Mini Plays

The teacher makes up a little discussion which she reads or gives to a couple of children to read. E.g.

Mum: Bye, now. Be careful!
John: Yes, Mom. I will.
Mum: Don´t forget to write.
John: No, Mom. I´ll write every day.
Mum: Call me when you get there.

And then, the teacher chooses one aspect to the plays that will be improvised based on this short discussion. E.g.

"Your plays must be about a situation where somebody is leaving away. What happens? What do you say? You have 5 minutes to practice a little play in groups of 2-5."

In five minutes the plays will be presented and some vocabulary can be marked, if you feel like it. The kids love making plays and they are pretty good in improvising incredible plays even in few minutes.

Story Telling & Memory Game

Ask the children (at least 5 to 6) to sit around in a circle. 

Ask one child to say a sentence in a story form e.g. "once there was a boy". 

The next child will have to repeat that sentence and add something more to it like "once there was a boy whose name was John". 

In this way the children keep building up a story as well as remembering what the previous sentences were. 

The child which forgets a line will go out of the game. 

This game not only improves a child's memory but also encourages him/her to be creative in storytelling.

Invitation to an Annual Dinner

Pre-activity: The teacher should have taught students about prepositions. 

Activity: In pairs, students are required to write a dialogue of about 12-15 exchanges based on an invitation card given by the teacher.
Sample invitation card:

INVITATION TO EXECS BUSINESS ANNUAL DINNER

DATE: 24 JUNE 2001
PLACE: PALOMA BALLROOM, DE PALMA HOTEL
TIME: 7.30 AM
ATTIRE: FORMAL

Allow about half an hour to prepare the text and about 3 minutes to present it in class. Ask students to be as creative as possible.

Students get to practice prepositions as well as Wh-questions. I find that my students enjoying themselves while pretending to invite their friends to the annual dinner.

Movie Review

This could be carried out in pairs or in groups of 3-4.

Pre-activity: The teacher should have taught students about adjectives and adverbs. 

Activity: Students can choose a favorite movie, cartoon or television series to review. They should talk about the main plot, actors and actresses, provide a synopsis and tell why they have chosen that particular movie. Once they have discussed and edited their movie review, they would have to present in front of the others, and hand over a copy of the edited text to the teacher to be corrected. May also include pictures to make their movie review more interesting.

The Game of Truth

It is a very simple but interactive game. As you know people always ask the same questions in chats over and over again. What do you do? How old are you? etc. She asked me if I wanted to play THE GAME OF TRUTH. I say yes of course! Here are the rules: (I made some changes for the English classroom)

1.Make a lot of small cards with interesting topics written on them, such as: LOVE, JEALOUSY, PIRACY, MONEY, SMOKING, SEX, DINKING, CLONING, BRIBING, FRIENDSHIP, DEATH PENALTY, PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT, FAMILY, etc, etc. Look for topics that make students speak. Sometimes even CONTROVERSIAL ones.

2.-Every student in the class will take turns in taking a card. He or she will talk a little about the topic in the card he or she selected. For example:

MONEY: for me money is very important, but is not the most important thing. It is only a way to reach things. Success is not measure by the money you can get, etc, etc.

3.-Allow student to express their feelings even if it is not their turn. Remember the main point of this game is to make students speak! However, don’t lose the control of the class.

P.D. If you select very interesting topics I guarantee everybody will try to answer the questions even when is not their own turn. This activity is excellent to "to break the ice" and to help you know each other in the classroom.

Saved by the Bell

I discovered this game while watching T.V. With some modifications the idea of the game is the same:

1.-Place a buzz or bell inside a waste basket (a clean one, of course).

2.-Get a light ball that fits into the basket.

3.-The student will make a shot with the ball. If the student scores the bell will ring (saved by the bell), if the student fails an indiscreet question will have to be answered by him/her.

4.-In advance, prepare as many cards with indiscreet questions as possible. 

For example:

Have you ever cheated in a final test? Have you ever stolen something? Have you ever had two or more boy/girlfriends at the same time? Have you ever gotten a ticket? If so why? Have you ever had a nickname? If so, which one? etc., etc.

The point of this game is to practise asking and answering in a fun way. However, you have to be very careful with the questions you write on the cards! (Some questions may be very offensive if you are not careful).

Pronunciation Bingo

THIS BINGO IS FOR NOUN - VERB STRESS

I came out with this idea while I was teaching pronunciation in Mexico. The idea is to make a bingo game contrasting the pronunciation of nouns and verbs with the same spelling. (Use a stress mark (´) to show the students that nouns are stressed in the first syllable and verbs on the second). Examples:

prógress - progréss
présent - presént
prótest - protést
cóntract - contráct
désert - desért
rébel - rebél
súspect - suspéct
cónsole - consóle
cónflict - conflíct
récord - recórd
cónvict - convíct
ínsert - insért
pérmit - permít
etc.

When you name the cards let the students listen to the words but not look at them. This way they will be able to distinguish the difference.

-  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  - 

MINIMAL PAIRS BINGO

The same can be done to teach minimal pairs. Examples:

sit - seat
but - bat
bought - boat
saw - so
base - vase
etc.

P.D.MAKE THIS GAME INTERESTING BY GIVING SMALL PRIZES TO THE WINNERS