No Or's, And's, or But's

Level: Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: speaking (or writing)

Topic: warmer.

Materials: none (or writing supplies).

Time: 5 to 10 minutes.

Want to hear a great story? Then create one with your students, a word at a time. (This is also a neat activity to do with a word processor, if you have a multimedia room where students can use computers to type). 

Have one student say or write any word to begin the tale. Then other student adds a word, and so forth, until the first sentence is finished. This cooperative speaking/writing approach continues until the story comes to a conclusion. It may or may not be the ending you had envisioned, but that's the whole point: You never know what direction the tale will take when you and your student become co-authors. 

Once you've gotten the hang of co-writing a story in this fashion, up the ante by introducing a new rule: no one can use the words "or," "and," or "but." That's a lot more difficult than it sounds. Take turns inventing new rules, too, just to keep each other on your toes. 

That's going to be tough when you can only use words less than five letters long ...