creative, interesting games for warm up activities.includes what to do, how to play, notes for new teacher.This task will help the teachers in their carrier if they want to make the lessons mote interesting. The warm ups help the kids with lesson start every student can work with the dictionary, or if the task is given for home work he or she has more time for preparing. This task gives the various possibilties to enlarge the vocabulary and to find the right option. It can be given at the beginning of the lesson or in the end, and if the pupils are not so good at learning it may be given for home work. The ideas with pictures are never ending.
Trang 2Print this PDF and keep in the teacher’s
office
Trang 4The Chain
Really simple but fun warmer today
At the start of the
class, get your students sitting in a circle One student
starts by saying a word The next student must
say a word beginning with the last letter of
the first student's word
The next student must then say a word starting with the last letter of the previous and so on and so on, around the circle
Trang 5Go Bananas!
This is a really funny classroom game which your classes are guaranteed not to have done before It is a mix of a sentence structure game and an unusual Indian sport called Kabadi!
1 Get a sentence or two of a recently studied topic, or just something level appropriate
2 Photocopy this out so you have the same sentence twice Try to make the words nice
and big, at least size 48 on Word
3 Cut the sentences up into individual words and put them into two separate
envelopes Both envelopes should contain all the words needed to make the original
1 Get teams into lines
2 One student from each team must race out to try to put the sentence into order at
the table However, while they do this, they must not breathe in!! To prove they are not
cheating, they must constantly say 'Banana' over and over and over again!
3 As soon as they can't go on, they must run back to their line and tag-in the next
student who runs in and takes over from where the last student left off Again, they
must say 'Banana' constantly until they can not go on and have to return for the next
person The first team to get all of their words into the correct order wins!
Tips: Don't make the sentence too short, otherwise the first few students will finish it
with the rest of the class not getting a go and feel disappointed Similarly, don't make it
too long that it becomes an impossible exercise You may have to experiment a little
here to get the right balance Perhaps go to the class armed with two sentences
If you plan to use this with multiple classes, consider using
a dif e r e n t c o l ou r ed f ont for each team That way, at the end of the class, you
can whack all the words back into the right envelopes according to colour rather than having a big, mixed-up pile of random words to sort out on your precious break
between classes! No colour printer? No worries, simply run a different coloured pen on the reverse side of the sentence before you cut it up
Trang 6felt-Human Bingo!
This is a brilliant warmer which will get your class speaking straight away!
The best thing is that you can adjust the difficulty to suit any age or any level so you can all use this today!
1 Give each student a sheet of A4 paper
2 Each student uses a pen to divide the sheet into 9 sections, like a naughts and
crosses board - two lines across, two lines going down
3 The teacher writes around 15 questions of the board to suit the level of the students
Easy for small kids, harder for advanced students
4 Each student chooses eight of these questions and writes the questions in the
squares, leaving the centre space blank
5 Students then must speak to eight different students to get their answers These
answers are written on their paper
6 At the end of the activity, have feedback For example:
Teacher: Who spoke to Lucky?
Student 1: Me
Student 2: I did
Teacher: What did you ask her?
Student 1: What time do you wake up?
Student 2: Tell me three shops
Teacher: What did Lucky say?
Student 1: She wakes up at 7am Student 2: Supermarket, greengrocers,
bookstore
Trang 7Mallett's Mallet!
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Trang 8Activity of the Day: Word Grab!
This is the perfect activity to lift a dreary class!
Choose a suitable song (not too fast), and choose about 15 keywords from
the song Write the words in big
letters on paper and stick the words
on the blackboard
Also write about 5 words which don't appear in the song and put these on the board
too Be sure to put all the words in a random order
Get the students into two teams and have them form lines
Play the song and the first student of each line has to run out and grab the word
they hear off the board If you are worried about your words getting totally wrecked,
then just have students point to the correct word (Each student only gets one try,
they can't just point at all of the words until they get the right one!)
This is a great game which is good for listening practice If you need to, you can play the song twice or pause it where needed
Tip: Remember if you choose your one of favourite songs, which you have listened to
1000 times, then this will seem easy to you Remember that this could be the first
time your students may have listened to it and they won't know what is coming next in
the same way you do! Take it easy with your students
Trang 9Lottery Winner!!!
*Note: You can do one, two or all of these activities depending on what you want to do and how much time you have)
Activity #1 - The Newspaper Interview (30-45 mins)
- Get a photo of a lottery winner Show the class and tell your students that they have
just won $200,000,000 Ask your students how he/she might feel What do you think
he/she would spend the money on? Get ideas
- Tell students that they are newspaper reporters and have to get an interview with
the lottery winner Have pairs of students think of 4-5 questions they would ask the lottery winner for the newspaper When finished, interview different pairs of students
Activity #2 (20-30 mins) - What to do with the Money?
