Лингвистическое образование

Are you looking forward to the first meeting with your students?

Have you already thought about any activities to do with them during the first class?

Well, I want to share some ideas.  

These games and activities are not mine. I have not invented them. I have seen them or I have read about them.

I’ve already tried some of them and I’ve created some useful worksheets and extra materials. I will be happy if you find them useful.

Activity 1. Funny race

Resources to help you: 1) worksheet for students (download)

Procedure:

• • Divide your class into groups of 3-4.
  • Tell them that they have 2 minutes to complete 11 tasks in English. If they can’t do that, they lose.
  • Give one worksheet per team. Don’t let them read!
  • Say “Ready! Steady! Go!” in order to start the race.
  • When the race is finished, ask your students to make a conclusion about what they have learnt from this activity. (Example. It is important to read instructions carefully.)

Activity 2. Hidden Information

You don’t have to tell your students everything about yourself but when you meet in a classroom situation for the first time, I think it is a good idea to tell them a little about yourself.

Aims: introduce yourself and let your students share personal information.

Resources to help you: 1) My template presentation (download)

                                        2) Procedure and Extension (download)

Activity 3. Weird words

This activity includes words your students probably won’t need in everyday conversation or writing, but which are fun, interesting, and unusual.

Aim: develop critical thinking and encourage speaking

Resources to help you: 1) List of weird words (download)

                                        2) Presentation with 10 words (download)

Procedure:

• • Divide your class into small groups.
  • Show/write one “weird word”.
  • Ask your students to guess its meaning. Each team has to create a definition.
  • Let them work in the following way:
    • Step one: think alone, don’t speak.
    • Step two: brainstorm ideas, talk to your teammates.
    • Step three: share with the whole class
• Listen to the ideas from all the groups.
• Show / read the definition of the word.

• One team with the closest meaning gets a point. Choose this team together.

Activity 4. Secret word

Aims: practice asking questions

Resources to help you: 1) printable list of words (download)

Procedure:

1. Can be played in groups or with the whole class.

2. Each group is given a set of cards with words (or phrases). You have to place them face down in a pile on the table.

3. The first student picks up a card. He asks a wh- question that will make someone in the group answer with the word on his card. 4. If no one answers correctly, the student continues asking questions.

4. If the word is named, the student who asked questions keeps the card and gets a point.

4. The student who answers with the correct word is the next to take a card and ask questions.

6. The student with the most cards (points) becomes the winner.

You can watch this video to understand how it works.

Activity 5. Mutual dictation

Procedure:

• • Get the students into pairs.
  • Explain the task “Complete the gaps without looking at other's worksheet. You take turns to dictate the parts.”
  • When your students finish, let them compare two halves and correct mistakes.  

Resources to help you:

1. Read more here

2. Download Mutual dictation worksheet

3. My worksheet for this activity (text)

4. My worksheet for this activity (words1  and words2 )

Activity 6. Stop and Go Back Dictation

Different to traditional dictations, the learners themselves control the dictation asking the teacher to “stop”, “go back to”, and “play” as many times as they want.

Resources to help you:

1. How it works? Read here.
2. Presentation with symbols (play, rewind, stop) download

Activity 7. Making Connections

Procedure:

1. Objective is to create one large circle by finding common things.

2. Ask one student to stand with one hand on his hip. This student has to share one statement about himself.

3. When someone from the rest of the group hears a statement that they have in common with the first student, they are invited to link elbows.

4. This second person shares something and finds someone from the group to join.

5. To complete the circle, invite the last person to name something to link with the very first person.

Resources to help you:

Watch this video and try this activity.

Activity 8. Drawing

Procedure:

• • Pair up the students (A and B).
  • During the activity one student (A) has to sit his back to the board.
  • Show a picture to students looking at you (Bs). They must describe the picture for their partners (As) to draw.
  • Compare students’ pictures with the original one and choose the best one.
  • Then the students swap the roles and describe a new picture.

Resources to help you:

My presentation with pictures for different levels (download).

Activity 9. Real Stories

Procedure:

• • Use cards with short sentences (download) about summer holidays.
  • Give one card to each student.
  • The students have to talk about their summer holidays using information from the card.
  • They don’t have to read from their cards to sound natural. Encourage them to make the story as detailed as possible. You can give 5 minutes to get ready.
  • If the card says “tell the truth”, they have to tell a true story about their holidays.
  • The students speak one by one.
  • The goal is to spot the liars. The students can ask different questions to each other.

Resources to help you:

1. Variants of this game. Read more.
2. My worksheet for this game (download)

Activity 10. Two truths and one lie

The game "Two Truths and one Lie" is a great game when you need to make introductions. It is easy to play and doesn't need any equipment or supplies.

Procedure:

One student tells the group two things about himself that are true and one thing that is untrue. (2 truths + 1 lie)

Everyone in the group has an opportunity to try to guess which statement is the lie.

Have a general discussion about the three "facts". The person who gave the facts stays quiet.

Once everyone has tried, the person reveals what is the lie. He may also explain the circumstances for this fact.

Give one point to the "fact giver" for each person who could find the lie.

Important: Teacher starts a game to show how it works.

Resources to help you:

A good article about this game. Read.

　Activity 11. Grammar Auction

Aim: revise grammar in a funny way

Resources to help you:

Useful link 1

Useful link 2

Useful link 3

How I play this game. Read the rules.

Set 1 for the game. Presentation 1. Sentences (1).

Set 2 for the game. Presentation 2. Sentences (2).

Activity 12. Mingling Bingo

Important:

• • make sure the students understand the rules
  • revise the ways of asking questions
  • elicit feedback with the students telling you about their findings

Resources to help you:

The rules I use. Read.

Worksheet 1. download

Worksheet 2. download

Worksheet 3 (summer holidays). download

Activity 13. Tricky thing

Funny Activity Presentation. Download.

Activity 14. Running dictation

Watch the video

or read here

Activity 15. Motivational Video

Watch

Download