WARM UPS

Warm ups are activities the trainer uses throughout the course to encourage participant involvement and
interaction. These activities may be used at the beginning of each day to bring the group together and
begin work on a positive note. They may also be used during the day to recharge the group (e.g., after
lunch, after a long presentation). Here are number of warmups and energizers you can use.

STEPS

 T welcomes students once this is done, the T welcomes calls out for SS attention.
 Having students’ attention, T proceeds to introduce himself or herself and explains that during the
next 5 minutes she / he will lead an activity with everybody.
 Conducts activity (warm up or short activity)
 Once the activity is over, T starts introducing the lesson

Super Model Exercise

Objective - Ice breaker or energizer - Great for laughs and relaxation. Shedding of status and roles.

Time required -5-10 minutes. Space requirements - big enough for participants to form a circle.

How to do it:
1. Arrange participants in a circle.
2. Instruct participants that they have to act out your instructions. When pointed to and given the
following commands:

"Super Model" - Participant should immediately pose as a fashion model. The two participants
alongside the participant acting as a super model (the one on the left and the right) take the role of
photographers and mimic gestures of taking a photo.

"Elephant"- Participant poses as an elephant by immediately thrusting two hands held together in front
to represent the elephant's trunk. The two participants alongside form a circle with their hands and place
them on the side of the participant pointed to serve as "ears" of the elephant.

"Jello" - Participant shakes his or her body like jello continuously. The two participants alongside hold
each other's hands and form a circle around the target participant. The idea is to form a "glass" around the
jello

"Queen Bee" - Participant turns around and puts his or her hands together behind the back (just above
the buttocks) and flutters them back and forth to mimic a bee's tail. The two participants alongside thrust
their arms away from the bee and flutter them like wings.

"Donkey" - participant and those alongside him or her should freeze and not move at all Expect that
people will be confused and make mistakes. Such mistakes generate laughter and fun. To make the
exercise competitive, participants who make a mistake (both the one pointed to and the two participants
alongside him or her) can be eliminated from the game. The exercise can be used several times in a
meeting or seminar.
National Anthem –

This warmup works best when you have participants from a number of countries. To conduct this
warmup, you will need a source of music (tape player or radio) and a ball. The participants should stand
in a circle. The trainer puts on the source of music and participants dance and pass the ball around in the
circle. Whenever the music stops, whoever has the ball in his/her hand must step into the circle and sing
the first verse of his/her national anthem. If he/she cannot remember the national anthem (which happens
sometimes) he/she must sing a love song to pass. After this has been done satisfactorily, the trainer turns
on the music again and participants again pass the ball in the circle. The game continues until many
participants have had the opportunity to sing or the trainer feels that everyone has been energized.

Tell A Story - The participants should stand in a circle. The purpose of this activity is to build a story
with each participant contributing one sentence that must:

 Make sense and at the same time add some fun to the activity,
 Build on to the last sentence,
 and Be grammatically correct.

For example: #1: “I was walking to breakfast this morning.”

#2: “A dog came up to me.”
#3: “I said good morning to the dog.”
#4: “The dog asked me what I was going to have for breakfast.”

The activity continues until all of the participants have contributed or until the facilitator feels that the
group has been energized

The Last Word - The participants should stand in a circle. One participant moves and stands randomly in
front of another. He/she makes a statement (e.g., “It is such a lovely day”). The person spoken to will
move to another person and make a statement starting with the last word in the statement he/she received
(e.g., “Day one of the course was very tiring”). Each participant takes turns to ensure that everybody gets
a chance to participate.

The Telephone - Participants should sit or stand in a circle. The facilitator quickly whispers a message to
one participant. This participant passes the message in a whisper to the next person and so on. The last
person shouts out the message. Chances are the final message will be different from the original. Here is
an example of an initial message (note how two different activities are blended into the initial statement, a
sure cause for confusion when whispered quickly): “I had rice for dinner and then dressed in blue to go
dancing.”
What Do You Have? - Divide the participants into teams of 4-6 people. Each team should make a list of
6-8 items that they would probably have with them. Make one or two items less common things. The
team gets points for each person who has these items. Only one of each item per person can be counted
and the team with the most points wins. The list could include: a photograph, a calculator, a pencil, a
photograph of a family member, an unusual key chain, something red, etc.

