Ask Any Question..

A warmer to discover something you didn't know about your classmates.

Think of a question to ask somebody you've never met before.  The idea is that the answer to this one question will give you a lot of information about the person.  So it's not things like: 'Where are you from?' or 'What's your favourite colour?'

Some examples include:
- What period of time would you most like to visit?
- What's the greatest invention ever?
- What person from history would you like to sit beside on a long-distance flight?

You get the idea.  It's a good way for a class who have been together for a while to find out something new about each other.  Probably not advisable for a new class, as they may feel a bit uncomfortable about asking/answering questions like these honestly, but great for a class you've had for a while and who know each other a little bit.

Rocket Game

There are a few variations of this game.

In this example, the world is about to end, and a rocket is taking off to begin civilisation again on a new planet.  Places are limited, so only the best and brightest can get a ticket to a new life.  Students (6-8 is a good number for this exercise) get cards giving their occupations.  Don't make it too obvious, as something like 'doctor' is always going to get through.  Try occupations like: 'police officer', 'carpenter', 'lawyer', 'scientist'.  Students have to argue their case, followed by a secret vote to decide who gets onto the ship.  Each student gets to vote for 2 people, excluding themselves.

If you want to add an extra dimension, you could give students a separate paper with some negative character trait 'jealousy', 'rage', 'fear of outdoors' for students to guess, which may influence the final vote.

Battleships

Give students a blank grid of squares - maybe 8 x 8, with the horizontal and vertical axes marked with numbers and letters.  Tell them they must write five adjectives (or irregular verbs, nouns, or whatever else you're teaching) somewhere on the grid without showing their partner.

Now, as per the traditional game, students aim 'torpedoes' at their opponent in the slightly less dramatic fashion of calling out grid numbers (B4, C8 and so on) in the attempt to hit one of the words.  Winner is the one who finds all of his/her opponents words.

Alphabet Game

This is another old classic.

Give students a list of categories: Countries; Adjectives; Verbs; Phrasal Verbs; Body Parts; Clothes... basically anything you think might be valuable for them to practice.  Then divide the class into groups of 3/4.  Choose a letter of the alphabet, and students must find examples beginning with this letter for each of the categories.  The first group to finish shouts "Stop!", and everyone puts down pens.  Award a bonus point to the team that finishes first, and then one point to each team which comes up with a suggestion which has not been used by another team.

All the students are familiar with this one so it doesn't require much explanation, and it's always popular.

Alphabet Race

This one can get a little messy (particularly with a teenage group) so make sure you establish the ground rules first.

Students are divided into two teams.  The first student from each team comes up to the board and writes (e.g. an adjective) beginning with the letter 'A'.  The next student on his/her team then comes to the board and writes an adjective beginning with 'B', and so on through the alphabet.  The students cannot use a word that the other team has already written down, and if a student can't think of a word he/she passes to the next player.

I organise this by having the next student in line sitting on a chair at the back of the class, and working on a 'relay' system, so as to avoid people crowding around the board. 

Word Association

Arrange students in a circle.  First student thinks of a word, which can be tailored to suit the lesson (e.g. adjective, verb, noun) or else just kept open.  The next student must think of a word which is related to the first one in some way.  For example:  Sun - Rain - Umbrella - Carry - Bag - Books... etc.

The teacher must decide if the link is strong enough.  Students are eliminated when they can't think of an example, hesitate for too long, or repeat a word that's already been used.

This is a nice little warmer to get the students' brains in gear!

Hot Seat

One student sits on a chair with his/her back to the board, facing the rest of the class.  The teacher writes a word/phrase on the board behind the student, and the rest of the class must describe the word (without saying it) to the student in the 'hot seat'.

This can be done in 2 teams, each describing the word to their own representative.  You can have a student from each team sitting on the hot seats at the same time if you don't mind increasing the noise level a little bit.

Crosswords

Yes, we all know what crosswords are and how they work.

To make them a little more interesting, not to mention valuable for the students, why not vary the exercise a little.  Give the students a blank crossword grid, and ask them to make clues.  This works best when pairs work together.  When they have completed their clues, they give their crossword to another pair to work on, and receive one from another group.

This can be used for general English, or to focus on a specific language point.

Auction Game

Prepare a list of sentences, some of which are correct, the rest featuring a grammar (or spelling) mistake.  Students are split into teams of 2 or 3, and given $1,000 (imaginary!) to bid for the sentences.  The idea is that they bid for the ones they think are correct, as the team with the most correct sentences at the end is the winner.

This is a popular activity that gets pretty competitive and makes grammar correction more fun than usual.  If you wish, you can use sentences that the students themselves have said/written in the previous lesson.

I went to the shops...

A simple little warmer which usually works surprisingly well to kick off a lesson.

You all know this one:

"I went to the shops and I bought..."  first student completes with any item they can think of, for example, "a book".  The next student in the circle says:  "I went to the shops and I bought a book and some cheese", and so on around the class.

No notes can be used to help remember the sequence, and you can be as strict as you like about hesitation and how much time they get to answer.  Forget an item, and the student is out, winner is the last player to remember the whole list.

Pictionary

Pretty easy one, and always popular.

Divide class into two teams.  One person comes up to the board and draws a picture to represent an adjective, verb phrase, phrasal verb or anything else you wish to focus on.  The seated members of his/her team have to try and guess the word/phrase.

You can do this in teams, or with everyone playing as individuals.  Set time limits of about 1 minute per 'drawer'.  This can also be done by drawers from both teams coming up to the board at the same time, with the   first team to guess the word taking the point.