasion / Territorial
This contains games where players must protect their territory while invading someone else’s. In some cases this is quite literal (Capture the flag) in others a bit more figurative (Horse).
One of these is GREAT for EFL situations. Ghost soccer is a great game that requires a lot of communicating on behalf of the students.

Net / Wall

These are mainly variations on volleyball and badminton, but there are plenty of other options.

Pursuit / Evade

These are games where students are typically chasing each other. Two of these should be pretty familiar for EFL teachers: Alphabet Drawing: for example is similar to freeze tag, but involves the students practicing their letters! And, any teacher who has taught time will remember, “What time is it Mr. Wolf”

 
Striking / Fielding

Students practice catching and throwing. Not a lot of these are communicative games, but these are great for younger ones to practice motor skills or just get them moving.

Target / Misc

These contain a lot of variations on dodge ball as well as a lot of other games.

As pointed out, some of these games are already set up to have great communicative opportunities. Some of them can be adapted to review vocabulary or grammar. For others simply learning the rules can be part of the learning process. Finally, sometimes games can just be used as a reward or to break up longer lessons.

If you are interested in some games that can be used in your class this is a very affordable ebook to purchase. You can follow the author on his Twitter account: GraciousWolf PE