50 no-prep or low-prep activities for busy teachers

Activity 1)
Give each student a small piece of paper. Ask Ss to choose a certain number of English
vocabulary items from their notebooks/vocabulary lists at the back of the book/whatever (ideally 12
-15 words). Each student will presumably end up with a totally different set of words, which is
desirable. Ss stand up and start mingling, playing a game similar to Bingo. The aim is to get rid of
all the items on the list. Student X meets Student Y and describes one word from the list. When
Student Y guesses the word, Student X can cross it off/tick it. They change roles. When Student Y
crosses off one word too, they swap the lists. At this point, student X has Student Y's list and finds
another player, Student Z, for example. Ss could obviously play without constantly swapping the
lists, but they would only see the words they have chosen. It's more challenging if they are
encouraged to describe the words other Ss have picked plus the vocabulary revision effect is
much bigger. The one who ticks the last word on the list they're currently holding is the winner and
shouts 'Bingo!' Sometimes Ss are excited about the fact that they've ended up with their original
lists, which is fine.

Activity 2)
Ask Ss to get into pairs. Give each pair a large piece of paper (A4). Demonstrate the activity
with one student at the board. For starters, describe a simple word, such as *cat*. When the
student at the board guesses the word, he writes it down. Now, it's his turn to come up with a word
but it must start with the last letter of the previous word, i.e. the letter t. When you guess what the
student means, you write it down. The game goes on for a certain amount of time, which is totally
up to you. The winner is the most productive pair in the class, i.e. the pair with the most words
recorded.
As a follow-up activity, I usually ask Ss to look at their lists again and put the words into
categories (or invent a category for each item). This is very useful because it actually increases
the amount of vocabulary practiced. For a simple word like *chair*, Ss will find categories such as
furniture, wooden objects, things to sit on, etc. and thus will revise even more lexis. Lots of useful
connections will be created during this stage. Remember that all the input has been generated by
the students, not the teacher. One student's output becomes another student's input.
The fact that students can choose their own words to work with is highly motivating. Another
motivating factor is the game element, but your students will quickly forget that it's a competition
because they will fully concentrate on the task, i.e. to grasp/find and define a word. Also, they
need to find strategies which help them define a word as quickly and effectively as possible.
Although in Activity 1 they play individually, the opponents actually become allies. For instance,
when talking to a weak student, a strong student will have to adjust the definition to make it easy
to understand. In other words, they all need to cooperate with one another in order to successfully
complete the task.

Activity 3)
The alphabet game
Stage 1 (brainstorming)
Ask the class to choose a letter from the alphabet. You can do this by simply asking them
to shout out, or you can recite the alphabet silently in your head and ask the students to call out for
you to stop. The randomness of the second option appeals to younger students.
Write the letter on the board and brainstorm words that start with that letter. Don’t stop until
the board is covered in words. This could also be done as a board race, with teams passing the
board pen to their classmates as they race to fill their half of the board (it really doesn’t matter if
the words are repeated). Here’s an example in wordle of the letter B. (If you have a projector and
wifi connection in class you could create your own wordle as you go).
Stage 2 (optional – processing)
You might want to do something with the words on the board to help students process them. For
example, ask the students to work in small groups and categorise the words in three groups, they
choose the categories. Or ask them to group them by word class (nouns, verbs, adjectives). Or
ask them to choose their three favourites and least favourites and explain why.

Activity 4)
My life saver lesson
All you need is one blank A4 sheet of paper per student(or pair of students in larger classes).Hand
out the paper and follow this procedure:
 Students draw an oval in the centre of the sheet. In the oval they write a fairly general topic. It’s a
good idea to check the topic before they write it to avoid duplication.
 They then pass the sheet to the next pair who start creating a word spider. They add one bubble
connected to the central topic and write a sub-topic in this bubble. The paper is then passed round
for another pair to add a bubble until each paper has one main topic and 5 or 6 sub-topics.
 The next stage is to pass the sheet round with each pair adding one question about each sub-
topic. You can encourage variety by insisting on open questions and limiting repetition.
 When the papers are complete they should be handed to the teacher.
 Next rearrange the sts into groups of three or four. Offer the sts the papers face down and they
choose one. Students then discuss the questions until time or ideas are exhausted. Then they
pass round the sheets or take another one from the pile of unused topics. Continue until it’s time to
go home.
Extension ideas
 One student (changes for each new topic) to monitor each group. Students get 1 point for each
follow up question(2 points if it’s an open question)
 Each group can do a one minute presentation connected to their discussion.
 At the end of the lesson collect all the sheets and use the questions as a basis for language work
in the next lesson.

