lesson link TEACHERS NOTES

Clothes and Hair

Level Intermediate and above
Time 60 minutes
Aim To broaden vocabulary on a topic
Skills To explain meanings using definitions and notes from the
Oxford Wordpower Dictionary

Before you start

Make copies of Student Worksheet A for half the class and Student Worksheet B for the
other half of the class.
You will also need copies of the Oxford Wordpower Dictionary and the Oxford Wordpower
Trainer booklet.

Warmer
Ask students to work with a partner. Tell them they have one minute to write down as many
words that are connected to clothes and hair as they can think of. After one minute, tell
them to stop and ask some pairs what they have written. Write these words on the board.

Activity A
Ask the students how they would expand their vocabulary of words on these two topics.
Suggest that they can use TOPIC notes in the dictionary to improve their speaking and
writing. These notes will give them a lot of words that they can use to talk about everyday
topics. Ask the class to open their dictionaries on page 657 and to look at the Shopping
TOPIC box. Point out that the vocabulary in bold is explained in the notes. Ask them to read
through the notes and to tell you what a fitting room is.
Explain that if they are still not clear what the words and phrases in a TOPIC box mean,
they can look them up in the A-Z of the dictionary.

Activity B
Ask students what crosswords are and whether they ever do them. Check they understand
what a clue is.
Tell the class they are going to do an interactive crossword where they will have half of the
answers and they will have to make up clues for those answers.
Divide the students into Group A and B. Hand out Worksheet A to the A students and
Worksheet B to the B students. Explain that in Group As crossword half the answers are
completed with vocabulary from the Clothes TOPIC notes on page 135, and that in Group
Bs crossword half the answers are completed with vocabulary from the Hair TOPIC notes
on page 332.

PHOTOCOPIABLE Oxford University Press 2010

 lesson link TEACHERS NOTES
Ask the students what clue they would write if the answer in the crossword was trendy
(popular at the moment). Write this on the board, e.g.
Answer: trendy
Clue: popular at the moment
Ask students to write the clues for the answers they have using the TOPIC notes. This can
be done in pairs or small groups.

Activity C
Ask the students to work with a partner from the other group. Students take turns to ask for
the clues they need to complete their crossword. They can use the relevant topic notes to
help them. They then write the answers for the missing words in the correct place in their
crossword. When they have finished, students check with their partner that they have the
same completed crossword.
Note where there is a hyphen in the word e.g. blow-dry the needs to be written in a box.
Where the answer is two words this is indicated by a shaded box in the answer.

Activity D
Refer the students to the exercises on page 29 of the Oxford Wordpower Trainer booklet
for more practice on clothes and hair vocabulary. This can be done in class or set as
homework.

Activity E
Ask the students to compare the words in the booklet and the TOPIC notes with those
written on the board in the warmer. Discuss with the students how much vocabulary they
have learnt from the dictionary exercises.

PHOTOCOPIABLE Oxford University Press 2010

 lesson link WORKSHEET
Clothes and hair vocabulary Crossword
A
1

G
E
2

F I T
3

A S
4

S C U W
5

H H I E
I A T L
O N L
6

N G
A E D
7 8

B D R
L E
9

E S M A R T
S
10

E
D

Using the Oxford Wordpower Dictionary Topic Notes for Clothes, write the clues for the
following answers that you have in your half of the crossword.
Across
2 fit ________________________________________________________________________________________

9 smart ________________________________________________________________________________________

Down
1 get changed ________________________________________________________________________________________
2 fashionable ________________________________________________________________________________________

3 suit ________________________________________________________________________________________

4 well dressed ________________________________________________________________________________________

PHOTOCOPIABLE Oxford University Press 2010

 lesson link WORKSHEET
Clothes and hair vocabulary Crossword
B
1

F R I N G E
A
I
6

G O G R E Y
7 8

B L O W - D R Y P
A
9

R
T
10

C O L O U R E D I
N
G
Using the Oxford Wordpower Dictionary Topic Notes for Hair, write the clues for the
following answers that you have in your half of the crossword.
Across
5 fringe ________________________________________________________________________________________

6 go grey ________________________________________________________________________________________

7 blow-dry ________________________________________________________________________________________

10 coloured ________________________________________________________________________________________

Down
5 fair ________________________________________________________________________________________

8 parting ________________________________________________________________________________________

PHOTOCOPIABLE Oxford University Press 2010