Vocabulary Warmers

Activities for Any Level

1. You put various sets of words on the board in jumbled order: e.g., onions, ham,
peas, apples, lettuce, beef, tomatoes, oranges, bacon, strawberries.
Students work in pairs to re-order the words into logical sets or groups.

2. You say individual words: e.g., big, happy, long, old.

You nominate students to say the synonym or antonym (opposite) of each word.
Note: An alternative is for students to write each synonym or antonym as you say
it. Then in pairs they check their lists.

3. You give the headword of a word set (e.g., clothes).

Students in pairs list examples of the set (e.g., hat, skirt, coat).

4. You say a set of words (e.g., chair, table, bed, couch).

Students say or write the headword (e.g., furniture).
Note: You can involve the students more in this by having individuals read out
the sets of words. In this case, give each of these students a card with a set of
words and the headword written on it.

5. You say a topic area: e.g., weather.

Students in pairs brainstorm and list as many related words as they know (e.g.,
rain, snow, cold,sunny).

6. You mime various actions.

Students guess the verbs.

7. You draw two circles on the board. In one you write a set of verbs: e.g., wear,
carry, open, make, turn on, do. In the other you write words that can connect to
your original words: e.g., an umbrella, a mistake, homework, a light, a hat.
Students in pairs decide which word in the first circle goes with which word in the
second circle.

8. Draw symbols for a word stress pattern on the board. (For example, you would
write the stress pattern for important as oOo.) Say 8-9 words of similar length:
e.g., potato, beautiful, arriving, wonderful.
The students say whether the stress pattern of each word is the same as the one
on the board.
Note: A variant is to write the pattern and word on a worksheet and give it to
pairs. They circle every word that has the given pattern.
Activities for Higher Levels

1. You write various words (e.g., small, big, huge) on the board in logical order
along a continuum line.
Students copy the line. Then in pairs they think of other words (e.g., tiny, large)
and write them on their lines.

2. You write on the board or say several verbs and/or nouns (e.g., drive,
photographer). Students in pairs think of related nouns, adjectives, etc. (e.g.,
driver, photographic).

3. You write a set of related verbs on the board (e.g., cope, manage, succeed, fail).
Students decide which preposition and verb form (e.g., infinitive, gerund) follow
each one.

4. You write on the board a prefix or suffix (e.g., un or ful).

Students in pairs think of words using the prefix or suffix (e.g., unlikely, unhappy,
beautiful, successful).