Guess who activity

This is a quick activity I used as a warmer for my class this evening. All that’s needed are some strips of scrap paper for the students to write on. Make sure that you have enough scraps of paper so that each student has four of them. Ask the students to write on each piece of paper something interesting or unusual about themselves. After they have completed this part, collect the papers up. Give out four pieces of paper to each student, trying to mix them up. If the teacher is going to read them out, the students should write their names or initials on each paper. Begin reading the papers out, one at a time, or asking a student to read and then ask the other students to guess who they think wrote on the piece of paper, and why they think it is that person. Its good fun and my students and I discovered some interesting things about our group. For example:

1. One of my students was having violin lessons
2. One of my students is afraid of clowns
3. One girl in the class loves Iron Maiden
4. One student had ballet classes
5. One hated homework

This would be a good start of the semester activity but it could be done any time to just relax and have a bit of fun

Mind maps

Mind maps are not something I have used a lot of but recently I seem to be using or planning to use more and more. The main reason I’ve been using them is to get my students to associate lots of vocabulary around a single theme. For example, my business English students had a part of the lesson where were created a mind map based around vocabulary connected to ‘companies’. They had already seem an example of a mind map in their books and this time they were going to create their own from scratch, with a little help from me to get them started. The basic mind map we drew up on the whiteboard was something like this but increased to fill most of the board – shame I didn’t have my camera to take a photo of it

We brainstormed and added more vocabulary and ideas until we had more or less filled the board and then counted up how much vocabulary they had thought of just based around this very simple mind map. I asked them if they could have thought of just a list of 70+ words just off the top of their heads  I think we will try to use mind maps more frequently and I think the students really saw the benefit of using one too.

I use a site online to create the image of the mind map above. The site is called www.bubbl.us and allows free users to create three mind maps that can be shared online. Its easy to use and I think its great

Class records activity

I did this activity with my TT1 advanced group as an extra activity at the start of the class. The idea was to do something that showed what all of the students had done together and it was taken from Jill Hadfield’s Classroom Dynamics book. I love this book and recommend it highly  You will need a copy of the question sheet I added to this post and a large sheet of card to write up the results on. My TT1 group has only six students and so they asked two questions each but it can be easily altered for larger or smaller groups. The idea is as follows:

1. Prepare the poster card by writing at the top ‘AS A GROUP WE HAVE:’

2. Print off the questions sheet, cut them up and give out one question/or questions to the students.

3. Ask everyone to go around the class and find out how many times everyone in the class has done these things. The students need to keep a running total.

4. When everyone has finished, collate the information and fill it in on the poster. Then put the poster up on the wall. I asked my students to sign it just to personalize it a little more

In the book, they give an example of how to write the poster and I added it here. I pretty much used this model apart from altering a question.

AS A GROUP WE HAVE:

flown on a plane 25 times

broken our bones 3 times

drunk 18 glasses of champagne

been to 32 pop concerts

been in hospital 10 times

visited 27 countries

traveled by sea 21 times

won a competition 7 times

passed 49 exams

owned 16 cats 8 dogs 2 hamsters 9 goldfish

fallen in love 21 times

and changed jobs 11 times

After my students had finished creating the poster, we took a photo of them grouped around it as a kind of fun souvenir of the activity

The link for the cards is class records cards

What kind of person are you?

I saw this activity in an Oxford resources for teacher’s book and tried it out with my MEC and advanced students, as well as my Japanese conversation student from the embassy here in the city. I remember seeing Sarah Walker presenting something similar to this at a Cultura Inglesa teachers seminar a while back too. The main idea is to give the students a list of questions and ask the students to consider the answer they would give for each one, and also to be able to say why they chose that particular answer. Of course, there are no correct answers and students will probably have many different reasons for the answers they have chosen. I used the *questions from the book and they were as follows:

1. Are you a tea person or a coffee person?
2. Are you a morning person or an afternoon person?
3. Are you an earth person or a fire person?
4. Are you a mountain person or a valley person?
5. Are you a jungle person or a city person?
6. Are you an indoor person or an outdoor person?
7. Are you a garden person or a forest person?
8. Are you a diary person or a knotted handkerchief person?
9. Are you a straight line person or a loops and curves person?
10. Are you a sight person or a sound person?

I asked the students to answer the questions depending on how they themselves understood the questions, reminding them that there was no correct or incorrect answers. After they told their answers and talked about why they had chosen each answer. Next, I asked the students to tell me what they thought each of the questions had meant. For example, they told me that the first questions could be asking if people were British or American, and the ninth question was asking if someone was conservative or someone more open-minded or radical. It was a lot of fun and got the students talking. I think that the questions could easily be changed for groups of lower level students, as there are no correct answers they would probably enjoy this activity a lot, depending on how much vocabulary they had

*Questions were taken from ‘Classroom Dynamics’ by Jill Hadfield, an excellent book full of group building acvitities

Crazy compliments

I was looking through some material we had lying around for five-minute activities and came across this one that I haven’t yet used with my students as a warmer.

Create some placards with some instructions for the students to follow. The instructions can be something like – ‘say something nice about my English’, or, tell me something nice about my eyes’. Pin or tape each placard to the student’s backs and ask them to move around, reading and obeying the instructions as they read them.

