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Warm Up Activities PDF
Warm Up Activities PDF
Word Up ESL board games are available (with free airmail delivery
worldwide) from: http://www.teflgames.com/order.html
What people are saying about Word Up, Matts best-selling ESL board game:
All the students in the school who tried it loved it. Some even asked where they could
buy it so they could play it at home ... All in all, the
biggest hit in our school this year.'
Alex Case, Reviews Editor - TEFL.net
'We recently bought this game for use with our classes, and have to tell you that it is
definitely a good investment ... they love it!'
Shaun Fitzhenry, Coordinator of Studies
EnglishBusiness, Hamburg, Germany
All Matt Erreys ESL games, books and online materials are available now at
http://www.teflgames.com
Level: Elem -> Int Class size: up to ~12 students Time: 15 to 20 minutes
Preparation: None
Focus: Breaking the ice, learning names, introducing people
Fig. 1. Tables like this make it easy to find the features and functions of each game.
Levels
The games are described as being suitable for a range of proficiency levels,
namely Elementary, Lower Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper Intermediate
and Advanced. Teachers should use these levels as a rough guide only when
choosing games, however, and always check the instructions, and any
supplementary materials, before deciding whether a particular game is
suitable or not. This is because these terms can mean very different things in
different parts of the world. A proficiency level termed elementary in an ESL
institute in Canada, for example, may well be termed intermediate in a
secondary school in Japan. Therefore a range of levels that each game could be
suitable for is usually given, rather than a single level. For example, the table
in Fig. 1 above gives the level as Elem -> Int, meaning from Elementary to
Intermediate. This means that the game could be suitable for Elementary,
Lower Intermediate, or Intermediate students, depending on how these
terms are used in a particular school or region. It does not, however, mean
that the game will definitely be suitable for all of the levels within the
indicated range.
Class size
The recommended class size is a general guideline only. If you think a game
would be suitable for your students, but the class is a little bigger, or a little
smaller, than the recommended size, you should still be able to use it.
Preparation
Teachers can see at a glance what sort of preparation is required, if any, and
gauge how long it should take. In some cases, writing tables or word lists on
the board will be all thats needed, while in others supplementary materials
will have to be selected and printed. These materials could be worksheets,
quiz questions, card sets, instruction slips, word lists, name tags, and so on.
In most cases preparing the materials wont take too long, but in a few cases,
such as when preparing card sets, youll need to allow a fair bit of time for
preparation. In such cases you might even consider having students prepare
the materials themselves. (ideas on how this can be done can be found in
Book 2 in the section on Card Games).
Focus
This part of the table tells you what the students can learn or practise by
playing the game. It could be a basic function such as introducing people, or
it could be asking and answering yes or no questions, or maybe the
introduction or revision of lexical sets such as emotions or moods, or
simply testing and improving spelling ability, for example. One very
important function that is not mentioned, however - because it is common to
virtually all the games - is the basic one of providing students the
opportunity to use their English in an authentic social situation, and to gain
confidence in their ability to communicate face-to-face in real life.
Icebreakers
The first section contains games that help learners in a new class get to know
each other and feel relaxed with one another. Many involve information gaps
or information exchanges from which they can learn about each others
hobbies and pastimes, likes and dislikes, ambitions and goals for the future,
and so on. The games are also intended to create a fun, non-threatening
atmosphere that encourages students to feel comfortable in, and develop a
positive attitude towards, their new class.
Quiz Games
Most of us enjoy having our knowledge tested in quiz games, and classroom
quiz games are almost always a big hit with learners. In this section youll
find games in which general knowledge is tested, as well as games in which
various aspects of English are tested, such as vocabulary, phrasal verbs,
common idioms, and so on. Youll also find spelling games in which some of
the most commonly-misspelled words in English are tested.
Spelling Games
Spelling quizzes and spelling bees have long been a part of life for native
English-speaking students in schools throughout the English-speaking world,
and theyre now becoming part of the TOEFL world as well. The games in
this section include spelling quizzes for both teams and individuals, as well
as a game based on the traditional spelling bee.
Another aspect of traditional education that was widely criticized was the
use of competition in the classroom, either as a means of grading students, or
as a means of motivating them. It was seen as a reflection of the overly
competitive nature of life in modern capitalist societies, and also as a means
of preparing the young for life out there in the dog eat dog world that
awaited them. One often-cited example of the use of competition in the
classroom was the practice of having students compete against one another
for awards, scholarships, and access to further education. This practice of
pitting students against one another was widely criticized as it was seen as
encouraging students to regard a classmates failure to perform well as
boosting their own chances of success in the struggle for the rewards on offer.
These radical critiques of the role of competition within the education system
led to a tendency among certain academics and writers to regard anything
that could be labelled competitive as problematic, including games or
classroom activities that involved any form of competition. An example of
this tendency can be found in a book published in 1986 entitled No Contest:
The Case Against Competition by U.S. independent scholar Alfie Kohn in
which he argued that all competitive games are bad for children, and that a
teacher should never inflict the evils of competition upon his or her students.
This book was quite influential at the time of its publication, especially in the
U.S., and for several years thereafter the view it had put forward was widely-
held among progressive teachers, although the fact that children continued to
insist on playing competitive games in the playground, and on the sports
field, suggests that students themselves werent entirely convinced of the
merits of its anti-competitive stance.
In the succeeding decades, this view has gradually come to be seen by more
and more educators as being somewhat extreme, and many have shifted to a
more balanced viewpoint. One of the reasons for this shift is the fact that the
practice of labelling games as either competitive or co-operative has itself
been challenged. Classifying games in this way is seen by many as being
overly simplistic in that it obscures the fact that all games are, by nature,
highly co-operative activities, not only the so-called co-operative games.
