I always read books, surf the net and talk to colleagues, so that I can get informed about additional activities that pupils find interesting.
Here are some activities that engage pupils, as warm-ups or follow-ups:
1. Word Chains
A pupil comes to the board. S/he writes a word in English (e.g. hello). The other pupils take turns in finding the next word, which begins with the last letter of the previous word (e.g. hello-orange-elephant-time-eleven etc).
2. Hangman
Instead of actually drawing a hangman, I write the letters that aren’t found in the word underneath it. For example, if the missing word is “language”I write it on the board this way:
L _ _ _ _ _ _ E
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
3. What’s my job?
A pupil stands up, faces the classroom and thinks of a job. The other pupils ask him or her yes/no questions until they guess the job.
4. Define the word on the blackboard
A pupil faces the classroom, I write a word on the board and the rest of the pupils try to give the standing pupil the definition of the word, so that s/he can find it, as s/he is not allowed to turn around and see what’s written on the board.
5. Four-letter words
I write 4 rows of letters on the blackboard (e.g. EKTB-DMTNS-AEIOU-SD). They have to find 4-letter words, starting from the bottom row and moving upwards. They must use only one letter from each row. I usually allow them to find two or three-letter words as well. In this example, possible words are: same, sad, did, don’t etc).
6. Alphabet conversations
I write the letters of the alphabet on the blackboard and two pupils stand up. The first one has to start the conversation (the topic is free) by using a word that starts with “a”. The second answers by using the letter “b” and this goes on until the letter “z”, if possible (e.g. “Are you ok?”, “Before I answer, will you tell me something?”, “Come on, what is it now?”)
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