Activity 5)
Students are in pairs. One student chooses 10 words from the text (the other person cannot look
at this point) to NOT say and then reads the text aloud. The other student that is listening has to
try to guess the word based on the context. The speaker has to give hints and examples, say the
rest of the sentence, paraphrase. After the listener gets all the words students change roles and
do the same thing again. They can choose whatever words they want – hard, easy, interesting,
fun. They key is the thinking and talking about language.”
Activity 6)
Mr. Bean, comedy, what will happen vs. what happened:
Load up one of the Mr. Bean skits from YouTube
(I happen to like the car squashed by tank athttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nifdpFOY1FQ as
well as the christmas shopping scene:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPX_2DhMdko)
Have the students watch the video right up until a joke is about to happen, stop the video and
have them write a sentence down about what they think is going to happen. Have them compare
their predictions with each other. Then have them watch the gag unfold. If you want, you can then
have them write a sentence or two about what actually happened.

Activity 7)
Something I like to do is have Ss in pairs and have one student talk for a certain amount of time
(30 seconds or a minute) about why they LOVE or HATE a certain thing. This certain thing is
written on the board by the teacher. The tricky thing is that the students have to decide if they will
be saying they love or hate the thing before they hear what it is. When the word appears students
have to speak immediately and hopefully this is a nice challenge.
Activity 8)
"Today in order to enter the classroom you should say a password." Ideas for what the password
of the day is depend on the topic you're doing, grammar structure you want them to revise, your
mood, some news, etc. Basically, on your imagination. Let them think on their feet. Let it be one
word, a word combination, a sentence, a question.
Some examples from my class: "one object inside/ outside the house", "what's your opinion about
being late?" (obviously I was late for class), "one word connected with this day
Activity 9)
"Who Am I?" This is one of my favorite family party games simply modified to use with students.
Choose a number of famous people or characters that students will know, one for each student
and extras if you can. You can make it easier by keeping it in a specific genre or using all
names/characters beginning with a certain letter. Print out the names and cut them up. Tape one
name to each student's back. Tell them, they need to find out who they are by mingling with
classmates and asking only yes or no questions about their name. You may want to review this
process first by having the students think of a famous personality and you model questions. "Am I
alive?" "Am I fictional?" "Am I a man?" "Am I a TV personality?" etc. If students struggle with their
guesses, give them some hints to push them along. This always gets my students laughing and
moving.
Activity 10)
"Headliners" This is an activity I use to review vocabulary. I elicit from the class the important
words/phrases from the reading for that week. Sometimes I need to suggest that they find
particular parts of speech. When there are a healthy amount of words on the board and they start
to run out of steam, I ask them to choose a few of them to make a newspaper headline and then
write a short article to go with their headline. Students can add a picture to go with their article and
post it on the class bulletin board.
Activity 11)
A simple activity to practice the past simple.
1) Ask students to think about the most important moments in their lives. Ask them to choose 5
and share them with their partner.
2) Show them an example “My Life in 20 Lines”. You could make your own life story if you feel
comfortable sharing it with your students, or create an example.
3) Ask them to note why number 20 is different (all the other use the past simple to talk about the
past and 20 uses the present continuous to talk about how he feels now)
4) Ask students to write their own, possibly as homework. If you teach teenagers or young people,
you could create some conditions, such as they are aged 19 or younger, they can write ten lines,
between 20 to 30 years old, fifteen lines, and over 30's write twenty lines.
5) After you've given the students feedback on their writing, collect the students work and stick
