Activity 77- One Minute Talk

                                                       picture credits: Martin Poole (Getty Images)

Here is a great warmer for your class!

Level:Intermediate/Advanced

Skill: Speaking

Material needed:A box or a bag and slips with topics

Instructions: 

Students pick a slip from the bag/box and have one minute to talk freely to the group about that topic. When time is up, encourage classmates to ask one or two follow-up questions.

Here are some suggestions for topics:

last weekend

love

money

family

embarrassing moment

sports

dogs

my dream job

regrets

dream vacation

school

my job

birthday party

my country

children

childhood

best friend

accident

health

fear

free time 

relationships

education

etc

Source: Vinicius Lemos

Activity 76- The Washing Line

                                         picture credits: cottonroots.co.uk

Level: Basic

Aim: vocabulary recognition

Material needed: accessories, different pieces of clothing, a set of clothespins and a washing line

Instructions:

Divide students into 2 teams. Display all the items on the teacher`s table.  Explain that in this game they have to be fast because the winner is the group that can perform the tasks in less time. The teacher should shout a word and the student should pick up that item and use a clothespin to hang it in the washing line. Write down on the board the time each student takes  to perform the task. Add the times to determine the winning group.

Source: Vinicius Lemos

Activity 75- What a Story!

                                                        picture credits: thestorieslatells.blogspot.com

Level:Any

Skill: Listening and Speaking

Material needed: set of cards with words.

Instructions:

In this activity, students are going to create a story together. The teacher should start it by picking up a card from the pile. The word in each card should dictate the path of the story and its protagonist. (ex: if someone picks a card with the word "romantic", then the protagonist should do something romantic or something romantic should somehow take place as the story is being told). Students keep telling the story until everyone has had a chance to pick a card and contribute to the narrative. The last student to pick a card should finish the story.

Suggestions of words:

exciting

depressing

sad

expensive

heroic

fantastic

romantic

cheap

dramatic

funny

happy

boring

weird

unbelievable

surprising

Source: Vinicius Lemos, adapted from "Two Dozen Activities to Engage Indifferent Learners- by Ane Cibele Palma and Rossana Cirio Uba.

Activity 74- Compare and Contrast

                                         picture credits: beachbungalow8.blogspot.com

This is a very dynamic activity that is going to test your students` fluency skills and creativity!

Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Skill: Speaking

Material needed: set of cards with items to be compared

Instructions:

Divide class into 2 teams. The player should draw a card from the pile and read out loud the 2 items in it. He or she must tell one way the 2 items are similar and one way they are different. Set a time limit of 30 seconds or more (depending on the group).The other students must agree with the explanations in order for the team to get the point. Provide students with some examples before they actually play the game (Ex: apple- banana : The apple and the banana are the same because they are both fruit and they are different because a banana is long and an apple is round. )

Suggestions for the cards:

sister-brother

hat-shoe

cousin- aunt

jacket- vest

yellow- black

carrots- grapes

wine - milk

soccer- video games

cell phone - watch

Superman- mother

paper- apple

water - lettuce

tie - socks

egg - rice

chocolate - ice

ketchup - salt

Source: Vinicius Lemos, adapted from "Everyone is a Winner" (TESOL 2009), by Jennifer Brown and Cathy Yorio

Activity 73- Find Someone WHO... Has the Answer!

                                                        picture credits: coloradoavalanchecares.com

Level: Basic and Intermediate

Skill: Listening and Speaking

Grammar point: WH- Questions

Material needed: Prepare slips of papers with WH- Questions and Answers. The idea is to have more slips than the number of students in class, for whoever matches more questions and answers, wins the game.

Instructions:

-          Prepare a set of WH- questions with their corresponding answers;

-          Hand out two slips for each student (a question and a different answer);

-          Tell students they should walk around the class, trying to find the corresponding question and answer to their slips;

-          When pairs find a match, they come to the teacher, show him/her their match to see if they are correct, and then get more slips with more questions and answers;

-          The game goes on until there are no more slips left.

-          Then ask the students to count how many slips they have and whoever has more slips, wins!

Source: Adapted from “Grammar Practice Activities”