Put students into groups to decide the best way to spend the money and present it to
the class They can either get mansions, golf courses in their back garden, etc, or can
be more imaginative or charitable, up to the groups!
Activity #3 Lottery Draw! (15-20 mins)
- Before class, go to the shop and buy 12 ping-pong balls and a black permanent
marker Write numbers 1-12 on each ball, and put them in a bag If your students want
to, collect 0.5RMB from each student (or 1RMB if they are high-rollers haha) and hand them each a slip of paper Tell them that they are going to play the lottery Each
student must write three numbers from 1-12 on their paper Go around and check
each paper to see that it has been done right
- Tell the class that they will play the lottery You will pick three balls from the bag If they can match two numbers, they win 2RMB If they match all three, then they win the pot!! (You can usually play 3-4 games before the pot is empty) Ask the winners and losers how they felt afterwards
Trang 11The Toilet Roll!
This activity is great as a
warmer or a first
class icebreaker
By a toilet roll from the shop and
bring it to class
Sit everyone in a circle and hand the toilet roll to the first student The toilet roll is
obviously a very unusual thing to bring to class, so everyone will be wondering what is
going on and you'll have their interest
Give the roll to the first student and tell them to tear off between 1-4 sheets Don't say
why just yet
The roll then travels around the room, with every student choosing to tear off between
1-4 sheets each When it gets back to you, you also can either take 1, 2, 3 or 4 sheets
of toilet paper
Students (and you) then have to say something about themselves If they have one
sheet, they must tell the class one thing about themselves Two sheets, two things about themselves Three sheets, three things, and so on
This is a fun and simple way for everyone to say something about themselves and
to break to ice for a class
Trang 12
Level: Any Level
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've learned, without having
to get out a pencil and paper and answer questions from the text
What to Do
Arrange 6 chairs in a circle with students seated in them and choose one person,
the teacher or another student, to stand outside the circle
Give someone sitting in the circle a stuffed animal - the funnier the animal the better!
If you don't have a teddy, then find some other cool passable object, it doesn't really matter
The person outside the circle states what the person holding the animal has to name
six of, for example, six classroom objects, or six things in the city, or six verbs, etc
The person then starts passing the animal around the circle from student to
student as fast as possible
The person standing in the middle must name six of the objects before the animal gets back to him or her
If the player can say six items before the teddy gets back to the first student, then
he/she has won If the teddy gets back first before the player has said sx things, then the player in the middle loses!
Trang 13Pairing up students
During your classes, teachers will
need to pair up students
This often means just pairing up students with the person they are sitting next to
This should be avoided
Always having the same pairs means students miss out on interacting with one
another and the class dynamic won't be as strong and fun Try to mix things up
Ball o' String
I got this idea from an English teacher who is teaching in Spain It is really simple
and will guarantee that you will have different pairs each time you try it
Get a ball of string from the shop and cut several lengths of string, a few metres
long each If your class is 20, cut 10 bits of string If your class is 14, cut 7 lengths of
string and so on - one length of string per pair If you have odd numbers, put one
group into a three or you join in yourself
Get everyone to stand up in a large circle Have all of the string bunched up in a ball in
your hand (but not tangled up) with the ends poking out
Ask each student to grab one end of a piece of string and gradually walk backwards
They will be left holding the string with their new partner at the other end so easy!
This is a very fun and original way to choose partners and you'll be the coolest
teacher in your school for sure!
Trang 14Fun with Intonation
Use this activity to underline the importance
of intonation when your students, as they
often do, talk like robots Basically, get them
to say the words in quotation marks in the contexts that follow
Say 'Hello'
to a friend you haven't seen for 3 years
to a neighbour that you don't like
to a 6 month old baby
to someone you have just found doing something they shouldn't
to someone on the phone when you're not sure if they are still on the other end
Say 'Goodbye'
to a member of your family as they are going through the boarding gate at the airport
to someone who has been annoying you
to a child starting his very first day at school
Say 'How are you?'
to someone you haven't seen for 20 years
to someone who has recently lost a member of the family
to someone who didn't sleep in their own bed last night
Say 'I never go to pubs'
by a person that totally disapproves of drinking alcohol to someone who often goes to pubs
as a response to someone who has told you they sometimes go to pubs
said before: '…but I quite like discos.'
