Jazz Up Your Lesson
Here are some useful games to warm-up your class. Hope you and your class will enjoy them!
1. ANIMAL ADVENTURES
Practises: Listening, Speaking
The teacher tells a story about an animal, but repeatedly asks the students to guess what? who? why? where? what next? etc.
For example:
Teacher: A cat did something very naughty. What did it do?
Students: It ate some cheese.
Teacher: No.
Students: It attacked the pet bird.
Teacher: Yes! That’s right! But why?
Students: Because it was hungry.
Teacher: No.
Students: Because it was jelaous.
Teacher: Yes! What do you think happened then?
Students: The owners came home.
Teacher: Yes! (or No.)
etc.
Each time the students “guess” something, there is another question. In reality there is no original story. It is the students who unknowingly invent it. Of course, the “story” could be about other subjects too, and used at other levels.
2. BEAT THE TEACHER
Objective: Lesson Revision
If you tutor a student one-on-one then this game is perfect for revision of your previous lessons, as well as finding out how much the student may already know. It’s a form of “Naughts and Crosses” or as the Americans would call it – “Tick Tack Toe”.
Before your lesson write down as many questions as you can think of to ask your student and number them from 1 to whatever.
1. What is the simple past tense word for “run”?
2. What is an abstract noun?
etc...
Ask your student to draw the nine squared naughts and crosses grid simply by overlapping two horizontal and two vertical lines.
Let’s say, you thought of 30 questions to ask your student. Ask your student to write down on a piece of paper the numbers 1 to 30.
The student first chooses a number from their list of numbers. Let’s say for example, the student chooses number 7, so you ask him/her question number 7 on your question list. Note: after the student chooses a number they have to mark it off their list, so that any question can only be asked once.
You ask the student the question. If they get it right then they get to place their naught or cross, whichever symbol they choose, in whichever square they like on the grid.
But, if the student gets it wrong then the teacher places their symbol in whichever square they like. If the student gives an incorrect answer then don’t forget to tell them the correct answer afterwards. The game goes on like this until the winner gets three symbols in a row.
For example:
This game is great for the teacher because it gives them an idea of how much the student has retained from previous lessons, and also, what they already know. My students like playing this game because it is a great stimulus to beat their teacher!
3. RING-A-WORD
Practises: Almost Anything
This classic classroom game is guaranteed to wake up the doziest class. It can be used for anything from learning the alphabet to revising irregular verbs. There are many variations depending only on the teacher’s imagination.
The basic idea is that the teacher covers the whiteboard randomly with words or letters. If, for example, you are teaching the alphabet, you might cover the board with all the vowels and some of the more problematical consonants. It’s a good idea to repeat some of the letters, for instance, in upper and lower case.
The class is divided into two teams. One team is given a blue whiteboard marker. The other team is given a red marker. The teams line up on either side of the board with the front students holding the markers. The teacher calls out a letter and the front students try to locate it and draw a ring round it. Change students every call or every three calls etc. The team with the most number of rings at the end wins.
Some possible topics:
• alphabet
• numbers
• dates
• times (years)
• irregular verbs
• prepositions