Thursday 3 April 2014

Learning by playing: instroducing Jelly Band, by Infinite Dreams

One of the best and most effective ways to teach English to children (and adults) is by playing. Tablet apps can be really useful for that, being many of them specially designed for educational purposes or language learning and/or teaching. But sometimes you may also find some good game or app which, even if devised for fun rather than for education, can be a good tool for the ESL or EFL learner and teacher as well. This is the case of, for example, Jelly Band, a game designed by Infinite Dreams:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.idreams.jellyband

Jelly Band is a free, simple, and really funny game that consists of forming a music band of your choice by picking a number of jelly-like monster musicians and placing them on the stage. By swapping the monsters in and out of the arena, you also alter the melody. It can be really addictive! Here is a promotional video showing a little sample of what one can do in the game:



The useful part for the English teacher concerning this game is that the monsters have different colours, show different shapes, and play different musical instruments. So in just one game we can:

  1. Practice the colours, even with their shades or tints (e.g.: dark blue, light green, etc.)
  2. Practice the numbers (e.g.: how many eyes does that light purple monster have?)
  3. Practice the shapes (e.g.: square, circular, triangular, with horns, spiky, blobby, with a trunk,...)
  4. Practice emotions (e.g.: smiling, relaxed, thoughtful, laughing,...)
  5. Practice clothes vocabulary, complements, physical appearance, etc. (e.g.: wearing headphones, bandanas, with dreadlocks,...)
  6. And finally, and most importantly, learn vocabulary about the musical instruments, which may also lead to studying the instrument family, etc.
I have classified the many different monsters in the game according to the following descriptions:

  1. A happy, pentagonal-shaped yellow monster playing a music box (Stage 1 and 2)
  2. A slender, one-eyed purple monster playing a herald trumpet (Stage 1)
  3. A one-eyed, light blue monster with one curly horn playing a vinyl disc by scratching (Stage 1 and 2)
  4. A surprised or amazed, very wide-eyed orange monster playing a hang drum (Stage 1 and 2)
  5. A smiling, slender, one-eyed purple monster wearing a red bandana playing a Hindu sitar (Stage 1)
  6. A square-shaped, spiky-headed, one-eyed red monster playing a cello (Stage 1)
  7. A one-eyed light blue monster playing a red tambourine (Stage 1 and 2)
  8. A really happy, one-eyed, light green monster with six teeth playing an electric bass (Stage 1)
  9. A smiling, blobby, light blue monster with a trunk playing an electric sitar (Stage 1)
  10. A really happy, blobby-haired, one-eyed red monster with five teeth singing (Stage 1 and 2)
  11. A very serious, one-eyed, light blue monster with one curly horn playing an electric guitar (Stage 1 and 2)
  12. A serious, triangular-shaped, one-eyed magenta monster with three teeth playing an acoustic guitar (Stage 1 and 2)
  13. A square-shaped, spiky-headed, one-eyed red monster playing a brass horn (Stage 1 and 2)
  14. A blobby, spiky-headed, red monster with eight eyes playing an accordion (Stage 1)
  15. A smiling, blobby, light blue monster with a trunk playing drums and cymbals (Stage 1 and 2)
  16. A serious, triangular-shaped, one-eyed magenta monster wearing 3D glasses from the 80s - one glass is red for the right eye; the other one dark blue for the left - playing an electronic keyboard (Stage 1 and 2)
  17. A slender, one-eyed, emerald green monster with a huge mouth who sings (Stage 2)
  18. A really happy, one-eyed, light green monster with six teeth drumming on a tailpipe (Stage 1 and 2)
  19. A blobby, spiky-headed, red monster with eight eyes and four sharp teeth singing (Stage 1 and 2)
  20. A really happy-go-lucky, light brown monster with black dreadlocks playing the bongos (State 2)
  21. A laughing, spiky-headed, one-eyed, light blue monster playing an electronic keyboard (Stage 2)
  22. An oval-shaped, seven-eyed magenta monster playing with a steel sheet (Stage 2)
  23. A very serious, rectangular-shaped, four-eyed, light green monster playing a flute (Stage 2)
  24. A smiling, three-eyed, light blue monster wearing a yellow, green and red beanie playing an electronic keyboard (Stage 2)
  25. A really concentrated, one-eyed dark orange monster playing an electronic keyboard (Stage 2)
  26. A serious, triangular-shaped, really spiky, one-eyed black monster playing a toy duck (Stage 2)
  27. A concentrated, one-eyed, dark blue monster sticking out its tongue and wearing yellow headphones playing a DJ table that resembles a game of Simon Says (Stage 2)
  28. A smiling, one-eyed, yellow monster playing a classical organ (Stage 2)
Obviously, these definitions are only indicative: one will not teach these long sentences to the kids! But, classified like that, it is easier to remember the adjectives necessary for the many different descriptions. Another element worth noticing is that sometimes the monsters are repeated: this can also be used to encourage the student to relate them, establish comparisons, connections, etc.

For all this, Jelly Band constitutes one fantastic example of a tool for learning and teaching by playing videogames.

More to come soon! Greetings to all of you :)

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