Say 'What have you done?'
to someone who claims to have fixed your television only that now it's worse than before
to someone who is scolding you for not doing anything when you suspect the same about them
to someone who has just done something very bad and which has serious
consequences
Trang 15What are the Darwin Awards?
The Darwin Awards are given out
to very, very stupid people who help the
human race by taking themselves out
of the gene pool by either death or by
sterilizing themselves i.e a man dangling his nuts in a golf ball cleaning machine for a laugh (this has
happened )
Using the Darwin Awards in the Classroom
About ten years ago, I was teaching an adults class for EF English First Xi'an The unit
was about 'Greatest Human Achievements' and the language point for comparatives and superlatives I flicked through the pages in the office and decided that the unit
was incredibly boring, but had a felling that it needn't be
I decided to put a twist on it and do the Darwin Awards to contrast with the Greatest Achievements We looked at the Darwin Awards and some of the winners and what they had done 'to win' The students absolutely loved it!
What we did
Following reading through a couple of real award winners, students were put into groups and had to invent their own Darwin Award stories (using the language point) -
they were really creative here! Some stories were amazing!
At the end, they acted out their stories for the class It worked perfectly; lots of smiles
If you have an adults class this week, a university class, or a Salon Class in an
adults language centre, then try out using The Darwin Awards!
Trang 16Have you got our free pocket
Chinese mini-menu?
Click on this picture to download for free!
The mini-menu is great fun to make –
simply print, cut, fold and glue and you have a full Chinese menu for your pocket,
wallet or bag!
Trang 17Message on a Lollypop!
This Young Learner activity is for
kids who are just beginning to read and write in English You
can easily grade this activity to make it super easy or a bit
more challenging It is best
suited with a maximum of 12 or
so students
In a nutshell, your students will be given a lollypop each with a small, secret
message wrapped around the lolly stick They need to unravel this, and then go to
the board to work out what the message says from the key you have stuck to the
white board They then have to write down this message on a piece of paper to
show you When they have sussed it out, they can have their lolly
Preparation: A few days before class, pop into a corner shop and buy one lollypop per student in your class They are only 1RMB each, so no big sweat
Choose a suitable word or small sentence for your class If you have 5 year-olds, this
might be 'dog', 'cat', cow', whatever For slightly older classes, it could be 'My name is', or 'I like ' I'll leave this to you
First prepare your key for the whiteboard In the teachers' office, jump onto Microsoft Word and type out on one page letters A-Z in Arial font and then type each letter A-Z
again out using the WEBDINGS font (Webdings are little fun pictures instead of A, B,
C, D, etc) You should be left with the whole alphabet and the corresponding symbols from Webdings 26 letters, 26 matching symbols Print this page, go to the photocopier
and print it out to A3 You now have a big, clear key to stick on the whiteboard for
your students to follow
Now for the messages Jump back on the computer and type out short words or
messages using the Webdings font on Microsoft Word You can either choose them
all the same, or have a couple of different messages This is more fun for the kids in my view
Print out the page of coded messages, cut them into individual strips (one strip per
student) and wrap them around the lolly stick Job done!
Trang 18(The vocab used in this example is for 'food', but any lexis is fine for this flashcard game)
Sit down in a circle and pass the first
flashcard to the child on your right As
you pass the card say the word, or a short sentence, e.g “Carrot”, “It‟s a
carrot”, “I like carrots”, etc
That student must pass the card to the
next student, repeating what you have
said Then that child passes it on to the next and so on
In the meantime, you have passed a new card to the first student, then another, then another and so on Students are then continuously receiving cards and passing
them on, saying the correct word or phrase
Start slowly at first and gradually speed up When they have had some practice with this
and are able to do it quite well, you make the activity more complex
Instead of only passing the cards round in one direction, you pass a card to the student
on your right but then you pass the next card to the student on your left So cards
are moving around the group in both directions
It's a good way to develop vocabulary and to get your students to use short phrases
Trang 19Follow TEFL Lemon on
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the lemon drip
Trang 20Help Me!
This is a fun warmer to start off your adults' lessons this week
1 Get students into small groups
2 Tell the class that you need help with some problems
3 Groups must take it in turns to call out help for you
4 Before you start, write a problem on the board and write down suggestions of how you can be helped to show the class what they need to do
5 You are now ready to begin Get one idea from each group, then change to a new problem Keep going for a few minutes, then start your usual class
Example problem: I have a headache
"Take an aspirin"
"Stop drinking beer"
"Lie down"
Example problem: I have no money
"Ask for a raise"
"Get a new job"
"Get out of bed"
Example problem: I have missed the bus to work
"Catch the next bus"
"Run!"
