Play on the word walk

After dinner sit a while,
After supper walk a mile. [ Proverb ]

The redeemed shall walk there. [ Bible ]

The king himself has followed near.
When she has walk’d before. [ Goldsmith ]

I’ve often wished that I had clear.
For life, six hundred pounds a year,
A handsome house to lodge a friend,
A river at my garden’s end,
A terrace walk, and half a rood
Of land, set out to plant a wood. [ Swift ]

Hail mildly, pleasing solitude.
Companion of the wise and good,
But from whose holy, piercing eye,
The herds of fools and villains fly;
Oh! how I love with thee to walk,
And listen to thy whispered talk,
Which innocence and truth imparts,
And meets the most obdurate hearts. [ Thomson ]

A little garden square and walled;
And in it throve an ancient evergreen,
A yew-tree, and all round it ran a walk
Of shingle, and a walk divided it. [ Tennyson ]

All bow to virtue — and then walk away. [ De Finod ]

Our acts our angels are, or good or ill,
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still. [ John Fletcher ]

He doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus; and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs, and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves. [ Jul. Caes ]

As if the wind, not she, did walk,
Nor pressed a flower, nor bowed a stalk. [ Ben Jonson ]

The wisest, happiest of our kind are they
That ever walk content with Nature’s way. [ Wordsworth ]

Walk
Boldly and wisely in that light thou hast.
There is a Hand above will help thee on. [ Bailey ]

The chambers in the house of dreams
Are fed with so divine an air.
That Time’s hoar wings grow young therein.
And they who walk there are most fair. [ Francis Thomson ]

But Shakespeare’s magic could not copied be;
Within that circle none durst walk but he. [ John Dryden ]

Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutor’d mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears Him in the wind;
His soul proud science never taught to stray
Far as the solar walk or milky way;
Yet simple nature to his hope has given,
Behind the cloud-topt hills, a humbler heaven. [ Pope ]

Better walk leisurely than lie abroad all night. [ Proverb ]

These earthly god-fathers of heaven’s lights
That give a name to every fixed star
Have no more profit of their shining nights
Than those that walk, and wot not what they are. [ William Shakespeare ]

Let not him whose head is of wax walk in the sun. [ Italian Proverb ]

Walk not with the world where it is walking wrong. [ Carlyle ]

After dinner rest awhile; after supper walk a mile. [ Proverb ]

Man’s walk, like all walking, is a series of falls. [ Carlyle ]

He that hath a head of wax must not walk in the sun. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

They that walk in the sun must be content to be tanned. [ Proverb ]

The Wise (Minstrel or Sage), out of their books are clay;
But in their books, as from their graves they rise.
Angels — that, side by side, upon our way,
Walk with and warn us! [ Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]

A fool cannot look, nor stand, nor walk like a man of sense. [ La Bruyere ]

For one virtue that makes us walk, how many vices make us run! [ Pichot ]

To our graves we walk In the thick footprints of departed men. [ Alex. Smith ]

Ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein. [ Bible ]

Her walk was like no mortal thing, but shaped after an angel’s. [ Petrarch ]

A wise man’s thoughts walk within him, but a fool’s without him. [ Proverb ]

He that would have a bad morning may walk out in a fog after a frost. [ Proverb ]

When pride and presumption walk before, shame and loss follow very closely. [ Louis the Eleventh ]

But for tradition, we walk evermore to higher paths by brightening reason’s lamp. [ George Eliot ]

I’m not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did. [ Yogi Berra ]

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth unseen, both when we sleep and when we wake. [ Milton ]

Style seems to depend on three things:
1. a mental attitude and character,
2. a familiarity with the best authors,
3. dexterity in the use of words, acquired by constant practice.
So we must learn to speak by speaking, as we learn to walk by walking, or to dance by dancing. [ John Stuart Blackie, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

Some people’s hearts are shrunk in them, like dried nuts. You can hear ’em rattle as they walk. [ Douglas Jerrold ]

If angels ever condescend to walk on this earth of ours, it is when clad in the form of good mothers. [ W. T. Burke ]

