Tried and tested (and approved!) games and activities to help English learning.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Sit Down!

Level: Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: speaking.

Topic: grammar.

Materials: none.

Time: 10 to 15 minutes.

Sit Down! works best as a warmer with beginners. However, it may also be used as a fun activity for reinforcement and review of a specific grammar point, especially when the class isn't in the mood for a worksheet. Note that ideal class size ranges between eight and fifteen students.

Students arrange chairs into a large circle. There should be one less chair than the number of students in the activity. If there are ten students, for example, then there are only nine chairs.

Select one student random to stand in the middle of the circle. As this is the first round of the activity, it's often best to choose a stronger student. This ensures that the activity starts smoothly. All the other students sit down.

The student in the middle asks a question. The question should be a closed question. All students who answer "yes" to the question must stand and quickly change seats. The student who asked the question similarly rushes to sit down. Some sample questions include:

Question: Do you have a pet?
Question: Did you eat breakfast?
Question: Do you like English?
 
The student who couldn't sit down now asks a closed question, thus repeating the process above The rounds may continue until the teacher stops the activity.

Variation: 
Here any student who answers "no" stands up and changes seats. This variation may be used in conjunction with the above positive answers. After several rounds, switch to this variation. You can also solely run this variation, which tends to produce interesting and creative questions after several rounds.
 
 

Monday, November 19, 2012

Daffynitions

Level: Advanced.

Skills: speaking.

Topic: vocabulary.

Materials: none.

Time: 5 to 10 minutes.

Students choose (or are given) words for which they have to make humorous definitions. Often the definitions will use a pun (as in 'boomerang, what you say to frigten a meringue' or 'carrion, British comedy films') but sometimes they will be witty (as in 'alone, in bad company', or 'cannibal, someone who goes to a restaurant and orders the waiter'). As the game demands a deeper undestanding of the language, it is deemed to very Advanced students.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Constantinople

Level: Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: writing.

Topic: vocabulary.

Materials: pencils and paper.

Time: 5 to 10 minutes.

A word is chosen - usually a fairly long word (Constantinople is an old favourite) - and students have to make as many words as they can from the letters in the chosen word. The letters can be used in any order, but a letter can be used in any one word only as many times as it occurs in the chosen word (so from the chosen word teacher you can make reheat but not treat). A time-limit can be set (say, five minutes), and the winner is either the person who finds the largest number of words, or the person who finds the largest number of words that other students have not found.

Monday, November 05, 2012

Miscellaneous Memory

Level: Elementary.

Skills: speaking.

Topic: grammar.

Materials: sentence (and additional words) written on a piece of paper.

Time: 5 to 10 minutes.

Give students a sentence written on a piece of paper, such as “He watched TV every afternoon.” Provide one students with a word that changes the time of the action, such as “now”. Ask the students to rephrase the sentence accordingly and produce “He’s watching TV now.”

Give the next student another word, such as “I” instead of “He” so the pupil says “I’m watching TV.” Continue until one student makes a mistake or until you’ve gone round the whole class.