A STAR IS BORN!

TRINITY STARS WORKSHOP - Session II

WARMERS AND ICEBREAKERS
Cat and Mouse
One person is the cat and another is the mouse. Everybody else
gets into pairs and finds some space in the classroom. The person who is the cat chases
the mouse, for the mouse to escape, he/she links one of the pair and the unlinked
person becomes the mouse and the chase continues. When the mouse is caught, the
mouse becomes the cat.

Rubber Chicken
Classic warmer/energizer. Shake your right arm vigorously and quickly count down
8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 - then your left arm, right leg and finally your left leg all the time counting
down each time. Repeat, but this time start from 7then 6 etc. until you get to 1,1,1,1
and jump about shaking your body like a rubber chicken and clucking at the same time!
Simon Says
The teacher tells the class to do certain actions, but the class only does them when its
preceded by Simon Says (or in this case it was John says) So if you say: John says
jump everyone jumps, John says stop everyone stops, but if you only say Stop if
not everyone has to continue doing the action. Variation The students say an action
and not just do an action eg. John says count to five

FOCUS ACTIVITIES
If your class gets a bit overexcited here are some ways to focus the group.
Mirrors
Put the students in pairs. One person is the mirror and the other person is the
mover. The mover does some actions very slowly and the mirror copies as if s/he
is a mirror. After a couple of minutes the pair changes roles.
Clap
Put the class in a circle. Make sure that they are watching you and then clap once.
Encourage the class to copy you. Then clap twice and wait for the students to copy
you again. Slowly increase the number and complexity of the claps. When the students
understand the activity, nominate one of the students to be the leader.
Variation
Add a different action to the clap, egg. slapping your thigh.
Variation
Pass the clap around a circle. Students can decide on the direction it goes in.

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Triangle tag
In groups of four three people make a triangle and the fourth is the ticker. Out of the
three in the triangle, one person decides to be the tickee the ticker tries to tick the
tickee while being protected by the other two in the triangle. Once ticked, the students
change roles.

Hot Potato
You need a ball or a soft toy for this activity. The class forms a circle you give out a
ball, which they pass from one person to the next. After a few seconds you then shout
Hot Potato and the class start to count down from ten to one. The person who has
the ball (potato) when you reach number one has to go down on one knee. If this person
is caught out again, then he/she goes down on two knees.
Sit in 60 seconds
Tell the class to get into a circle and focus. When you say go the students have to
guess when 60 seconds have passed by and sit down. The winner is the person who sits
down nearest to the 60-second mark.
Stretching
Ask the class to sit on the floor with their arms wrapped tightly around their legs, and
their heads on their knees. Ask them to tighten all their muscles in the body. Then,
starting from the head, say Relax your face, now your neck, next your shoulders ....
Then ask them to slowly stand up and stretch as much as they can, including their
mouths and eyes. In the end the students should be standing on tiptoe.

Human Seat
Tell the class to form a very tight circle (you need at least ten people for this). Then
they all have to turn to the right and place their hands on the shoulders of the person
in front of them. Once everyone is ready, tell them to bend their knees and to slowly
sit down on the lap of the person behind them.
Stretcher-bearers
In a group of at least 10, the class crosses their hands holding the hand/wrist of their
partner and the group form a stretcher. Somebody climbs on and you move this person
around, lift them, roll them etc.
Follow the leader
Put the students in a line, the person in the front is the leader and moves around the
classroom. The rest of the students do the same. Change the leader after a minute.
Copycats
The class forms a circle, then you do an action and encourage the students to copy
you. Then ask someone else to be it and the class copies what action they do. This
person then chooses someone else to be it. Keep the amount of time the student is
it short.
Who Am I Talking About?
Ask the class to stand in front of you and tell them that you have written one students
name on a piece of paper, but dont show it to anyone, including the chosen student.
Tell the class that they have to find out who it is by asking you yes/no questions, eg.
Is the person a girl? If the answer is yes, all the boys sit down. Students continue
asking questions to narrow down the group until there is only one person standing.

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TRUST ACTIVITIES

Sit down
With the class standing in front of you, tell them that you are going to make a
statement and that if it applies to them they have to sit down, eg. Sit down if ...
youve got blond hair. Sit down if ... youre wearing trainers. Continue until only one
student is left standing.
Shout!
Tell the class to close their eyes and tell them that they are going to count up to 20.
The thing is that only one person at a time can shout out the number, so if two (or
more) students shout out at the same time, then they have to go back to the beginning.
Variation
Count down or use days of the week or months instead.