Orators are most vehement when they have the weakest cause, as men get on horseback when they cannot walk. [ Cicero ]

It seems to me as if not only the form, but the soul of man was made to walk erect, and look upon the stars. [ Bulwer-Lytton ]

What is ambition? It is a glorious cheat! Angels of light walk not so dazzlingly the sapphire walls of heaven. [ Willis ]

Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step. [ S. Smiles ]

Everything ought to lead to good sense; but in order to attain to it, the road is slippery and difficult to walk in. [ Boileau ]

No man can be said to have the spirit who does not walk in it, or to be born of the spirit until the spirit is born of him. [ Ed ]

Train your son and daughter to an employment, to frugality, to hold the high front and to walk the fearless step of independence. [ Timothy Flint ]

Walk this world with no friend in it but God and St. Edmund, and you will either fall into the ditch or learn a good many things. [ Carlyle ]

Man should be ever better than he seems; and shape his acts, and discipline his mind, to walk adorning earth, with hope of heaven. [ Sir Aubrey de Vere ]

Take a walk to refresh yourself with the open air, which inspired fresh doth exceedingly recreate the lungs, heart and vital spirits. [ Harvey ]

False friends are like our shadow, keeping close to us while we walk in the sunshine, but leaving us the instant we cross into the shade. [ Bovee ]

We are told to walk noiselessly through the world, that we may waken neither hatred nor envy; but, alas! what can we do when they never sleep! [ J. Petit-Senn ]

Experience is a safe light to walk by, and he is not a rash man who expects to succeed in future from the same means which have secured it in times past. [ Wendell Phillips ]

I love college football. It’s the only time of year you can walk down the street with a girl in one arm and a blanket in the other, and nobody thinks twice about it. [ Duffy Daugherty ]

Genius does not seem to derive any great support from syllogisms. Its carriage is free; its manner has a touch of inspiration. We see it come, but we never see it walk. [ Count de Maistre ]

We are not to be astonished that the wise walk more slowly in their road to virtue than fools in their passage to vice; since passion drags us along, while wisdom only points out the way. [ Confucius ]

The light of genius is sometimes so resplendent as to make a man walk through life amid glory and acclamation; but it burns very dimly and low when carried into the valley of the shadow of death. [ Mountford ]

Rely on principles; walk erect and free, not trusting to bulk of body, like a wrestler, for one should not be unconquerable in the sense that an ass is. Who then is unconquerable? He whom the inevitable cannot overcome. [ Epictetus ]

When the passengers gallop by as if fear made them speedy, the cur follows them with an open mouth; let them walk by in confident neglect, and the dog will not stir at all; it is a weakness that every creature takes advantage of. [ J. Beaumont ]

To cultivate a garden is to walk with God, to go hand in hand with nature in some of her most beautiful processes, to learn something of her choicest secrets, and to have a more intelligent interest awakened in the beautiful order of her works elsewhere. [ Bovee ]

Great works are performed, not by strength, but by perseverance. Yonder palace was raised by single stones, yet you see its height and spaciousness. He that shall walk with vigor three hours a day will pass in seven years a space equal to the circumference of the globe. [ Johnson ]

Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring. If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature, if the prospect of an early morning walk does not banish sleep, if the warble of the first bluebird does not thrill you, know that the morning and spring of your life are past. [ Thoreau ]

After all there is a weariness that cannot be prevented. It will come on. The work brings it on. The cross brings it on. Sometimes the very walk with God brings it on, for the flesh is weak; and at such moments we hear softer and sweeter than it ever floated in the wondrous air of Mendelssohn, O rest in the Lord, for it has the sound of an immortal requiem: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, for they rest from their labors. [ James Hamilton ]