them up on the wall. Ask the students to go around and read them. Ask them to make a note of
anything they didn't know about their colleagues. They can then discuss this in groups, asking
follow questions as they talk about it. Check for their use of the past simple as they give more
information about what happened.
Activity 12)
I call it "Tag it". No prep. Students, life events, a piece of paper and a pen.
Students write 6-8 (any number you like) words/ word combinations to "tag" their last weekend/
holiday/ visit somewhere, etc. They should leave some space after each word.
Exchange papers with partners. In this free space write sentences with their guesses about these
tags. E.g.: "relatives" --> "At the weekend you visited your relatives" OR "Your relatives came a
long way from ... and are now staying at your place" OR "You might have visited your relatives
in..." Explore a variety of grammar structures, invite shorter/ more expanded sentences, tweak the
task.
Final stage - exchange back, prove guesses right or comment on the wrong ones.
Activity 13)
My uni students love pairwork describe and draw activities (one describes a pic/photo, the other
draws based on the description), which are great for raising awareness of detail and precision, as
well as missing lexical items.
Activity 14)
An activity I use with largeish classes of very young learners who do English with me just once a
week:
Students stand/sit in a circle.
Play music.
Students pass two different toys/cushions/whatevers, like pass-the-parcel.
When you stop the music, the student holding one of the toys/cushions says something (e.g.
'Move your _____'), and the student holding the second toy/cushion responds (by following a
command or replying).
This is very simple, but I find it useful for encouraging very young learners who don't spend much
time in English class to actually use English without feeling lots of pressure. It's easy to set up and
for non-English speaking helpers to understand.
As with pass-the-parcel, need to watch out for students who hold the toy/cushion for too long (or
not long enough).
(Maybe this fails the 'many contexts' requirement, but it could be adaptable to other ages and I
think it suits large classes. Although it's so simple it took me a while to cotton on to it, and its
usefulness.)
Activity 15)
Title : And so the story goes...
Aims :
provide opportunity for learners to reuse vocabulary acquired in a different context and utilize
learner collaboration in creatively writing a story
Assumptions:
learners have already been exposed to a new set of vocabulary in context
Activity:
"Ss are placed in groups of 3. Vocabulary from the previous day are elicited and written on the
whiteboard. Ss decide the parts of speech of each word. Each group is sent out of the classroom
to bring 3 things (per group) back to the classroom with the rule : it cannot be something bought
with money AND it cannot be carcass. Once Ss get back, each group is required to create and
write a story using vocabulary from the whiteboard and incorporating the things they've brought
back. To make the activity more interesting, Ss can also be given magazines and are allowed to
cut 3-5 pictures to be used as a part of the story. Each group is given colored markers, manila
paper, scissors and glue. T works as a facilitator and moves from one group to another, giving the
necessary feedback that groups require. The final project (written work and graphics) is presented
on the manila paper. T places all projects around the classroom (on walls) and groups walk
around the classroom, reading each other's story and placing "thumbs up" images (in different
positions) depending on how much they like the stories".
Activity 16)
Believe it or not!
A speaking activity I've used with adult learners to practise making questions in the past simple but
I guess it could be adapted for any tenses really.
1. Students sit in small groups of four or five.
2. Teacher gives each group a set of question cards. I use "Have you ever...?" Some sample
questions would be "Have you ever danced on a table? Have you ever been in a police station?
Have you ever punched somebody in the face? etc." the more outrageous the better
3. Student A picks a card, reads the question, and must answer "Yes, I have."
4. The other students now have 90 seconds to ask questions using the past simple to discover if
student A is lying. e.g. "Where was the table? Why did you dance on it? Who was there?" etc.