"Call work to tell them you will be late"
Trang 21The Paper Plane Game
Draw a target (with points - like a
dart board) on the white board
or use a cardboard box in the
middle of the room
Students then make paper aeroplanes and get to launch them after they answer your question in the form of a sentence
Encourage students to answer in sentences, rather than single word utterances
You will be suprised just how hard students will try to say the answer, repeat your
sentence, or whatever, just so they can throw their paper plane!
I recommend giving a prize to make the target points mean something, thus peaking
their interest in the activity
Lastly, use scrap paper for this activity Large packs of new A4 paper are costly for schools and a ball-ache to go and buy, so get some use out of the scrap paper box
Trang 22Icebreaker: S k i t t l e s
An Ice Breaker is a simple activity for the first class of a new term
In a new class students may well not
know each other yet (and nor will you
know them) They may well be shy
about speaking also
An ice breaker is designed to do several things Good ones will relax the
class and create a friendly atmosphere They will also allow you to get a good idea
of the level of the class and see how different students work together (or not, as
the case may be)
Skittles! Buy a big pack of Skittles (enough for five Skittles per student) and go
around the class giving each student five Skittles Important: Tell your students
they can't eat their Skittles yet!
Now go to the board and write the following:
Red Skittle = Favourite hobby
Blue Skittle = Dream job
Yellow Skittle = Favourite place
Orange Skittle = Favourite film
Purple Skittle = Wildcard - ask any question you like
Students now have to go and meet other students
Student A offers Student B a skittle to eat and this student must choose one and ask
the matching question e.g Takes a blue Skittle and asks "What is your dream job?" Student A then takes one of Student B's skittles to eat and also asks a question
After this, both students must walk off and find new partners
Keep going until each student has spoken to five other students and all the Skittles
are gone!
Trang 23Have you checked out
Trang 24I have never…
This is a fantastic game which practices
the use of the present perfect
tense and using the past participle
Your students will absolutely LOVE this game and will want to play again and again
What to do: Ask examples from your class of things they have NEVER done Write
your students' suggestions on the board For example:
"I have never been to
you might say:
"I have never drank water."
Now tell your students that if they HAVE drank water, then they should move and swap
places with another student Naturally, everyone will get up and move places Give two more
examples and have students get up and move around, for example, "I have never ridden a bicycle" Again, any students who HAVE ridden a bicycle should move
On the third time, you yourself should quickly take a seat and leave one student in the middle
standing Your students will find this very funny!
Now it is the student in the middle's turn to say "I have never " Again, your students must
get up and switch around if they HAVE done it This is a fast paced activity which your students
will love!
Trang 26This is a dead easy activity to set up and can create a lot of laughs!
Get some A4 paper and cut it into quarters On each piece of paper, write a situation of two
people in a sticky or embarrassing situation
Have one situation for each pair of students Here are some examples:
- A man catches his wife cheating
- Someone wants to take money from his account, but he only has 10RMB in the bank
- A doctor fails an athlete in a drug's test after a race
- A store detective catches a shoplifter
- A woman is late for work for the third time in one week
- A boy kicks a football through his dad's new greenhouse
- A dad buys his daughter a new phone, but it is like a brick and she hates it
- A woman wants to die her hair brown, but it comes out blue
- A blind date goes horribly wrong
, etc
Give each pair of students one role-play card each and give them 5-10 minutes to make their own dialogue They can then act it out in front of the class
*Tip 1: before pairs act out the dialogue, separate each pair, as they will just keep planning their
own dialogue and not watch the acting pair/will just continually talk to each other through each performance
*Tip 2: Teacher can make notes of any interesting parts/language errors to go through at the
end
Trang 27The Dinner Party
Tell your class that this
weekend you are having
a dinner party There will
be good food, good music and good company
Tell them that you have
invited five very, very,
very special guests to
the party and ask your
students to guess who
they might be Get some
answers from them
After you have got a few ideas, reveal your list of five special guests Here
are my five, you can choose any you like:
Helen Keller Elvis Presley
Nostradamus
Neil Armstrong
Queen Elizabeth II
Make sure that your five are well known and have some no longer living
Tell your students why you have chosen your 5
Now tell your students to make their own list of five people for their own
dinner party They can be alive or dead, but can't include their own friends or
family, who will be coming anyway
After they have made their list, have each student tell everyone who was
on their list and why they were chosen
This is a quick, easy and fun speaking activity which requires no special preparation
Trang 28Newspaper Sumo
Get a large newspaper and pull out one large page and lay it in the middle of your classroom
Get two equal-sized students to stand
with their backs facing each other
with their toes just touching the
edges of the paper (their
backs won't be touching at this point and there will be a large gap between the students)
Ask the students a question and the first student to answer correctly gets to take half
a step backward Keep asking questions with the fastest student to answer always
taking half a step backward When their backs are touching each other, you may stop asking questions and it is time for battle to commence!