Mother! How many delightful associations cluster around that word! The innocent smiles of infancy, the gambols of boyhood, and the happiest hours of riper years! When my heart aches and my limbs are weary travelling the thorny path of life, I sit down on some mossy stone, and closing my eyes on real scenes, send my spirit back to the days of early life; I feel afresh my infant joys and sorrows, till my spirit recovers its tone, and is willing to pursue its journey. But in all these reminiscences my mother rises; if I seat myself upon my cushion, it is at her side; if I sing, it is to her ear; if I walk the walls or the meadows, my little hand is in my mother’s, and my little feet keep company with hers; when my heart bounds with its best joy, it is because at the performance of some task, or the recitation of some verses, I receive a present from her hand. There is no velvet so soft as a mother’s lap, no rose so lovely as her smile, no path so flowery as that imprinted with her footsteps. [ Bishop Thomson ]

Check out these 6 fun directions games and activities about giving directions in English. These games are great for teaching directions to ESL students and other beginner English language learners, and best of all they are completely free and require little to no preparation. Check out the games below and check the bottom of the page for related resources for teaching directions in English.

Also, check out the bottom of this page for related resources.

1: Directions Game

This first directions game is a fun activity video for teaching how to ask for and give directions in English. To play, simply show the video in class. There are 10 rounds and in each round students will see a picture of a map with some place labels. Students then have 5 seconds to memorize the location of the places on the map. Next, students will be asked a question such as “Where is the bank?” and must try to remember where that place was on the map. When answering, students should give directions in English. This activity is great for introducing or reviewing giving directions in English.

2: Directions Info Gap Activity

Next on our list of games to teach directions is an ‘Info gap’ style activity worksheet. Info gap activities are those in which each student only has part of the information, and to find out the rest of the information they must talk with their classmates. To play this directions information gap activity, print out this worksheet (or make your own) and then cut it in half along the dotted line. Give one half to student A and one half to Student B.

Then, without showing their map to their partner, they must ask for directions to find out where the places are on the map. For example, ‘Where is the library?‘ – ‘ Go straight 1 block and turn left. It’s on the left.‘ Once students have completed the map, they can compare their map with their partner’s. Both maps should be the same if they followed the directions correctly. For more worksheets to teach directions, and other ESL topics, check out our worksheets page.

3: Directions Memory Game

This next ESL activity to teach directions is a simple memory game. For this game, you’ll need a set of buildings / places flashcards. First draw a simple map on the board. This can be as simple as drawing squares, like in the picture above, to represent the blocks on a map. 

Next, attach the flashcards to the board with the back of the flashcard facing the students (i.e. so students can’t see the pictures of the flashcard). Then, divide the class into two teams. Now the game can begin. 

Ask team A ‘Where is the (police station)?‘. Then team A must guess where it is and give directions in English to where they think it is on the map. For example, ‘Go straight two blocks and turn right. It’s on the left.‘ Follow the students’ directions on the map and then turn over the flashcard. If they guessed correctly, they get a point for their team. If they guessed wrong, then turn over the flashcard to hide the picture again. 

Next, ask team B another question such as ‘Where is the (market)?‘. Team B should then guess by giving directions to where they think it is on the map. After a few turns students will start to remember where they saw the places on the map. Once all the places on the map have been found and all the flashcards have been turned over, the team with the most points is the winner. This directions game is incredibly fun and very easy to set up, and is a fantastic speaking activity to review directions in English.

4: Excuse Me. Where is the Police Station?

This next activity is a fun no-prep classroom game to practice directions. Before playing this activity, you may want to practice some directions vocabulary and sentences with students. Here are some directions flashcards you can use to drill the target language.

To play this game, first make sure the desks in your class are arranged in a grid, like in the picture above. Tell students that the desks are ‘blocks’ and the space between the desks is the road. Next choose one student to be ‘it’. Tell this student that someone has stolen their pencil case and so they must go to police station to report it. 

Then, ask this student to close their eyes / look away. Next, point to another student in the class.This student is the ‘Police / Police Station’. Make sure all students can see where the ‘Police Station’ is. Next, tell the student at the front to open their eyes and ask ‘Where is the police station?’. The other students in the class should then direct her to the police station using directions in English. Kids really love this directions activity. To make it even more fun, place a blindfold on the student at the front and have them follow the directions while blindfolded.