5. Student A answers all the questions trying to make the others believe that he's telling the truth.
6. When time is up, group votes whether A was telling the truth or not.
7. Repeat.
Like I said, this works better with older students as they've had more life experiences so it's
difficult to tell if they are telling the truth or not.
A page of questions ready to print can be found on my blog but it really doesn't take a lot to write
your own if the ones I use are unsuitable for your group.
Activity 17)
"We Are All Artists"
This is a no fail activity. Just pass out one piece of paper to each student. Tell students they have
2 minutes to draw a piece of modern/abstract art (if your students have no idea what abstract art
might look like, show em a few images from the abstract art gallery on
Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_art).After students have finished their drawings
(and don't worry when your students moan that they didn't have enough time to finish. It's abstract
art! No one can tell the difference anyway), number each of the pictures. Students then pick their
three favourite pictures and give them a title.
Then the students pair up and talk about their favourite pictures, using the title and describing the
picture. But they can't refer to the picture's number. Their partner, after listening, has to try and
guess which picture was being talked about and give their reasons why they thought it was that
picture.
There's a lot of good language students can practice in this activity to discuss a picture: "This
picture reminds me of...," "This picture makes me think of..." "This picture makes me feel..." "This
picture looks like..."
It works especially well if you run the activity 2 to 3 times. The first time is just to see what kind of
language the students are using to describe the pictures and to board any language with which
they are struggling. The 2nd and 3rd time are for practice and then perhaps fluency
Activity 18)
This is a good activity to practise present continuous.
Choose a video clip according to the level of your Ss. Mr Bean is good, or anything you can find
with known vocab.
If you choose something with spoken text, turn off the audio.
Before you turn on the video, arrange Ss on chairs opposite each other. One row facing the
screen and the other away from the screen so that they can't see the action.
The S facing the screen must try to explain what's happening to their "un-seeing" partner.
When you finish, you can all watch the clip together, and then jointly construct the story as a
speaking or writing activity.
Activity 19)
Song Collage POEM
My students liked this activity a lot, when we were studying poetry.
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Each student has to bring to class the printed copies of 3 to 5 lyrics of song they like. It does not
matter the genre, or the singer, or the type of song (I only forbid them from bringing songs that
were violent, inappropriate nor repetitive -Shine bright like a diamond is A NO NO!!)
2. They sit in groups of three to four students (even five), which means there are at least 10
different songs per team.
3. They start copying random lines from the songs. The specific instruction here is that they can
only copy ONE LINE at a time from each song.
4. You determine how many lines do you want your students song collage poem. I asked my
students to write from 20 to 25 lines.
5. They published their poems inhttp://notegraphy.com
6. My students discovered that they could write poems too, and they had lots of fun. They then
shared them in class, reading them aloud.
Activity 20)
"Word Association" is a fun warm-up activity for teaching ESL
This is a fun warm-up activity for teaching English to intermediates (not for total beginners) on up.
It is similar to the activity "word chain", but it will work with more advanced students. So if the
students seem bored with "word chain" then you can try this.
This is a fun warm-up activity and it can be funny to hear peoples associations to different things.
It's best to keep it going fast. If a student can't think of one then have them pass it.
Instructions:
1. You need a ball or a soft die
2. Have your students stand
3. Pass the ball to one student and give them a word (any word)
4. They say the first word that they think of
5. Then they pass the ball to another person and...
6. That person says the first word they think of
7. Continue