At the count of three, students must try to walk backwards to push the other
student off the paper As soon, as any part of their foot has come off the newspaper
and touched the floor, then that student loses! You can then get two new students in to play
Just make sure that both students are equally matched in size and weight and don't
expect your newspaper to last very long either!
Play this game at your own discretion Don't be afraid of one student flying off headfirst,
it doesn't happen, students generally just put a quick toe down off the paper for balance However, do stand close just in case
Trang 29Marooned!
Get your class into pairs or 3's, and
tell them that they have been
marooned on a desert island The
next ship will pass in 6-12 months
time
(If with a lower level class, a picture of someone marooned on a desert island will help with the explanation)
There is fresh water on the island, as well as loads of fruits, nuts and
berries Food and water isn't a problem
Ask each group to make a list of five things they would like to have with them for their time stuck on the island They can have anything they want,
but the rule is that
they must be able to carry it, so a boat or helicopter is out!
Give them five minutes to make their list and walk around helping with language At the end, get each group's ideas and discuss them
Trang 30Word Tennis
This English teaching game is an
ideal warmer when teaching
English to kids, especially 6 to 13
year olds It is an excellent way to
review vocabulary It also teaches category names to the students
Divide the class into 2 halves
Write the team names on either
side of the board at the top Leave
a space in the middle of the board to write a list of categories
Write the first category [for example, animals] Have the students read this to
you, if they can't read it yet, you can read it to them Repeated exposure to the
category names will help them recognize them
Point quickly to the first student The student must respond with an animal name within a few seconds Then the 'ball' bounces to the other team, and the first student quickly gives
the name of another animal Then the second student on the other team answers
This game must be done quickly, and without any repetition of vocabulary When
a student cannot answer, a point is given to the opposing team, and a new
category is written on the board The whole process is then repeated Ideally this
game should be a fast review of vocabulary items
The very first time you do this activity, the students may well need help However,
once they are familiar with it, then it should become faster
Any categories can be used from vegetables to verbs, and places in the city to parts
of the body Sometimes teachers stop using TEFL games like this when the children
know animals, fruit and other simple vocabulary However, this English teaching
game can also be used to teach more advanced vocabulary categories [for
example things that melt, personality types ] can be used
Trang 31www TEFL lemon com
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Trang 32Clothes Race
If you teach elementary levels, be it Young Learners, teens or adults, at some point you are going to have a unit
on your course looking at clothing
If you are going to be covering this topic
in the next few weeks or months, then read on and remember this little beauty
In the week before class, get from home several items of common clothing - jeans, hat, T-shirt, jumper, socks, etc Beg, borrow or steal items of clothing from a
colleague so that you have clothes for both sexes Get all the clothing ready in a big
bag and your preparation is now complete
In Class
Get everyone sat in a circle and use the clothing to pre-teach the vocab Pass
around a ball of socks from one student to another Get them to say 'These are socks',
or 'This is a T-shirt', as they pass the clothes around Actually holding and passing
real clothes, whilst saying what they are will help them to remember the names of the clothes much better than a picture in a book!
When you feel you are ready, put the class into two teams and have them form lines Dump all of the clothes at the other end of the classroom
When you are ready, call out the name of an item or two of clothing and the first two
students must run out, locate that item from the pile (have two of each item if you don't want your T-shirt stretched!) and get them to put it on and return to their line
The first player back wearing the correct item gets a point for their team
As you go on, you can call out two or three items which makes the game more
challenging and funny Getting the boys to race out and get on a dress is a particular
winner with your class!
This is a great way of teaching clothing and your students will remember the vocab
much more effectively, whilst having an awesome time in class
Trang 33Grandma Went Shopping
This is a great warmer or time filler for your class if you finish earlier
than expected
Get your class in a circle and say
"My grandma went shopping and bought a bike" (you can say any
item here really) Now get the student on your
left to say "My grandma went shopping and bought a bike AND
a " (the student on your left adds
an item)
The next student along now says "My grandma went shopping and bought a
bike, a AND a "
Keep going around the class and see how long you can make the
chain The students shouldn't write anything down, just use their
memory
For elementary students, this is also a good game to practice the use of a/an/some