5: Simon Says Go Straight

This activity is another no-prep classroom game that you can use to teach directions to kids. It is based on the children’s game ‘Simon Says’. If you’re not familiar with Simon Says, it is a game in which the teacher would give instructions and the students should follow. But, they should only follow the instructions if the teacher first says ‘Simon Says…’ (E.g Simon says touch your head.)

This game can be used very effectively to teach directions vocabulary to kids. To play, first teach students the key words and actions. For example, teach students the word ‘walk’ and mime walking on the spot. Then teach them ‘turn right’ and mime turning right. Do the same with other key phrases such as turn left, go straight, stop, keep walking, etc. 

Once students have practiced enough, start the game. Tell students to follow your directions, only if you say ‘Simon says…’ first (or ‘Teacher says…’ / ‘Tom says….’, etc.). From time to time give students directions without saying ‘Simon says…’ first, and if any student still does the action, then that student is out, and must sit down. This game is incredibly fun and encourages kids to listen carefully. Once students have practiced a little, try giving the directions really fast to make it even more fun.

6: Directions Dictation

This last directions activity is based on the classroom activity ‘Walking Dictation’. To play, divide the class into small groups of 3/4. Give each group a simple map and one pen / pencil. You can use this simple map, or create your own. Then ask one member from each group to come to the teacher. Show these students the location of a building (i.e. school / hospital, etc) on the map. 

Then, when the teacher says ‘Go!’, these students must go back to their team. Their team mates must ask ‘Where is the (school)?’ and the student must direct them to where the school is on the map using directions in English. Then, they should write ‘school’ in the correct location on the map. The first team to accurately write the location of the school on the map is the winner and gets one point for their team. Then, call the next student from each group up to the front and repeat.

Related Resources

Thanks for reading. I hope you found some useful materials and activity ideas for teaching directions in English. Before you go, check out these other great related resources: 
Directions PowerPoint Lesson
Places Around Town Vocabulary Game
Large and Small Directions Flashcards
ESL Directions Worksheets
Places Around Town PowerPoint Lesson

Kindergarten readiness skills include letter recognition, phonemic awareness, and phonics skills.  If your child can already recognize letters and can hear and say letter sounds then you may be wondering what types of phonics activities you should be doing with him.  The truth is that you don’t really need to do anything other than reading together every day, but if your child is ready to start reading playing phonics games can be both fun and motivating!

One of our favorite ways to play with phonics is the Walk the Word game!  Kids get to use their whole body to practice identifying and blending sounds together.  Adding the gross motor aspect to it helps kids to internalize the process of sounding out a word.

How to Play Walk the Word

This game is simple to set up and easy to play!  All you need is sidewalk chalk and a place to draw.  Write easily decodable (sound-out-able), very large words on the concrete.  Ask the child to start at the side you start reading at. Then have them step on each letter and say the sound.  Prompt them or give them the sounds if needed (this is a game not a test) and have fun walking and reading the words! 

This phonics game is fun and helps kids make the transition from saying the letters sounds to putting the letters together to form words.  Making learning fun is the best way to help your child get ready for kindergarten!

Thank you to My Cute Graphics for the use of this superhero kids graphic.

This post is part of our Get Ready for K Through PLAY! series where a group of bloggers share weekly ideas that you can do to help get your child ready for kindergarten. Check out the Kindergarten book and literacy readiness activities shared by the other hosts:

 20 Alphabet and Phonics Activities for Kids from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas

Water Balloon Phonics from Mess for Less

Active Alphabet Activities from Toddler Approved

Learning Letters and Their Sounds from Mama Smiles 

Chalk Letters from Rainy Day Mum

And catch up on my other Get Ready for K Through PLAY! posts: How to Read Aloud to Your Child, Math Activities for Kindergarten: Snack Time Practice, Teacher Says! Listening Game, Language Experience Story and 3 Independents Skills {You May Not Realize} Your Child Needs for Kindergarten.

Next week we’ll all be back sharing activities to develop skills needed for Kindergarten!

In the meantime be sure to follow our Get Ready for K Through PLAY! Pinterest Board for a huge collection of Kindergarten readiness activities!