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.

 

 

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.

Acting Comparatives and Superlatives

Level: Elementary and Intermediate.

Skills: miming.

Topic: grammar.

Materials: none.

Time: 5 to 10 minutes.

The goals here are to make comparatives and superlatives physical and to guess what is being acted out.

Divide the class into trios. Each team can think of its own adjective, or they can write a suggestion on a piece of paper and give it to another team. Examples: big, small, intelligent.

Teams get only one minute to plan how they will act out the superlatives of their word. A person's size or shape has no relationship to this game. It is the size or shape of the action that counts,

After one minute of planning, "time" is called. Teams share.

Teams can either:

• Say the words as they act them out, or
• Have other teams guess what they are acting and say the word.

To reduce the possibility of embarrassing anyone, tell students to use character names instead of their own names!

Noodle Doodle

Level: Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: writing.

Topic: vocabulary, grammar, spelling.

Materials: strands of uncooked spaghetti 

Time: 5 to 10 minutes.

Hand out strands of uncooked spaghetti to the students. They must break them up and form into words or entire sentences on their desk tops (or the floor). So for instance I say to the class, "He is my friend." Working as fast as they can, in groups, students write the sentence in spaghetti. The team that finishes writing the sentence first raise their hands, I check the sentence to make sure it is right and award that team a point. 

It isn't a game you play every week and it requires some sweeping up afterwards.

Quickdraw McGraw

Level: Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: speaking.

Topic: vocabulary, grammar, spelling.

Materials: cards for the words/sentences you're going to use, inflatable hammer.

Time: 10 to 15 minutes.

This is a fun way to practice quick-thinking production for just about any vocabulary or language you're teaching. Set up two desks at the front of the room. Put a soft object (for example, a paper ball) on each desk. Have two students come up to stand at a desk and face each other. Then put a card on each desk.

Give some kind of signal to start the quickdraw. The students then race to flip their card over, produce the language you want them to say, and then throw the ball to try and hit their opponent. The first student to correctly produce the language and hit their opponent wins. Students are allowed to dodge what's thrown at them, but I find that running around the room makes the game not so exciting. So tell them they can dodge as long as their feet don't move (Matrix moves are just fine). Also, be careful of head shots.

To control the sneakier kids, I enforce a "Kabong!" (from the old Hanna Barbara cartoon character Quickdraw McGraw/El Kabong) If they move their feet when dodging, throw too hard, hit their opponent's head, or just mumble gibberish to quickly get their chance to throw, then I "Kabong!" them on the head with an inflatable hammer.

My students just loved this game!

Vocabularyclept Poetry

Level: Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: writing.

Topic: vocabulary, grammar, spelling.

Materials: a short (one paragraph) story, pencil and paper.

Time: 10 to 15 minutes.

The object here is to reconstruct a poem after its words have been mixed up. A poem (preferably a fairly well-known poem) is chosen and its words are mixed up, either entirely at random or rearranged in alphabetical order. The students then try to reconstruct the poem, or make a new poem from the words.

Fruit Cocktail

Level: Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: speaking.

Topic: vocabulary, grammar.

Materials: none.

Time: 5 to 10 minutes.

The goal of this game is to find a seat quickly. If you are in the center, to find a seat thereby  putting a new person in the center. For elementary students, use fruits or category vocabulary. For intermediate, future/conditional with category vocabulary, or relative clauses. For advanced students, relative clauses or past/present/future grammar.

Put the whole class seated in an exact circle on chairs, with one chair less than the total number of students. If the class is too big for one circle, make two circles. One student begins in the center of each circle, standing, without a chair.

Center student tells each student what word they have; (for elementary students: apple, pear, grape, pineapple, ... apple, pear, grape, pineapple... until everyone has a fruit, including the student in the center). Be sure that everyone remembers who they are. Ask: "All pineapples please raise your hands!", etc.

Center student calls out one type of fruit. Whichever fruit they call, those students must stand up and rush to change seats. Students who move must always take a new seat and the student in the center must also try to get a seat, leaving a new student without a seat and standing in the center. If center student wants everyone to change seats, they call "Fruit Cocktail!"

Important: Keep the game short!

Group Dictation

Level: Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: listening.

Topic: vocabulary, grammar, spelling.

Materials: a short (one paragraph) story.

Time: 10 to 15 minutes.

The purpose of this game is to improve listening skills, with a focus on grammar, vocabulary, constructing a narrative, and/or spelling.

Dictation is often considered a passive activity because students don't stand up, communicate, or move about the classroom. Yet it's quite difficult to catch the words, link the words into sentences, and then link the sentences into a narrative. This activity adds a communicative element, though, which will further reinforce the target language.

