Vocabulary activity game.
Download the game here: Compound nouns dominoes Places
Other vocabulary resources:
Travel/Holiday Vocabulary Cards
Useful Classroom Tip: Vocabulary Revision
Business English Vocabulary Card Game | Forbidden Words
Media/Entertainment Vocabulary Card Game Based on Taboo.
This speaking activity deals with the everyday teenager issues.
Warm-up (10-15m)
Put the students in pairs and let them brainstorm the problems and conflicts young people might have. When they are finished, put them into groups of four and let them discuss the problems in more detail. What causes these problems? What advice would you give to people struggling with them? Do they have any personal experience that they are willing to share? Circle and monitor.
Activity (15m)
After that, tell the original pair to chose two conflict situations from their brainstorming sessions. They are going to role-play the first conflict and try to find a solution. Then they swap roles and play out the second conflict. Circle and monitor.
Problems: failing a subject, alcohol abuse, no money for new mobile phone/sneakers, etc.
Conflicts: with my dad because he grounded me for nothing, with my mom because she forces me to play the piano but I hate it, with my math teacher because….., etc.
Debrief (5m)
What advice did the students come up with?
Was it easier to play the role of a child or of a parent? Why?
How did they solve their conflicts?
Ridiculous Holiday Complaints: Reading And Speaking(Role-play) ESL Lesson Plan
I have neglected my blog in the past couple of weeks, mostly due to my duties at the school where I teach. Staff meetings, entrance exams, school leaving exams, paperwork…and at the end of the day, no energy for creativity, or even thinking.
Hopefully, I will have more time in the following weeks and then, in the summer! (I plan to write articles and create activities, worksheets and posters during the summer holidays. Well, after a week or two of complete reboot 🙂 )
Until then, enjoy two vocabulary posters, and have fun learning and teaching English!
Meanwhile, have a look at my older articles: –>>>3 Board Games You Can Use In The Classroom –>>>ESL Role Play Worksheet: Travel/Holidays –>>>At The Restaurant: ESL Pair Work and Role Play Lesson –>>>Media/Entertainment Vocabulary Card Game Based on Taboo –>>>28 ESL/EFL Conversation Starters to Spark Conversation —>>> Business English Vocabulary Card Game | Forbidden Words
Who doesn’t like jelly beans? Most kids love them. Why not use that love for them in your classroom?
I’m sure most of you know the naughty version of Jelly Beans- Bean Boozled. It is a game which features a spin wheel and 14 different flavours of the jelly beans. 7 of the flavours are weird and wild and quite disgusting, especially rotten egg or dog food, others are more or less harmless, like toothpaste and lawn clippings. The other 7 flavours are regular jelly beans: peach, coconut, lime, etc.
The fun thing is, the seven regular flavour look identical to the other seven disgusting flavours. Can you tell them apart? You spin the wheel, which shows you what colour you have to eat. Will it be tasty lime or lawn clippings?
So far, it sounds fun, but what can you do with this game at your ESL/EFL lessons?
Plenty of things. I used it for the first time as an icebreaker in September, during that first lesson when everyone feels awkward and uncomfortable. I prepared a set of quiz questions, mine was general knowledge but you can make it anything you want: tenses, vocabulary, spelling, etc.
I asked a student a question and when they didn’t answer correctly they had to spin the wheel and eat a jelly bean. It was exciting because they didn’t know what flavour they would get, so they tried to answer correctly as the game progressed, hence the motivation.
You can use it as an energizer when your students seem in need of a little excitement and fun. It can be used at the end of the lesson as a filler, or as a form of a reward after a difficult test. You can also hack the spin wheel and add different questions to each section. If the student answers correctly, they don’t have to eat the jelly (or they can, if they want to risk it). If they can’t answer the question correctly, they have to eat the jelly.
My favourite way how to use it is to let them write the questions, and I mostly use it for vocabulary revision. I prepare vocabulary cards on certain topic and each of the cards contains the word which they need to explain and colour of the jelly bean.
They spin the wheel, and if they can’t explain the word they have to eat the bean of the matching colour. Which can be delicious or quite sickening. Just make sure the kids are ok with this kind of game and have some tissues ready, some spitting may occur!
Other games and speaking activities:
I want to share with you a fun activity which I found on the website of the Merriam-Webster dictionary. It is called Name That Thing, and that is exactly what you do. They show you a picture of an everyday object or a part of it and you have to choose the correct word. Sometimes, the object is not that familiar, like for example flying buttress.
You will have 15 seconds to guess each word and the faster you are the higher the points. The game is a lot of fun and a great way how to learn new vocabulary.
There are also many other games, quizzes, crosswords, and puzzles. Have fun!
Forbidden Words is a game card activity based on Taboo. The aim of the game is to explain given words, but without those words that you would most likely use because those are taboo – that means, you can’t use them. The simplicity of this game allows for endless variations and you can use it to teach any vocabulary you wish. This is a Business English Vocabulary game for adults and teenagers.
This version contains 27 cards, each with 5 words, which gives you together 105 words you can use for teaching or revision with your students.
Each card contains one keyword (the word you have to explain) and 4 forbidden words which may not be used when explaining the keyword. If it is too difficult to explain the keyword without using forbidden words, you can allow your students to use one or more of the forbidden words.
Download >>>> Business Vocabulary Card Game I Forbidden Words
Download Travel card game >>>>Travel&Holidays
Download Media card game >>>>Media Card Game
The last downloadable pdf worksheet covered Travel&Holidays for Intermediate and Upper Intermediate students. This time I needed some media and movie vocabulary cards to use with my younger students as part of a pre-test revision. I created a downloadable, easy to use PDFworksheet. Just download, print, cut and you are ready to go!
Every word has 3 forbidden words and if it is too difficult to explain the word without using those, you can allow your students to use one or more of the forbidden words. Download the PDF version of the game for free here:
Very helpful role plays on polite requests.
Not everyone can cook, but we all love food. It is a perfect conversation topic and even the shy students usually come out of their shells (seafood pun) when you ask them about their favourite food.
Food is everywhere now, popular TV shows made home cooking fashionable, food blogs with amazing photos will make you drool, social networks such as Instagram are filled with snaps of people’s breakfasts and tasting menus from five-star restaurants, artisan ice-cream and hipster baristas are everywhere, I’m starting to feel hungry just writing about it! Make sure to use this worksheet before lunch; otherwise, your students will eat you alive!
I used this activity many times with different age groups and levels. It works great with teenagers and adults, pre-intermediate, intermediate and upper intermediate levels. Just make sure to pre-teach the relevant vocabulary and some basic at the restaurant phrases. Your students will create their own restaurant menus and practice waiter/customer dialogues.
Download the free worksheet with Teacher’s notes here: Restaurant Menu Pair Work