Activity 21)
"Word Chain" - A super simple & fun ESL warm-up activity
This is a fun and simple activity for warming up your students. It might actually be the one activity
that I used the most. It works with most levels too. Pretty much any game with a ball is fun!
If they are a sharp group then you could try it without having them pass the ball back to you. After
they say their word you could have them pass it to another student and so on. Or if it seems to
easy for them you could try this one instead.
Instructions:
1. Get a ball or a soft die
2. Have your students stand
3. Pass the ball to a student and give them a letter ("T")
4. That student gives you a word that begins with that letter ("Time")
5. They pass the ball back to you
6. Pass the ball to the next student
7. Take the last letter from that word ("e")
8. Pass the ball and give the next student that letter
9. Continue

Activity 22)
"Teacher Says" is a fun warm-up activity for teaching young children
"Teacher Says" is a fun ESL activity for warming up children that works well with really young
children.
This will work well for very young learners, from about kindergarten to 3rd or 4th grade. Once your
students cease to make errors then you can stop this game, as their level is probably too
advanced for this.
Or it could mean that you are too slow and predictable.
Instructions:
Create a list of commands like:
 Touch your eyes
 Touch your ears, or nose, or toes, or hair, or chin, etc.
 Sit down
 Jump
 Wave "hi"
 etc.
How to do it:
1. Have your students stand up
2. Say "Teacher says _____ (command)" or "_____ (command)"
3. If you say "Teacher says" then they do it
4. If you don't say "Teacher says" then they don't do it
5. If they do it then make them sit down
6. Continue until only one person is standing
You can give that person a plus one or a star.
Another twist on this activity is that instead of saying "teacher says" you could just say "touch your
nose" and then try to trick them by doing something different from what you are saying (actually
touching your leg).

Activity 23)

"Line Up" is a great icebreaker for your first day teaching ESL
Learn a great icebreaker for your first day teaching English. This activity will work well with most
levels of students except total beginners or very young children.
This icebreaker will work especially well on your first day teaching lower intermediates on up. The
questions used can also be altered to fit the students level/age.
Instructions:
1. Come up with three questions (perhaps two basic questions and one more interesting
question)
2. Write your questions on the board
3. Have your students form two lines facing each other
4. Say "go" and have the students begin asking the person opposite them the questions
5. After some time or when the first student has asked the three questions say "switch"
6. One line stays still while the other moves down one
7. Continue
The basic questions used here are:
1. What's your name?
2. Where are you from?
3. Who would you most like to eat dinner with?
Activity 24)
"Charades" is a popular miming activity for teaching vocabulary
This is a kinesthetic activity for teaching vocabulary/phrases in the ESL classroom.
Charades is a simple ESL activity that involves miming. Action words work best.
Instructions:
1. Pick a word or phrase, for example, "play basketball"
2. Pretend to play basketball without speaking
3. Have students guess what it is
4. Have the guesser come forward to mime a word or a phrase
It depends on the students, but for very young children I will usually whisper the word or secretly
point to a picture in the book.

Activity 25)
"Taboo" is a fun activity for teaching ESL vocabulary
This is a fun ESL activity that can be used when practicing vocabulary and phrases.
Instructions:
 Place two chairs in the front of and facing the class
 Two students sit down
 Write a word on the board so that they cannot see it
 Have the other students give them clues without saying the word until one gets it
 Then change seats and have a new set of students come forward
You can keep track of points for this if you like too. It's a pretty fun activity. For large classes
(instead of just two chairs) you can place one chair for each group in the front of the classroom.

Activity 26)
Learn an efficient ESL speaking activity called "Pass the Marker"
A fun and efficient vocabulary activity for teaching vocabulary.
This is a good game for teaching and practicing vocabulary.
Instructions:
 Divide your class into two teams and into two lines standing facing the board
 Say or point to a word on the board and say "Go"
 Each student says the word while at the same time passing it down the line
 The last students run up to the board to write and say it
 Give a point to the first one to say it correctly
 They then go to the front of the line
 Continue
This is a fun game for teaching ESL. It is also very efficient. If a student doesn't say the word send
the marker back and have them do it again or don't give their team a point.
For large classes you can divide your ESL students into more than two lines. Due to space I
probably wouldn't have any more than 4 lines. This activity goes pretty fast so you put 10 people
or so in one line. If someone doesn't speak then you can have them pass the marker back.

Activity 27)

"Sprite" is a fun ESL writing activity for vocab

This is a writing activity for teaching vocabulary to children
This is a fun and efficient activity that can be used when teaching and practicing vocabulary
words. Students get the chance to practice the four skills; writing, reading, listening and speaking.
To do this activity:
 Divide your class into two or more teams depending on the size of the class
 Say a vocabulary word from your lesson
 One student from each team races up to the board to write it
 After they write it they say it
 The first student to say it and write it correctly gets a point for their team
 The other students seated can help them spell it correctly
 Make sure that they correct any mistakes before sitting down
You could also have them draw a picture of the word as well as write it.