Prepare a story before the class begins. For a class of lower-level students, keep the story to four or five sentences. For intermediate or advanced classes, the story or monologue may be as long as a paragraph. It's important to consider the following points for an effective story:

• The best monologues are real and relatable to the students.
• Stories or monologues should incorporate key grammar and/or vocabulary from the lesson. this will give students the chance to see the target language linked with other ideas and information.
• Stories or monologues should show how to use the language later in the lesson.

Here's an example for a class consisting of strong beginners: I'm going to go skiing this weekend with friends. I usually go skiing a lot in the winter. But I only went once this year because it's been too warm. There isn't much snow in the mountains. My friends and I plan to stay for three days. I hope it's fun!

Read the story once at a pace just above the level of the students. If read too slowly, then the activity isn't challenging. If read too quickly, then the activity becomes far too difficult. Students just listen at this stage. They should not take notes because this will limit how much of the story they hear.

Students form groups of three or four and discuss what they heard. Students will have caught different words and sentences, and a collaborative effort helps them understand the complete monologue. Students work together for several minutes.

Read the sentences again, but at a slower pace. It's important to read each sentence twice. Students now take dictation, writing every word if possible.

Students form groups once more and discuss/compare the sentences for a few minutes. Together, they should be able to recreate most of the story.

Students should come to the board and write the sentences from the story. Correction (if necessary) can be accomplished by the class. If there are too many students, or time is limited, you may simply write the sentences on the board.

Speeding to the Wall!

Level: Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: speaking.

Topic: vocabulary, grammar.

Materials: none.

Time: 20 to 30 minutes.

It is a team game, however it works even better when teams are uneven in size at it means that students get to "compete" with someone different each time around. It allows for everyone to contribute something - the student who is agile but not so good at languages can use that, the student with the great memory for vocabulary is an asset to the team, as is the problem solver, and even the maths whiz depending on your questions. The game allows for consultation among the team, but there are also rules that control the volume too.

Get rid of all the desks (except two) - push them to the very edge of the room, stack them etc. You will need a large rectangular space. Line the chairs up in two lines facing each other at least one and a half metres apart (so there is space for 2 students to run back down the aisle at one time). You need one chair for each student. Put two desks (with another 2 chairs) at one end of the aisle next to each other facing down the aisle. At the far end of the aisle there should be a space that students can touch at the end of their run without knocking anything over - a wall, another desk or chair, a cupboard etc. Don't worry - the students get very quick at setting up the class for games once they know which set up you need!

Remember to go through safety rules (no pushing, tripping etc) as always!

Divide the class in two teams using whatever method you prefer and get them to sit in the chairs facing in each other. The two students who are nearest the two desks will go first. While they are sitting, call out a question (very useful to revise last class grammar and vocabulary points). Now, there are two possibilities...

a) The students know the answer - they get up, run to the other end of the aisle, touch the wall / cupboard and run back and sit at the desk.

b) They don't know the answer - in this case, they get up, run to the person on their team who they think will know and consult. No one else is allowed out of their chair. When they have the answer, they must go back and touch their chair before running to touch the wall at the far end and then running to the front to sit at the desk. (so, needing to consult will slow them down.)

The person who is sitting at the desk first is selected to answer the question. If they get it correct, they get a point. If they get it wrong, the other team gets to try. If it's partly right, the other team can have a go at giving a "better answer" - e.g., full sentence answer - up to you how you allocate points in this case. If they are both wrong, you can either let them run again with the same question (and same rules regarding consultation) or move on to the next question.

At the end of the turn, those students go to the far end of the aisle of seats and everyone shuffles up one chair so that the next student is in the head seat.

Extra rule for noise control:

No one can speak while their team's runner is running - otherwise they need to touch their chair and run again. This can reduce cheating also as it means they can't call an answer out.

Fortune Teller

Level: Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: speaking.

Topic: grammar.

Materials: none.

Time: 5 to 15 minutes.

The goal here is the students to pretend they are a fortune teller and predict someone's future. Also, to pretend they want to have their fortune told by going to a fortune-teller. 

Pairs face each other throughout the room. Students A of each pair is the fortune teller. Students B are having their fortune told. Student A takes the hand of Student B and looks searchingly. Student B asks questions: "Will I be rich?" Student A improvises answers... "Yes, you will be very rich, but only if you marry an ugly woman!" "Where will I be living twenty years from now?" "Who will I marry?"

Fortune tellers can also volunteer information without waiting for a question.

Variations:

For the more advanced, after the basic game is played, reported or indirect speech can be practiced by asking each player in the pair what the fortune teller told them. One pair can ask another, and the second pair can report to the whole class. 