Update:

I found out something interesting with one of my groups when we tried out this activity. My group has a good group feeling and get along just fine, its mixed adults and has a teenager in the group too. After explaining what the activity was and fixing the instructions to each person, they mingled around but were not saying anything. I asked them if they understood to which they replied yes. After a little prompting from me to get them going, they were still pretty quiet. Finally I asked them if the instructions were too hard or they just didn’t want to take part and they told me that they were embarrassed to give compliments to each other, as per the instructions hahahahaha!! A little more encouragement including compliments from me to get them going and we were soon rolling. Next time, I’ll choose something that will be probably a lot simpler for them to do, requiring no blushing

Paragraph changing activity

This activity can be used after the main work for a text is completed. It’s suitable for all levels and can be done in the following way:

1. Depending on the size and amount of paragraphs in the text, assign each student (if the group is small), pair or group a text from the text.
2. Ask the students to change two facts in their paragraph.
3. The students read their changed paragraph to the class.*
4. The other students try to spot the incorrect facts.

*It would be a good idea to ask advanced students to turn over their texts as the students read to see how much they can remember of the text from memory as they listen for the changed facts.

Vocabulary mingle

The course I teach contains text-based lessons and usually the students either use their dictionary, or their human dictionary (me), to solve their doubts. I liked the idea of getting my student’s arses up and out of their seats, especially during texts that can be tedious for some students that finish their work quickly and so we have this following activity:

Firstly, ask the students to read the text. If they come to a word they don’t know, ask them to underline it with a straight line. if they come across a word they know the meaning of but aren’t sure about, ask them to underline the word with a wiggly line. Then, the students take their books and go around the room asking the students the meanings of the words they don’t know or aren’t sure of. After the task, the teacher can also fill in the words that the students don’t know.

Beginner class games and activities

It’s been so long since I last posted here but hopefully now I’ll get to post more frequently now that Roberta has finished her degree and we have finally moved states and cities At a pedagogical training last week, I was asked to present some activities based mainly for beginners in a brainstorming session with other teachers from the new school I’m going to work for. I thought I’d post the four I suggested here.

Vocabulary Race – Total beginners, 1st class

Divide the students into two or more groups. Ask them to write down as many words in English as they know in a set time limit, say five minutes. See how many each group has written. A good quick activity as students will see that even before they have opened their books, they know a lot of words in English even if they might not know what they mean. Also weak students or students that cannot suggest any words won’t feel left out as it’s a group activity.

Doppleganger – good for a new class

Ask the students to write their names on a piece of paper, then collect up the papers.
Redistribute the papers – making sure that no one gets their own name.
*The object of the game is to find the person whose name is on the paper*
The students complete the object of the exercise by going round the class, telling everyone their name and asking for names.
For example – Hi, my names ___________. What’s your name?
When they find the person whose name is on the piece of paper, they should give it to them.
When they have given away their paper and got their own name back, they should sit down.

Spell – Beginners to practice spelling and saying the alphabet

Write a few words on the board, such as; Brazil, hello, goodbye, etc.
Ask the students to spell the words using ’ How do you spell______________?’
Then ask the students to drill each other by asking others how to spell words from their textbooks, names, etc

I am and I love – good for introductions and learning classmate names

Sit the students in a group and ask them to say their names and someone/something they love. For example, ‘My name is John and I love Roberta’ or ‘My name is Maya and I love KLB.’
The students then try to recall who loves what and shout out what they know.
Sentences could be changed to use – ‘I hate’ or ‘I am afraid of’

These games came from books or I modified them a little. I’ve used all of them before and had a lot of fun with my students with them

(If you don’t know who KLB are, they are a terrible Brasilian boyband, and when I say terrible thats being nice. They are on the same level as Restart hahahaha!!)

Wizard Halloween Party

Our Wizard school had its Halloween Party later than normal this year, this was because we held it in another high school in the city to allow for more activities and space for more students and their friends. It was my first Halloween Party with Wizard and it was a lot of fun. This year, we had a ‘School Of Terror’. Mainly, this was a part of the school where some of the classrooms had been converted into haunted classrooms and a ghostly teacher gave groups of children and students a guided tour of the rooms, giving the teachers hidden in them chances to scare them It was a lot of fun, around 800 people bought tickets for the event, including a snack food court, large disco in the gymnasium and of course, ‘Escola de terror’. Around 200 students passed through the main event, with most of the teachers in costume as a ghost, ghoul, etc. Most students from other high schools asked if we would perform at their schools next year   The next party is already being planned, bigger and better, should be a lot of fun!!

Cuiaba, Matto Grosso

In the vacation, Roberta and I traveled to Cuiaba, Matto Grosso. Roberta has family there and it made it easier for us to see all the interesting stuff in and around the city. After our first day there, the temperature dropped to between 6-12′C during the day and we saw in the news that some places reported -2′C at night time. After a couple of days of this, the weather improved and by Wednesday we were back to 35+’C again. During the cold spell, people sleeping in the streets were dying from the cold weather and almost all the stores sold out of any kinds of clothing that could be used for cold weather. We also got to visit Pantanal, and go fishing on a river – complete with alligators sleeping on the river banks hahaha!!We took a huge amount of photos and some video too, I have to edit the video to upload it to Facebook.The only video I have uploaded it one of a large alligator we saw when we were cruising the river to find a good place to fish. I didn’t blog anything while we were on our vacation, as it isn’t really a good idea to advertise that you are not at home. I think that now we are back, I’ll do the same as I did for our trip to Curitiba, and just post about some of the places we visited, putting links to the photos I uploaded to Facebook. I’ll try to put the first one tomorrow, time permitting