Activities for rainy days, Friday afternoons, Monday mornings and
end of school holidays.
Clap back
(by Bobby Semau)
Procedure
•
The class stands in a circle and each student chooses (or is assigned) one word relating to a specified topic.
For example the topic may be health and students may have words such as hospital, nutrition, illness etc.
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Ss must try to remember each others' words.
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One student starts by clapping in the direction of the student on his/her left or right and simultaneously say-
ing (or shouting!) the word of that student. That student then continues by clapping back to the first student
or on to the next and saying the corresponding word.
•
The game proceeds in this way until a student says the wrong word or fails to react within a given time (three
seconds for example), in which case he/she is out of the game - he/she leaves the circle and then the game
continues until only two remain.
Clap back is good for breaking the ice in a lesson, getting a little energy into the classroom, improving pronunciation
and developing general memory skills. This game has often lead to a class full of laughter and students repeating
each others words long after class, thus it is ideal for getting students to remember target vocabulary.
Shout!
(by Zoë Coughlan)
Procedure
•
Get the members of the class to stand up and form two lines, one on either side of the classroom. They
should all be facing inwards, i.e. facing someone in the line opposite.
•
They are going to have a conversation (about whatever topic you like). The only catch is that their partner is
the person across the room from them (not standing next to them).
•
You can give them a list of questions, if you like, or leave it open to them: "Ask your partner about their weekend."
•
The important thing is that they must keep their backs against the wall - they are not allowed to move for-
wards to speak to their partner.
•
This results in lots of shouting, and really wakes up and energizes quiet / sleepy groups.
•
Either stop after a few minutes, or ask the students to switch partners and go again.
Vocabulary guessing game
(
By Marta Riera)
This is a good warmer to practise recently taught vocabulary.
Procedure
•
Write a list of previously taught vocabulary words (10 - 15 words) on a piece of paper. Place two chairs at the
front of the classroom.
•
Divide the students into two teams.
•
Nominate one student from each team to sit with their back to the board so they cannot see the board.
•
Write one vocabulary word on the board.
•
Tell the other students they must help their team mate sitting at the front to guess the word. Tell them they can
say anything (e.g. synonyms, antonyms, paraphrases, etc.), BUT they cannot say the word or any part of it.
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The first student sitting at the front who guesses the word correctly wins a point for their team.
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Once a point has been won, nominate two new students (one from each team) to sit in front of the class.
Write a new word on the board and repeat the procedure.
•
The team with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.
For lower level classes allow students to use gestures (i.e. hand or body movements) for clues. This often livens up
the activity even more.
Analogies
(taken from 101 Word Games by George P. McCallum, OUP 1980)
Level : intermediate and above
Objective : to help students make comparisons in English
Procedure
In advance, prepare a list of analogies suitable to the language level of your class, with one word of the comparison
missing in each sentence.
Hand out this list to each student, folded, and at the signal, ‘Go’ instruct them to open their papers and begin work. After
approximately five minutes say, ‘Stop.’ Then go around the classroom and have students read their analogies aloud.
The students with the most correct answers are the winners.
Sample analogies:
1. Feet are to shoes as hands are to …………(gloves)
2. Author is to book as …………….is to picture (artist)
3. London is to England as …………..is to the United States (Washington, D.C.)
4. Black is to white as night is to …………….(day)
5. Ship is to sea as airplane is to ………….(sky)
Option: taken from the article by Gary Hopkins in Education World®
- level: advanced
1. Library is to books as bank is to _____.
a. paper
b. robbery
c. money
d. teller
2. Rose is to vase as water is to _____.
a. lake
b. tub
c. ice cube
d. flow
3. Up is to down as top is to _____.
a. under
b. beneath
c. behind
d. bottom
4. Plumber is to pipe as mason is to _____.
a. foundation
b. stone
c. plaster
d. wire
5. Columbus is to Santa Maria as Gilligan is to _____.
a. Mrs. Howell
b. S.S. Minnow
c. skipper
d. hurricane
Set 2
1
. Kitten is to cat as cub is to _____.