Activity 28)
ESL Classroom Activities - Pass and Ask
"Pass and Ask" is an ESL activity that is used with Q&A
This is a fun and simple activity. To do this:
 Get a ball or a soft die
 Use questions from your ESL lesson
 Have your students stand
 Pass the die to a student and ask them a question
 After they answer have them pass the die and ask another student a question
 Continue
Here in the video the question is "What can you do?". It could also be something like, "Where do
you live?", "What do you want to be when you grow up?", etc.

Activity 29)
ESL Writing Activities - Sentence Relay
A fun group activity where students can practice their writing and speaking
To do this ESL activity:
 Have two small groups of students (two teams) come up to the board.
 Say a sentence from your lesson.
 Have the students take turns writing the sentence one word at a time.
 Each person in the group can only write one word at a time.
 The first group to write the full sentence and say it correctly gets a point.
 Continue
 Another version: Next, ask a question and have students take turns coming to the front
board to write the question you just asked one word at a time. The last person has to begin
writing the answer one word at a time. The first team to have the question and answer
correct gets a point. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

 The only prep time you need for this activity is to find the questions to ask your students.
However, you may not need any prep time because you can find the questions in your
teacher manual.

Activity 30)
ESL Games - Paper, Scissors, Stone!
This is a fun and efficient game for practicing speaking in sentences
This game is also more commonly known as "Rock, Paper, Scissors". I learned it as the above
"Paper, Scissors, Stone!" and I think it sounds better. It's more fluid to say than the other. To play
this ESL game:
 Write + or - 1/+ or - 5/+ or - 10 on the board.
 Divide your students into teams.
 Have two students put together a sentence or Q&A from their book.
 The first one to say it correctly gets to choose a number 1, 5 or 10.
 Paper, Scissors, Stone!
 If they select 5 and win, they get +5. If they select 5 and lose, they get -5.
 Continue
This game is efficient as it takes almost no time to prepare and little time is wasted performing the
activity. It's good for practicing repetitive items and perfecting their speech.
For large classes greater than 15 students or so you can divide them into groups with about 5
students in a group or so. In this case the group will become the individual, meaning instead of
having one student from each team speaking we will have two groups speaking and competing
against one another. Make sure all the students speak in the group and if not you can give it to the
team where everyone speaks. Then just pick a student on the team to pick a number 1, 5, or 10
and continue.

Activity 31)
ESL Spelling Activities - Spelling Bee I
"Spelling Bee I" is a spelling activity that works well with large ESL classes
This is a fun spelling activity that works well with large classes. It involves lining your students up
and giving them a word to spell. Often any activity that involves this can work well with large
classes. To do this spelling activity:
 Create two lines of students facing the board.
 You'll operate one line by standing in the front and have your co-teacher or pick a higher level
student to operate the other.
 Give the first one in line a word from your lesson to spell.
 If he or she spells it correctly give their team a point.
 Then they go to the back of the line.
 Give the next student a word to spell.
 Continue

Activity 32)

The Listing Game (Shopping Game)

Not even a whiteboard is required for this one unless you want to write up the target sentence to
guide lower level students. The idea is simple – create a list, with each student adding one item to
the list, to be recalled from memory. The usual target sentence is I went to the shops and I
bought… Perhaps the first student will say a banana. So the next student will say a banana and a
rabbit. The next student will say a banana, a rabbit and a mobile phone. The list continues until a
student can no longer recall the list correctly. You can make it simpler by having each student
name a word beginning with a letter of the alphabet in sequence, to make it easier to remember.
Example: an apple, a brooch, a cat, a pan… The target sentence can be changed depending the
on level of students and topics recently studied. Examples: The last time I went on holiday, into my
suitcase I packed… For my next birthday, I’d like… I have a job in the local shop, and today I
sold…

Activity 33)

Clap / Stamp Game

This game can be applied to any language point, and all it requires is for your students to either
clap their hands or stamp their feet. For example, you could practice CVC (consonant-vowel-
consonant) words and ask students to clap/stamp depending on which medial vowel they hear.
You could teach countable/uncountable nouns, verbs in different tenses… pretty much any topic
can be worked into this game. Just explain to the students to listen and then either clap or stamp
depending on what they hear. You can do it as a review, or make it into a game so that the last
one to react is ‘out’. Higher-lever students could even be the game master and say the words.