Story Consequences

Level: Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: writing.

Topic: grammar/vocabulary.

Materials: half the number of hats as there are students.

Time: 10 to 15 minutes.

The goal here is to students write parts of a text, guided by cues as to general purpose, but deprived of the ability to communicate with or see the contributions of one’s co-authors. It works out very nicely with students of any level.

Divide the class into groups of eight players. If you have smaller groups then some of the learners must write two sentences or more. 

Demonstrate how to fold a piece of A4 paper into eight strips: fold the paper in half, then in half again, and in half one last time; making all the folds parallel. Then, guided by the resulting creases, refold the paper into zigzags, like the squeezy parts of a concertina or accordion. Ask one student from each group to fold a piece of paper in the same way.

Explain that the game proceeds as follows: the first student writes his/her contribution on the first panel of the concertina, i.e. the topmost panel. This student should do this quietly and secretly, folding the panel over when he/she is done, so that no one else can see what was written. Next, the second student follows suit, then the third, and so on, until all eight contributions have been added. The last student has the task of unfolding the concertina and reading out loud to the others the full text of the little story that results.

Observation:

If you want to guide the process more closely, you could tell the students the story is guided by the following formula, which prescribes what each student should contribute:

• Fold 1 (time) …
• Fold 2 (place) …
• Fold 3 X (male character’s name) met …
• Fold 4 Y (female character’s name)
• Fold 5 He said …
• Fold 6 She said …

Jog! Jog! Jog!

Level: Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: speaking.

Topic: grammar.

Materials: none.

Time: 5 to 10 minutes.

This game is aimed at children and teenagers, but I have worked with some adults who loved it. It's worth a try! 

First, have the learners stand together in an open space. Tell them to follow your instructions, repeating the verb over and over as they do so. The first instruction – and every second instruction throughout the game – is one that makes the learners circulate: Jog!

Teacher: (starts jogging around the room) Jog! Jog! Jog! etc.

Learners: (jogging) Jog! Jog! Jog! etc.

Teacher: (stops jogging) Pat your neighbour’s head! (turns to the closest person and starts patting their head) Pat! Pat! Pat! etc.

Learners: (patting their neighbour’s head) Pat! Pat! Pat! etc.

Teacher: (stops patting and starts jogging around the room): Jog! Jog! Jog! etc.

Learners: (jogging) Jog! Jog! Jog! etc.

Other instructions: touch, tap, stroke, tickle, slap, scratch.

Observation:

It's fully appreciated that making bodily contact is not considered appropriate in some cultures and with some individuals. As with all games in this blog I suppose that the teacher knows what is and what isn't acceptable.

Changing Hats

Level: Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: speaking.

Topic: grammar.

Materials: half the number of hats as there are students.

Time: 5 to 15 minutes.

The goal of this game is to exchange hats while practising possessive and demonstrative pronouns. Distribuite the hats to some of the students. Students begin to take hats off of others and put them on their own, or someone else's head, emphasizing the pronouns used (possessive, object, subject, demonstrative) and possessive adjectives.

If the game is restricted to possessive adjectives and demonstrative pronouns, it will sound like this: "That's my hat". "No, it's not. It's his hat." "That's her hat." "No, that hat is hers." "I'm taking that hat because it's mine." "I'm giving you this hat because it looks good on you". For subject and object pronouns: "I'm giving this hat to her". "She gave that hat to him".

This is an unusually popular game with all ages. For some reasons unknown, everybody loves to switch hats.

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 ...

Follow The Leader

Level: Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: speaking / miming (at the same time!)

Topic: grammar

Materials: none.

Time: 5 to 15 minutes.

The goal here is to follow the leader using the same sound and action as the leader. Also, to change leaders, so that each person in the group can have a chance to lead (it's good to recap present continuous phrases or sentences!).

Get your whole group standing in a circle, or if the group is large, in two or three separate circles. You should be in the circle , but lead as little as possible, explaining that you will start an action and say a phrase at the same time (e.g. painting a wall). Everyone must follow the action and phrase. The action and phrase must be repeated until someone changes them by doing a new action and phrase (e.g. eating an apple).

It is important to repeat each action and phrase until it is changed. This maintains the rhythm of the game and prevents the students from winding down or stopping to 'think'.

If two people start a new action/phrase simultaneously, they are simply to choose one and follow it, until the whole group is doing the same.

In an elementary group, it is better to let anyone lead who wants to. Eventually, everyone will lead.

Every phrase should be accompanied by a mime action. If someone forgets, you can help.