Thumb wrestling
Before starting, the thumbs bow to each other and you say. "One, two, three, four I
declare a thumb war!"
http://www.wikihow.com/Thumb-Wrestle
Maths
In groups of threes or in pairs - one person says go the other two students pull their
hand out from behind their back with outstretched fingers and the first person to add
up the fingers is the winner. Other options are using two hands or multiplication.
Shoelaces
Put people into pairs. Tie shoes laces around their wrists, the pairs have to untangle
themselves. Once someone has worked it out, they show the other how to do it.
Shower curtain Island
On a shower curtain or piece of large plastic - in groups of about 10-12 the group have
to turn over the sheet of plastic without stepping off it. Solution - the groups have to
work together. Talk to the class afterwards about the moral of the exercise.

SIMPLE IMPROVISATIONS
Funny walks
The class stand in a large circle, one person walks into the middle doing the funniest
walk that they can, pause look at someone and walk towards this person. Then this
person does the same.

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Good morning
Invite five children to come to the front of the class. Explain that you are going to
secretly tap one child on the head and that he/she will say Good morning. Tell the
rest of the class to close their eyes or put their heads on the table. Tap one of the
children. The chosen child says Good morning. Tell the class to open their eyes and
guess who said hello by pointing to the correct child or saying his/her name. Repeat
with a new group of children.

The catwalk
Set up a catwalk in the classroom by drawing it with a piece of chalk. One person is
the commentator, the others are the models. The MC comments on what they are
wearing.
Gobbledygook
One student speaks in gobbledygook and the other student translates.

Walk in the style of...

Ask students about actors/film stars they like. Ask them why they think they are such
good actors. Explain to the students about how they are excellent at observing
situations and copying it. Students try to walk like other characters eg. cowboys/girls,
police officers, toddlers, pensioners, soldiers, astronauts.
Introducing masks
Discuss students' ideas about masks, encouraging as many views as possible. Do they
likes/dislike them. Eg. Carnival, parties. Why people wear them. etc.
Focus on disguise and deception
Students examine masks used for disguise or deception, and discuss why people wear
these masks. Eg robbers etc.
Focus on masks for magic
Show students pictures, artifacts and/or masks from other countries where masks are
designed to scare away evil spirits or invoke the power of the spirit world to protect
the owners or wearers. Focus discussion on the feelings aroused by the mask. There
are lots of links on the internet some are here.

WEBSITES AND LINKS

Trinity Stars
http://www.trinitycollege.co.uk/site/?id=2953
Masks
http://www.cln.org/themes/masks.html
Mask making for art class
http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/files/masks.htm
Pin interest lots more links here
https://www.pinterest.com/mnlearncommons/esl-and-ell/
Masks to print off and use in class
https://www.google.es/search?q=Esl+masks&biw=2560&bih=1133&tbm=isch&tbo=u&s
ource=univ&sa=X&ei=J53KVIrSD4KvUZ6CgfgB&ved=0CCkQsAQ

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Creating characters
Ask students to think about how actors create characters. Encourage them to talk
about how actors copy people to convince us that what we are watching appears real.
Ask students to think about how different people move. Eg. Small children, old people,
soldiers, police officers. Try to keep the students focused on being real and not
caricatures. To add voice, start by getting the students to think about how this person
would greet his/her friend, using a simple greeting like Hi, how are you? or Good
morning

CONTACT

I hope youve found the session useful. If you have any comments, feedback,
questions you can contact below. Have fun in the class! John Harrop
stars@trinitycollege.eu

www.trinitycollege.com/TrinityStars

Multicultural art lesson

http://www.ehow.com/info_8318314_elementary-multicultural-art-lessons.html
www.curriculum.edu.au/.../The_power_of_mask
Halloween Masks
http://www.eslsprouts.com/halloween-esl-lesson-masks-body-parts/
An examination of the history and use of masks and why the Zapatistas cover
their faces
http://www.schoolsforchiapas.org/lesson-plans/mask/
Drama Lesson Plans sorted by age
http://www.childdrama.com/lessons.html
Tips on how to set up role-plays
http://lovelearning.co.uk/uncategorized/making-role-play-work/
More role-play ideas
http://www.learnenglish.de/Teachers/roleplays.htm
Making masks
http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/files/masks.htm
Using masks
http://www.childdrama.com/papermasks.html
Animal masks
http://www.easy-child-crafts.com/fun-esl-activities.html
Halloween Games and masks
http://www.eslkidstuff.com/HalloweenGames.htm
Simple masks and costumes
http://esl-puppetry-and-more-page3.blogspot.com.es/p/images-for-animal-masksfor-children.html
Making African masks YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcFEnqZGJKU
More Drama ideas
http://www.freeeslmaterials.com/drama.html
Role Play Websites
http://iteslj.org/links/TESL/Lessons/Role_Plays/
50 Role-play lesson plans, handouts and ideas
http://www.eslflow.com/roleplaysdramatheatregames.html
Why use drama?
http://iteslj.org/Articles/Boudreault-Drama.html
Humanizing Language Teaching
http://www.hltmag.co.uk/aug09/sart07.htm