Spelling train
- I'm not sure if anyone mentioned this but I play this all the time with my students when we have even 5 minutes to spare. First decide how the trail will go. Then, I, the teacher, give a word and spell it (example: Tiger) The first student will say and spell a word beginning with the last alphabet (in this case, 'r') Let's say she says 'rain', so the next student will have to provide a word beginning with 'N', so on and so forth. Allow a minimum of 3 alphabets & specific duration, depending on students' capabilities. This activity got some students to actively look for difficult words (to show off) and increase their vocabulary and spelling, too. The count down to the allowed time frame keeps everyone interested and the game exciting.
- —Guest fern
scrambled word
- Choose a word, rewrite it in a circle making sure you have scrambled up the letters. The students must try to guess the word while they make up new words using letters from the mystery word. I wish to thank my daughters' English teacher for introducing it to me. My students love it!
- —Guest arinak
comparative and superative form
- I like Janis Shuller's idea that blowing bubbles. But I find it difficult to blow bubbles in the traditional school like ours in Hong Kong. So I'd rather let three children come up and each of them draws a big cirle on the board. Then I ask them to tell me that whose circle is big, whose circle is bigger and so on... :D
- —Guest Connie Yip
Teaching Superlatives with bubble gum
- Write these model sentences on the board. _______ blew a big bubble. ________ blew a bigger bubble than _________. _________ blew the biggest bubble. Give each student a piece of bubble gum and instructions to chew the gum. Teacher chews gum and demonstrates how to blow a bubble. The teacher may need to instruct in how to blow a bubble with the bubble gum. Then go around and every student take a turn in blowing a bubble. Fill in the model sentences. Take a few turns and see which student blows the biggest bubble. Adults love the chance to act like a child again and this activity clearly demonstrates superlatives. Combine it with the model sentences and you have a quick and enjoyable nglish lesson. :-)
- —Guest Janis Shuller
quick game
- have one student in a pair sit turned back to the blackboard. Write a word on it. the student who can see it has to describe it to the other student. Forbid the students to speak their mother tongue!;)
- —Guest Ania
Our Classroom
- Use 'there is &there are' & a few adverb phrases. Eg. On the wall/bes
- —Guest
how to fill in a 5 minute gap
- I always carry a small notebook where I have written "old sayings" and when this happens, I write an old saying on the board and ask my students to say whatever they think it means, so far my students love it and when the time is up and I must go, I tell them to think about it or to find out the meaning and talk about it next class. I take advantage of this opportunity to thank you very much for your help. So long.........
- —Guest mercemueller@web,de
share your quick lessons
- mine is using cards to teach vocab. The front of the card has the actual word on it, but the back has 4 words as the common clues associated with the word in the front. Student who holds the card must not mention the 4 words, when trying to get the rest of the class to guess the word, he/she has in hand. eg; traffic-warden in the front. Back has traffic, street, lights, intersection.
- —Guest naleeni das
My favourite numbers
- You can write four numbers on the board that represent something important in your life; and ask your students to guess what they refer to. 20 (years I have been teaching English) 2 (the number of daughters I have) etc. Once they guess the four numbers about your life, organize them in pairs, ask them to write their own important numbers and his/her partner will guess.
- —Guest M
find it!
- My favorite short activity is to send one student out of the room while the class hides a small object. When the exiled student returns he has to find it using questions he asks and oral clues from the class. It's a good way to practice prepositions of place: it's on, near, under, above, beneath, or in something. The hunting student can ask other students by name or ask the class as a whole. My adult learners enjoy this game and get to use the English they've learned.
- —Guest ingleshablante
TELLING
- VERY EASY. In a circle, students should tell a very criative story. Each one tells something. But .... one student say a positive sentence, next a negative, next, in the past, and so on. Teacher can give them, previously, a piece of paper and ask students to chose it (negative, positive, past, etc). So they can think better about their response before his/her turn.
- —Guest NOEME
20 Questions
- In this activity a student is chosen to answer 20 questions about a thing or topic she has chosen. The only possible answers are 'yes' or 'no'. Students have to use question forms which you can play with to practice various forms. In other words, you could ask students to only ask indirect questions, or to use question tags. Using teams and keeping score is also another good variant to help keep students interested and participating.
- —Guest John
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