For any so-called competitive game to work, players must co-operate in a
number of ways. They must all behave in ways that accord to the basic
premise of the game, they must all agree to obey the rules of the game, and
they must all accept the authority of an adjudicator, if there is one, even
when they are convinced that he or she has made a mistake. In addition, the
fact that many so-called competitive games, including many of those
described in this book, are team games means that players must closely co-
operate with their teammates while playing. As such, playing a competitive
game requires a great deal of co-operation, and this fact is only obscured by
the use of words like competitive and co-operative to distinguish
different types of games.
While some of the games and activities in this book could be labelled co-
operative or non-competitive, the majority involve some degree of
competition. This is because the book is, in part, a collection of some of most
popular and widely-used ESL games, and most of these are, to some degree,
competitive. It is also because many teachers nowadays believe that the
benefits of using competitive games outweigh any possible drawbacks,
especially when they are used in the spirit of healthy competition outlined
above.
References:
Key to Abbreviations
Elem Elementary
Lwr Int Lower intermediate
Int Intermediate
Upr Int Upper intermediate
Adv Advanced
Most of the games and activities involve some sort of information gap or
information exchange that should help your students to learn about one
another. Theyll find out about each others hobbies and pastimes, likes and
dislikes, ambitions and goals, and so on, and by doing so theyll get to know
one another better and feel more comfortable in the class.
One of the main reasons we use games and fun activities is to create a
relaxed, non-threatening atmosphere, and this is especially important the
first few times a new class meets. The sooner students get to know one
another and feel comfortable together, the sooner they feel relaxed enough to
really concentrate on the material and the tasks at hand. And the sooner they
begin to really concentrate, the sooner they begin to learn.
This is a great game to play with a new class. It gives everyone the chance to
memorize the names of their new classmates by repeating them over and
over again. The instructions below are for a small class, but if you have a
large class you can model the activity first with a group of around ten
students, and then have the rest of the class form their own groups once they
understand how it works.
How it Works
Sit in a circle with your students, either in chairs, on cushions, or around a
table.
The game continues until someone manages to remember all of the names.
Once someone has done so, keep the activity going until one or two more
students have managed to remember all of the names as well, and then stop.
Note: Whatever you do, do not force a particular student to try over and over again
until he or she can remember all of the names. Pressuring particular students is one
of the worst things you can do in a new class, especially if they are shy or nervous.
***********
Level: Lwr Int => Adv Class size: Up to 20 students Time: 30 - 60 minutes
Preparation: None
Focus: Breaking the ice, asking/answering questions, note-taking, learning about
new classmates, public speaking.
How it Works
Have your students form a semi-circle facing the board so that everyone can
see everyone else without having to turn around.
Note: If theres an uneven number of students in the class, form one group of three
students.
Note: For a lower-intermediate class, you might like to model this activity by
introducing one of the students yourself. Ask one of your students for their notes and
introduce their partner to the class.
***********
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Words Clues
Geography
1. Which African country has the largest total land area?
3. What layer of the earth is between the crust and the core?
Sports
1. In which sport can you hit a six or bowl a leg break?
3. What are you doing if you score with an upper cut or a jab?
Music
1. What nationality was the composer Frdric Chopin?
8. Frozen water. i
Answers:
1 teeth 2 golf
3 bat 4 cards
5 oven 6 cousin
7 Saturn 8 ice
9 rubber 10 jockey
11 bowl 12 mouse
2. She shops _ _ _ _ _ _ to find the best price and save money. 6 letters
9. The company will _ _ _ _ off some assets to pay its debts. 4 letters
3. Dont give up. Keep on trying until you can do it! q___________
7. Well have to put the wedding off until early next year. p___________
8. Liz came into a lot of money when her rich husband died. i___________
Advanced
pneumatic, xylophone, fascinating, temporarily, governor, psychiatrist, camouflage,
physique, entrepreneur, questionnaire, reciprocal, aisle, rhyme, memento, conscientious,
millennium, accomplishment, nanotechnology, discipline, occurrence, abbreviation,
accent, proceed, cyanide, accidentally, miscellaneous, rhythm, schedule, maintenance,
sincerely, consciousness, supersede, gymnasium, hierarchy, personnel, humorous,
syllabus, technique, counterfeit, thermodynamics, infrastructure, paradigm, genuine,
consonant, permanent, bureaucracy, photosynthesis, grotesque, rhinoceros, privilege,
amateur, processed, sympathetic, syllable, Buddhism, cappuccino, guarantee, liaison
chromosome, tyrannically, vaccinate, mortgage, accommodation, cynical, achievement,
illegible, indispensable, consensus, perseverance, curriculum, psychic, descent,
sacrilegious, exhilarated, vacuum, leisure, mischievous, conscience, procedure,
minuscule, irresistible, occurrence, ecstasy, inoculate, chlorophyll, Fahrenheit, souvenir
This collection is limited to games that can be used to help learners come to
terms with English grammar, with each game focussing on one or more
grammatical points. A summary is provided for each, including its level,
materials needed, grammar points practised and time needed. The collection
contains fifty-six games and activities in five sections; competitive games,
collaborative games, awareness activities, grammar through drama, and
miscellany.
A follow-up work by the same author, together with Paul Davis, with more
games and activities intended to help learners understand English grammar.
Once again each game is introduced with a summary specifying the area of
grammar to be practiced, the level aimed at, and the time and materials
needed.