Category: Warmers

Posted in Conversation Classes, Ice-breakers, Warmers

Back to School: My Summer Holidays (A1-B1)

Posted on by Tim Warre

Image result for summer holidays

Image credit: coar56ar.com

Follow me on twitter @RobbioDobbio

This is a warmer/short conversation activity for use with lower-level students (A1-B1) to refresh past simple question formation. Download the handout below:

back-to-school-handout

Scrambled Questions

Unscramble the questions, and then ask them to your teacher:

  1. summer your how holidays were?
  2. did where go you?
  3. there you did do what?
  4. it did like you?

Ask and answer the questions in pairs.

Questions Words

Complete the questions with a question word:

Where    What (x2)    How (x2)    Who

 

  1. ___________ was the weather like?
  2. ___________ did you stay?
  3. ___________ did you get there?
  4. ___________ did you go on holiday with?
  5. ___________ long did you go for?
  6. ___________ was the best thing you did there?

Answer Match

Match the questions (1-6) with the answers (a-f)

  1. We went surfing, it was so much fun!
  2. In a nice little hotel next to the beach.
  3. We took a plane to the island and then we rented a car.
  4. We went for 6 days.
  5. It was lovely, it only rained once.
  6. I went with my Mum, Dad and little brother.

Speaking

Ask the questions to your teacher, then to your partner.

Then write 2 new questions for your partner:

Where

Who

When

What

Why

How

  

 

Did

  

 

You

 Verb in base form

Do

Eat

Buy

See

Etc.

  

 

There?
What Was The best thing You Verb in past simple

Ate?

Saw?

Bought?

Etc.

Key

Scrambled questions

  1. How were your summer holidays?
  2. Where did you go?
  3. What did you do there?
  4. Did you like it?

Question Words

  1. What
  2. Where
  3. How
  4. Who
  5. How
  6. What

Answer Match

  1. E
  2. B
  3. C
  4. F
  5. D
  6. A

Teacher’s Notes

Pronunciation

While students are performing the speaking task, be sure to help them with pronunciation of the questions, focusing specifically on weak forms and sentence stress:

Where did you go?

| weə dɪdjə ɡəʊ | – Connected speech and weak form “you”

What was the weather like?

| ˈwɒt wəz ðə ˈweðə ˈlaɪk | – weak forms of “was” and “the”. Sentence stress on “what” “weather” and “like”

Smartphones, photos

If students have photos of their holiday readily available (on a smartphone or tablet) let them show their partner while they describe their holiday.

Posted in Games, Grammar Classes, Warmers

Advanced Relative Clause Pictionary

Posted on by Tim Warre

Follow me on twitter @RobbioDobbio

Photo credit: http://www.lamaestrachiara.com/inglese/song/green-bottles/ten-green-bottles.htm

This is a revision lesson plan for CAE students studying advanced relative clause phrases such as: all of whom, some of which etc.

Here’s the handout:

Advanced Relative Clause Pictionary

Step 1

I use this game as a revision/warmer after we’ve already studied advanced relative clause phrases with which and whom.

Draw two columns on the board with the titles which (objects/things) and whom (people) and have students recall as many relative clause phrases as they can:

Which (objects/things) Whom (people)
In which (where)

All of which

Some of which

None of which

Both of which

Neither of which

(1,2,3) of which

 All of whom

Some of whom

None of whom

Both of whom

Neither of whom

(1,2,3) of whom

Students may struggle with the difference between neither of whom/which and none of whom/which.

Neither refers to just two people/things where as none refers to a group of at least three:

Two students came to class, neither of whom had done their homework.

Ten students came to class, none of whom had done their homework.

There were two buses waiting to take people to the city centre, neither of which had enough space for us.

There were three buses waiting to take people to the city centre, none of which had enough space for us.

Cut out the hand out and divide the class into teams, one volunteer must attempt to draw the situation described in the picture, the team that calls out the corresponding sentence gets 1 point. Continue until all the situations have been used.

Draw the following sentences:

A group of children, some of whom are wearing hats, are waiting for the bus. Four houses, two of which are on fire.
A group of men, all of whom are wearing glasses, are watching TV. Two dogs, both of which are eating bones, are at the beach.
Two men, neither of whom has hair, are playing tennis. Two pizzas, both of which have mushrooms, are on the table.
Two snakes, both of which are green, are sleeping on the carpet. Ten bottles, all of which are full, are sitting on the wall.
Five babies, two of whom are sleeping, are lying on the bed. Five cats, some of which are black, are playing with a ball.
Posted in Games, Warmers

Warmer: Cannibals and Missionaries

Posted on by Tim Warre

This is a warmer to get students focused and working together. Use the game “Cannibals and Missionaries”.

Explain the rules to the students:

There are 3 cannibals and 3 missionaries who want to cross a river. There is a small boat which can carry 2 people, 1 person must remain in the boat to row it across the river. If the number of cannibals on any side is greater than the number of missionaries, the cannibals will eat the missionaries. Students need to find a solution to the problem.

Language:

We should/ought to…

If we leave the cannibals here, they’ll eat the missionary.

Great idea!

Hold on a minute!

What if we…..?

How about +ing…

Have students work as a class to solve the puzzle.

Solution:

http://www.novelgames.com/en/gametips/missionaries-solution/

Posted in Warmers

Warmer: Team Picture Description

Posted on by Tim Warre

us parisbowie suits

 

This is a fun warmer to get students working in teams and having a laugh.

Divide the class into 2 teams. Tell each team to nominate the member with the most artistic ability. The two nominees then come to the board which will be divided into two halves. Then give each team a comedy picture of you (make sure the person at the board doesn’t see it). Alternatively, you could use my pictures from here (I gave out the two above) or some downloaded from the internet but its more fun if it’s a picture of you. Give them 5 minutes to describe and draw the picture, you may need to quickly go over some language for picture descriptions, which you will find in this lesson plan.

Then put the original pictures on the board next to the drawings and do a spot the difference comparison, what did they get right/wrong? Be sure to take a photo of their drawings and upload it to your class blog, if you have one.

Posted in Warmers

Warmer: Knock knock jokes

Posted on by Tim Warre

knockknock

This is a warmer to start the class to introduce knock knock jokes and get students talking, interacting and hopefully laughing.

Here is the handout:knock-knock-jokes

First use the 2 examples to teach students the structure of the jokes. Be sure to teach students the phrases:

“I get it.”/”I don’t get it.” – I understood the joke.

Then give out the jokes (some are duplicated so give them out to students on different sides of the class) have students circulate and tell each other their jokes. Students discuss which one is their favourite.