a. scout
b. polar
c. bear
d. claws
2. Ford is to car as Maytag is to _____.
a. brand
b. washer
c. Chevy
d. repair
3. Knife is to cut as screwdriver is to _____.
a. screw
b. hammer
c. twist
d. drill
4. Small is to petite as large is to _____.
a. tiny
b. egg
c. microscopic
d. giant
5. Loose is to tight as narrow is to _____.
a. skinny
b. wide
c. fat
d. thin
Jokes – a silly dictation
Procedure
•
Tell the students you have a cough today but you are still going to do a dictation. If they don’t hear words,
they will just have to guess what you said.
•
Read out a joke like the one below and dictate as usual but don’t read all the words – cough instead of saying
certain words e.g. Eleven people were cough on a rope, under a helicopter, ten men and one cough.
•
Students have to guess what the missing words are and write them in, either individually or in pairs.
•
After checking whether they guessed correctly, they could discuss the joke and why/if they found it funny.
•
They could also try telling jokes they know in their mother tongue in English.
The joke
Eleven people are hanging on a rope, under a helicopter, ten men and one woman. The rope is not strong enough
to carry them all, so they decide that one has to leave, because otherwise they are all going to fall. They are not able to
name that person, until the woman makes a very touching speech. She says she will voluntarily let go of the rope, be-
cause as a woman she is used to giving up everything for her husband and kids, or for men in general, and is used to
always making sacrifices with little in return. As soon as she finishes her speech, all the men started clapping their hands.
Changing places
(taken from Classroom Dynamics by Jill Hadfield, RBFT OUP, 1992)
All levels
Prepare small pieces of paper with instructions on them for half he students in the class (a different instruction for
each). For example:
Find someone older than you and sit next to them.
Find someone with more brothers and sisters than you and sit next to them.
Find someone who can ride a bicycle and sit next to them.
The instruction should be either very general , as in the above examples, or very specific , based on your knowledge
of the students , to enable the ‘searchers’ to find specific people. (In this case, you will have to work out in advance
exactly who you want to sit next to whom, and who is going to be finding and who is going to be found.)
Procedure
1. Ask alternate students to stand up . The rest should remain seated, so that there is an empty seat next to
every seated student.
2. Give out the instruction slips to the students who are standing and ask them to find the person described on
the slip. To do this, they will have to move around asking the seated students questions, until they find the
person who answers the description in the card.
This activity is useful when students have been working with one partner for some time, and you want them to
change partners for the next exercise. Again, it can be adapted to any level, and used to practise a wide variety of
language items. It will be most successful when the language it practises is related to the language you are in the
middle of teaching. For example, if you are teaching ‘can’, all the instructions should begin ‘Find someone who can
…’; if you are teaching the past simple, all instructions should begin ‘Find someone who … yesterday’.
Tom’s depressed
(taken from Drama by Charlyn Wessels, RBFT, OUP 1987).
Age: fourteen upwards, level : pre-intermediate upwards
Procedure
Choose one student to play the part of Tom. He is to sit in the center of the class, looking as gloom and depressed as
possible (or you can put a ‘sad’ mask on him). In groups, the students decide on a list of things that would cheer him
up, and arrange this list in order of merit. ‘Tom’ chooses the best selection, and the winning group then act out, in
mime and speech, the first three things on their list. Alternatively, the students could simply re-arrange the following
list in the best order: a flattering compliment; a bottle of champagne; a date with a lovely girl; a new car; dinner in the
best restaurant in town; a new job; a better salary; a night at the disco; the latest CD by his favourite singer/group;
a walk in the countryside.
An alternative version of this game is to ask the students to draw up a short list of situations/events/remarks which
often depress them. They can then compare lists, and offer each other advice on how to overcome the depression.