Last Shall Be First

Level: Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: speaking.

Topic: warmer.

Materials: none.

Time: 5 to 10 minutes.

The objective of this fast game is to think of words that start with the last letter of a preceding word.

Choose or let students choose a category; for example, countries, cities, trees, film titles, or famous writers (it's also useful to use the vocabulary taught in a previous class). The first student calls out a word that fits in that category. The second student then has to say another word in that category that starts with the last letter of the previous word. Play continues around the students in turn. Students drop out if they cannot think of a suitable word within ten seconds. No word can be repeated that has already been used.

Example: The students choose the category 'Composers'.

• Student A: Beethoven
• Student B: Nicolai
• Student C: Ibert.
• Student D: Tippett
• Student E: Tallis
• Student F: Stanford
• Student A: Delius
• Student B: Schubert
• Student C: Tchaikovsky
• (None of the students can think of a composer starting with Y, so they begin another round).