ESL Warm-up Magical Question Box July 30, 2007
Posted by serenden in questions, warm-up.add a comment
I used this countless times in my 1st grade junior high classes last year, and it worked great.
Aims: to practice listening to questions and giving the right answer gramatically
Materials: a little box with lots of questions written out.
The students form teams based on their columns of seats. They all stand up and face you. Pick a student in the front row to pick out a question for your magical mystery box. Unfold the question and ask it.
Only the students in the first row can answer the question after raising their hand. The first student with their hand up gets called on, and they must answer the question correctly.
Example:
Q:”Where are you from?”
A: “I’m from Japan”
Q: “What time did you get up this morning?”
A: “AT 7 o’clock”.
Etc…
When a student answers correctly, they can sit down. The rest of the first-row students move to the back of their team, and the students next in line come forward to answer the next question.
The kids like it if you make a dramatic act out of the choosing of the quesiton, and with a lively atmosphere, they really enjoyed it.
Evening News July 30, 2007
Posted by serenden in passive-voice, questions.add a comment
From Three Wise Monkeys
Aims: questions / passive voice: “was found”…
Materials: 5 variations of the worksheet
This is an information gap activity where the students use their worksheets, which have separately whited-out gaps to find others with the information they need. In the end, they will have a full evening news report which they can give to the class.
Kind of like a Mad-Libs activity, I’d say.
Yes and No July 30, 2007
Posted by serenden in questions.add a comment
From Three Wise Monkeys
Aims: Yes & No / have & haven’t / did & didn’t
Materials: questions worksheet
Students practice asking questions and responding with the answers above. Go to this activity »
Fortune Telling July 30, 2007
Posted by serenden in occupations, questions, sentence-making, verb-tense.add a comment
From Three Wise Monkeys
Aims: will / future tense verbs
Materials: worksheets, dice or spinner
Students use a dice and worksheets to find each other’s futures, then read them aloud. Hopefully their futures are filled with wild and crazy adventures! Go to this activity »
HINTS: Adapt to a lesson, and make sure to use silly / hopefully understandable words.
Go Fish July 30, 2007
Posted by serenden in card-games, occupations, questions, questions-asking, sentence-making, vocabulary-any.add a comment
From Three Wise Monkeys
Aims: occupations / what do you want to be? / other
Materials: game cards with 10-12 pictures of different occupations, a set of 3 for each student.
Ex:
To play: students find a partner and ‘Jan-ken’; the winner is Student ‘A’, the other is student ‘B’.
‘A’: “I want to be a farmer.” (They must use one of their cards), “Do you want to be a farmer?”
‘B’: “Yes, I do. I want to be a farmer, too.” (‘B’ surrenders their card to ‘A’).
or
“No, I don’t. I don’t want to be a farmer.” (No card is lost or won)
Lies July 30, 2007
Posted by serenden in past-tense, questions, sentence-making.add a comment
From Three Wise Monkeys
Aims:Past Tense Verbs / -ed / did & didn’t
Materials: none or yes/no big flashcard (made)
In teams, the students practice coming up with sentences, both true and false, about themselves.
One student from the first team comes up to the front of the room and gives their true or false sentence.The class must then decide if the student is telling the truth by asking questions which relate to the grammar you’re teaching. A great way to get the kids talking!
Battleship 1 July 30, 2007
Posted by serenden in board-games, pronunciation, questions, questions-asking, sentence-making.add a comment
Aims: Questions / Does & Doesn’t / very adaptable
Materials: worksheets and a large example worksheet
There are tons of ways to play this game in the ESL classroom. I have found it to be a very useful activity that the kids generally enjoy.
The simplest explanation:
Hand out Battleship worksheets to each student. They plot their ships in their grid – 2 5-square “ships”, 2 4-square ships, and 2 3-square ships, or whatever you decide.
The students pair up, and ask each other questions based on the coordinates of the square they think their opponent may have a “ship” on. Ex:
A: “Does Sally go to school?”
B: “Yes, she does” or “No, she doesn’t” (depending on if they have a ship in that square).
The first student to “sink” all of their opponents “ships” wins the game, or whoever has the most sunk at the end of the class time.
HINT: I have found that as long as you go over the activity with the teacher you’re working with well in advance, and you give the students an active example, it goes very smoothly.
Go to this activity…
on MES-English (complete with downloadable worksheet)
