CATEGORIES

• Draw your grid on the board, using as many boxes as

you think. (I think no more than 6 categories.)
Choose your categories. There is more than one way
to do this! A) Have two students stand by the
board, shout out an item and the first one to point to
the right group is the winner. The winning student
writes in the word. Or play this in teams.
B) Write down the letters of the alphabet and ask
the students to think of at least one item per letter,
working across the board. Students take turns coming
to the board and writing them up. Rub them out, then,
have them write up the objects as a memory game.
GRID ON NEXT SLIDE
Furniture Clothes Foods Drinks Methods of Electrical
transport appliances.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
 Count round/Count down

The students have to count round the

class – in 3s, (or 4s, 5s etc). Then, start
from a high number and they have to
count down in threes.
 BIG CATS

Big cats – take the time to read this, it’s brilliant.

The students sit in a circle, on chairs. You need at least 12

students. Go round and allot each a cat – tiger, lion,
panther, etc (3, 4, or 5 types of cat, depending on group
size.) Stand in the middle. Explain: ‘When I say ‘lion’, all
the lions have to get up and swap seats. When I say ‘tiger’
all the tigers have to swap seats. Etc. When I say ‘Big
cats!’, everybody has to get up and swap seats. Then, do
this twice. By now, the students are wondering what the
big deal is. Third time round, take away a chair! Play the
game again – someone is left without a seat. They must
give a forfeit, or answer a question. Be careful! This can
be very lively, particularly on a ‘Big Cat’ round.I only play
this at the end of term. The students love it.
 Correct the myssteak
This is a variation on true and false.
Instead of a straightforward T or F,
put a mistake, or a piece of false
information in each sentence which the
students must find and correct. Or
produce a report on something the class
has studied, with mistakes in it. Very
adaptable and can be used at every
level.
 ODD ONE OUT
This can be used at any level – this can
actually be quite demanding
conceptually. I occasionally give four or
five for them to be thinking about while
I do the register.

1) Professor teacher learner social worker

2) Book magazine internet radio TV
Make a Cryptogram - use a generator.
Puzzlemaker’s is great and takes only a
minute. There is an example on the next
slide. It starts ‘the Titanic sank with
massive loss of life..’

http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com
/code/BuildCryptogram.asp
S STORY BOARD

You have been teaching, now it’s time for

the students to show they have
learned!They have to divide a sheet of
plain A4 into 4 or 6 squares. They need
to recount, in sequential order, with
diagrams, the story you have studied, or
the topic. As well as narrative, they may
include speech bubbles, or fact file
boxes.
 Bingo/Lotto
- a great, fun revision activity.

MES-English has many ready-made and a

template.
 Hidden Letter
This is a true or false activity. Prepare a grid with
five boxes by five boxes. Write in some true
statements/correct spellings or sums, to spell out a
letter. Then fill the other boxes with false
statements or wrong spellings/sums. The students
have to shade in the true items and correct the false
ones. Check they are right – does their shading spell
out the letter? Here is an example, on the next
slide – based on common spelling mistakes. If they
get it right, the shaded boxes will show letter X.
It’s easy to show most letters of the alphabet. Do
this as whole class and explain the spelling rules as
you correct them.
separate definate truthfull usefull excellent

excelent definite hopeing hopeful babeys

ladeys belive believe sence sensable

greatfuk beautiful decieve receive reachible

grateful absense cieling nonsence ladies

 Noughts and crosses You draw 9
boxes on the board and use some blutac
to stick your flashcards/key vocabulary
face down on the boxes. Split the class
into two teams. They take turns to turn
a card over. If it’s a picture and they
know the word, or if it’s a word and they
can give the definition, they get their
nought or their cross.
Noughts and crosses
team game
X

Divide the class into two teams. Noughts

and crosses board on the screen. Toss a
coin for heads and tails.
Ask the questions.
Not so good for a large class.
Back to the board. One student
comes out and stands with his back to
the board. You then – get the rest of
the class to check that he doesn’t take
a peek – write a word or draw a simple
diagram. The rest of the class must
describe it, or give clues, but they
cannot say the word. Split them into
teams to make it a competion. Great for
students at all levels.