Variation:
In Intermediate groups, sentences (e.g. we are getting dressed, they are driving a car) can be employed. Questions and answers with half the circle asking the question to the other half wihile pointing at them: 'What are you doing?' The second half of the circle answers and performs a mime action. With Advanced groups, use the same procedure, but add more complicated grammar structures (e.g. after he had buried the body, he drank a cup of tea; with the circle divided in two, half 1 asks 'if you weren't combing your hair, what could you be doing?' and half 2 answers, miming too: 'we could be drinking a cup of coffee').

Mobile Phones

Level: Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: speaking.

Topic: grammar / vocabulary.

Materials: student's own mobile phones.

Time: 5 to 15 minutes.

Everyone has a mobile phone. Most students end up clashing with the school protocols against the usage of those in classroom, but you can change that a bit. 

Put the students into working pairs. Call out a letter. The students see in their mobiles databank who is the first person with that letter and talk with a partner about that person, for about a minute. When the time is up,  change letters. Keep the activity speedy! 

It's guaranteed that students would like this and feel at ease about the school protocols against mobile phones in class afterwards.

Long Sentence Game

Level: Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: speaking.

Topic: grammar.

Materials: none.

Time: 5 to 15 minutes.

One student says a sentence, e.g. I watch TV, and then names another student in class (Gabriel). Gabriel then repeats the sentence, adding a verb phrase, and names the next student, e.g. I watch TV and I eat popcorn. (Isabella). Isabella repeats the sentence and adds another phrase, e.g. I watch TV, I eat popcorn, and I phone my boyfriend. (Laura).

A different student must be nominated each time. The game continues round the class. The object of the game is for students to remember and say the ever lengthening sentence. When the sentence is long enough and students are struggling to remember it, finish by getting the whole class to repeat the final sentence together. 

Tip: demonstrate with examples on the board before you start, showing students how the position of and moves. You can use long sentence game for structures such as: like (verb) -ing (I like reading, swimming, dancing, etc.); there is / there are (In my bedroom, there is a bed, a chair, a computer, etc.); past simple (Yesterday, I got up, I had a shower, I got dressed, etc.); countability (My sister bought some tomatoes, an onion, some sugar, etc.).

Add a Word

Level: Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: speaking.

Topic: grammar / vocabulary.

Materials: none.

Time: 5 to 15 minutes.

The object of this game is to build up a story with each student contributing one word at a time. Good for gauging individual student's pronunciation problems.

The first student begins by saying one word; the second student adds another word; and so on, gradually building up a story. Students can add 'period', signalling the end of a sentence if it is appropriate. The ones who could not come up with a suitable word or take too much time are out of the game.

Example:

• Student 1: One
• Student 2: Day
• Student 3: Charlie
• Student 4: Saw
• Student 5: A
• Student 6: Gorilla
• Student 7: Walking
• Student 8: Down
• Student 9: The
• Student 10: Street
• Student 11: [Period]
• Student 12: 'Hello'
• Student 1: Said
• Student 2: Charlie... (And so on).

Write Now!

Level: Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: speaking.

Topic: grammar and vocabulary / warmer.

Materials: none.

Time: 5 to 15 minutes.

Divide the students into teams, separating them into two or three rows, facing the board. First student from each row comes to the board. Call out a letter. Students must write down all the words they can think of that begin with that letter. Call "time's up" after about 20 seconds. Second students come up. Give them a different letter. The row with the most correct (and correctly spelled) words wins.

This game is especially suitable to be a fun, lively warmer.

Name Six

Level: Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: speaking.

Topic: grammar and vocabulary.

Materials: none.

Time: 5 to 15 minutes.

This game is fun and challenging at the same time. It can be adapted for virtually any subject and any grade level. It allows the students to review material they have learned, without having to get out a pencil and paper and answer questions from texts.

Arrange six chairs in a circle and choose one person, you or another student, to stand outside the circle. Give someone in the circle a stuffed animal, for example (the funnier the animal the better!) or one of those yellow smiley balls easily found in any cheap trinkets stores (that's the one I usually use). The person outside the circle states what the person holding the animal has to name six of (e.g., countries, breakfast food, Olympic sports, etc.). The person then starts moving the animal around the circle and the other players pass it around. The student who was holding the animal must name six of the objects before the animal gets back to him or her.

For example, let's say that you have just finished a vocabulary unit on animals. The person standing outside the group may say something like, "Name six animals that have fur." The person sitting in the circle begins naming six animals and at the same time, the stuffed animal is being passed around the circle. If the player cannot name six animals with fur by the time the stuffed animal reaches him, he has lost and it's his turn to stand outside the group and stunt the other students.

Students absolutely love this game, for the sheer energy involved and the fast pace of it. And so do I, because it requires little preparation!