Activity 34)
Material: Pictures/Photographs
Collect interesting pictures. Laminate them or mount them on card-stock for durability. Keep some
in your bag or classroom for short notice activities. Some activity suggestions:
  Put some pictures with some similarities on the board. Students take turns describing them
(orally or in writing) and others have to guess which picture has been described.
 Hand small groups of students 3-5 random pictures, or have them choose pictures.
Students must them create a scenario that connects all the pictures.
 Hand out a picture to each student (or have students choose one). They must decide what
the picture reminds them of. Partners must then ask questions to elicit as much detail as
possible about the event.
For more ideas for using pictures, visit the resource center from your TESOL account.

Activity 35)
Material: Index Cards with Words/Phrases
Mingle: Hand each student a verb card and have them move around the classroom asking a
question using the word on the card. Students can exchange cards and move onto a new partner.
The teacher can decide to limit questions to specific types or tenses depending on the class.

Activity 36)
Material: Index Cards with Words/Phrases
Talk about: Have students work in pairs and hand each pair a small number of topic cards. When
the teacher says start, one student must take a card and talk continuously on the top for the
allotted time. When the teacher says stop, the other member of the pair takes a turn. When all the
cards have been used, students can volunteer to try in front of the whole class.

Activity 37)
Dictogloss
Teachers can vary the procedure according to their needs, but the following steps provide a basic
outline for using dictogloss in class.
1. Choose a short one or two paragraph text with vocabulary at an appropriate level for your
class.
2. Tell students they will hear the text twice. The first time, they should just listen. After the first
listening, give students a couple of minutes to talk with a partner about what they have heard.
3. Have students listen to the text a second time. This time, they can jot down key words and
phrases as they listen.
4. Have students work in pairs or small groups. Give them a moment to compare their notes,
then have them reconstruct the text.
5. When students have completed their texts, they can be corrected as a class.
Remember to read the texts at normal speed so that students are listening to natural speech.
Dictogloss provides students with an opportunity to practice real life listening skills, while
stretching their language abilities.

Activity 38)
A-Z Reflection
This is the perfect no-prep activity to try in the beginning of the school year or at the end of the
school year. All you have to do for this activity is to have students write down the letters A-Z on a
piece of paper.
Next, instruct students to reflect upon what they did during the summer and to write down one
thing for each letter. If you are doing this activity at the end of the school year then have students
reflect upon what they learned during the school year.

Activity 39)
Mother May I
One of the easiest ways to practice modal verbs (and get out of the classroom at the same time) is
to play a simple game of Mother May I. In this game, one person stands at one end of the playing
field. This person is “Mother”, and he or she will be giving the other students permission to move
from the opposite end of the playing field toward her. Students take turns asking whether they can
take a certain type of step toward mother. For example, one students might ask, “Mother, may I
take five baby steps?” Mother answers either affirmatively or negatively. If her answer is yes, the
student takes those steps counting aloud as they move. The next student then asks for permission.
“Mother may I take three scissor steps?” Mother answers again. Students can name any kind of
step, and then should then act out that step as they move – karate steps, jump steps, kangaroo
steps, etc. If you like, encourage students to use modals other than may when they ask permission.
The first person to reach Mother wins the game, and that person gets to be Mother in the next
round. This game is particularly nice as it reviews modals, gets students moving, and reviews
numbers all at the same time.

Activity 40)
Show & Tell
Oftentimes when Día de los Reyes falls right before the holiday break ends, the teachers will let
the little ones bring one or two of their favorite toys to school. It’s the perfect opportunity for show
and tell! Even if their level is too slow to really explain the item, you can work with basic
vocabulary to talk to each one about their goodies (Is it a toy? Game? Clothes?, color, where they
will play with it/use it, etc).

Activity 41)
Invent an acrostic
Students work in pairs or individually.
They choose/are assigned a word from the revision set.
Their task is to use each letter of the word given as first letters of new words, preferably somehow
connected to the original word: words from the same lesson, connected with a similar topic,
synonyms, antonyms etc.
Students share their acrostics with the whole class.
Alternatively, instead of single words, they create whole sentences, still pertaining to the original
word.
My favourite thing about this activity is that it allows creativity and activates students’ vocabulary.
Also, there are no wrong answers here!
Activity 42)
Invent a chain of associations
I have written about this activity here and the credit goes to Magda Kania for introducing me to this
idea.
Students work individually or in pairs.
The teachers/ a student chooses two random words or expressions from the revision set.
Put the words on two opposite sides the board and draw any given number of squares between
them.
Students need to invent a story that takes them from word A to word B in as many steps as there
are squares between the words.
To make it more competitive, you can add a time limit, award points for any word from the
previous class that students use in this task etc.
Students share their stories with each other afterwards.

Activity 43)
What does your name mean?
Using a dictionary, google or any other resource, students find and write down an appropriate
adjective that begins with each letter of their first name. For example:
Flirtatious, Relaxed, Extrovert, Desirable

Activity 44)
Make the most words
Write a topical vocabulary item on the board. In twos or threes, students make as many new
words from it as they can. Use longish seed words such as apologise,
dictionary or September. Score teams a point per word and award a bonus point for the longest.

Activity 45)
Mixed-up sentence (anagram variation)
Write a sentence on the board but this time scramble the letters of each word. For example:
hwy ddint’ I dusty draher ta vieyunrsit?

Activity 46)
What do you know about bananas?
Set a five-minute time limit and in groups have students think up and write down as many facts as
they can about bananas (or cats, Belgium, David Beckham, etc.). One point should be given for
each true sentence.

Activity 47)
I’m going on a picnic and I’m taking a …
This is a guess the rule type game. Think of a rule which governs which items can be taken on a
picnic, for example, it must be six letters long, or it must start with a vowel. In this example, the
rule is that the word must be an uncountable noun.
Teacher: I’m going on a picnic and I’m taking milk.
Student A: I’m going on a picnic and I’m taking eggs.
Teacher: No, you can’t take eggs.
Student B: Can I take orange juice?
Teacher: Yes, you can take orange juice.
Etc.
Continue until students guess the rule. If they’re not making any progress, continue to add further
items you would take e.g. love, information, air (the choices don’t have to make sense within the
picnic scenario). Invite the students alone or in pairs to come up with their own rules and let them
run the game.

Activity 48)
Mastermind
Based on the code-breaking board game where players have to deduce the order of 4 coloured
pegs which the other player had hidden behind a plastic guard. It’s slightly complicated to grasp
but fun when you get the hang of it.
Think of a four letter word and write XXXX on the board, each X represents one of the letters of
your word.
Invite the first student to guess what the word is.
Start a new line underneath your original XXXX. If the first letter in the student’s word is the same
as the first letter in your word put a ✓ in the first position. If the first letter is not the same as the
first letter in your word but is contained somewhere in your word put a half-tick /. If the first letter of
the student’s word is not contained anywhere your word put an X.
In the following example, the teacher chooses the word FIRE.
XXXX
XXXX – COAT
X/XX – BEST
X✓X✓ – HIKE
/✓X✓ – RIDE
✓✓✓✓ – FIRE
A word of warning. Stick to 4 or 5 letter words. It’s much more difficult to guess longer words and it
can also be tricky trying to mark each guess.
When students are familiar with the game you can get them to come and put their own words on
the board.

Activity 49)
Slap the Board
This game works best with beginner students. The teacher writes words arranged randomly on the
board and calls one player from each team to stand equidistantly from the board. The teacher will
say one of the words and students should run up to the board and slaps the word when they find it.
Variation: A variant of this game is called “Swat It!” where students use fly swatters to swat the word
instead of slapping the board.

Activity 50)
Linking Words
This is a word association game where the teacher gives 2 words (example: “house and soda”) and
students have to link the words by inserting other related/relevant words in between, i.e “house –
kitchen – refirgerator – soda”. You may decide the number of words the player can use to link.