Brainstorming - Divide the participants into teams of five people. Ask the teams to list: things that are
square, things associated with a holiday, things that are red, things they can make out a coat hanger, etc.
The teams are not allowed to discuss, just list items! The team with the most items on their list wins.

Ball Toss Brainstorming - Announce a topic (things associated with a topic, a holiday, the course
content, etc.). Then, toss around a ball. When someone catches the ball, they shout out something related
to the topic and then toss the ball to someone else. Continue the exercise until everyone has had a chance
to speak.

Variations:

When they catch the ball, each person tells what they thought was the most important learning concept
was. Continue the exercise until everyone has caught the ball at least once and explained an important
concept of the material just covered.

Each person tells one step of a process or concept when the ball is tossed to them. The instructor or
learner, in turn, writes it on a chalkboard or flipchart. For example, after covering "client assessment," the
trainer would start the ball toss by having everyone give one step in the client assessment process.

Make the most words

Write a topical vocabulary item on the board. In twos or threes, students make as many new words from it
as they can. Use longish seed words such as apologise, dictionary or September. Score teams a point per
word and award a bonus point for the longest.

Make the longest words

Write a topical target word vertically down the board, for example, WINTER. In twos or threes, students
attempt to come up with the longest word that begins with each letter. Give teams a point per word and a
bonus point for the longest.    Waterfall    Industrious    Nausea    Terrified    Empty    Retailer

What does your name mean?

Using a dictionary, google or any other resource, students find and write down an appropriate adjective
that begins with each letter of their first name. For example: Flirtatious, Relaxed, Extrovert, Desirable.
Now promote conversation and have them tell you the history behind their name. Why did they get that
name?

Mixed-up sentence

Write a sentence on the board but mix up the word order, then challenge students to reconstruct the
original sentence. For example: morning hadn’t eaten wish that donut I at 5 am I

Hangman

This popular filler can also be a great way to start a lesson with beginner learners who are still unsure of
the alphabet. Just put a recently learned word on the board and let the students take it in turns to guess a
letter. 

Word ladders

In this activity, a word must be transformed step by step into a target word. To illustrate the idea, write
the word run on the board and explain that the target word is fit. For each turn, only one letter can be
changed. See if the class can find a valid sequence together. Some possible sequences are:
run fun fin fit cat cot cog dog head bead beat boat boot foot gives lives likes lakes takes

Students will need access to a dictionary in order to check if their words are valid. If you want to find
possible word pairs, there is a site with a  handy word ladder generator. Put students in pairs and have
them create their own word ladders to test their classmates with.
 The A to Z game

Give students a theme, for example, jobs, things you take on holiday, food. Write the letters A to Z on the
board. Teams of students must race to write an appropriate word next to each letter on the board

What’s the missing word?

Find a group of compound words or collocations which share a common word. For example, bedroom,
bathroom, living room, classroom, showroom, etc. Give students one of the word/collocation parts, such
as bed and have them guess the missing part, add to the list writing bath, living, class, etc., until they
successfully guess the word. Here are some more examples:
 ear, boxing, diamond, finger, wedding  (ring)
 tea, soup, table, dessert (spoon)
 kitchen, tea, bath, beach (towel)
 green, light, ware, boat, work, wife (house)

What do you know about bananas?

Set a five-minute time limit and in groups have students think up and write down as many facts as they
can about bananas (or cats, Belgium, David Beckham, etc.). One point should be given for each true
sentence.

How many sounds can you hear?

Students sit in silence for two minutes and write down every sound that they hear. Let them compare their
lists with their neighbors before seeing who has the longest list?
__________________________________________________________________________

Odd one out

Give the students a couple of examples to guess, then get students to come up with their own ideas. Here
are some examples: apple, peach, banana, tomato – a banana doesn’t have seeds strawberry, branch,
bowling ball, boat, iceberg – bowling balls don’t float window, river, envelope, client, oregano – client
doesn’t begin and end with the same letter comb, champagne, knife, plum – the word plum doesn’t
contain any silent letters Note:  There can be more than one correct answer
 Name Ten

Have students think of 10 items that fit particular criteria. For example:
 Jobs where you have to wear a uniform
 English football clubs
 Sports that are played with a ball
 Foods that contain egg
 Animals that lay eggs
 Three letter parts of the body – eye, arm, leg, hip, ear, toe jaw, rib, lip, gum

Two truths and a lie

An ESL classroom staple. Write or dictate three sentences about yourself. Two statements should be true
and one false, for example: I used to be an air steward I can ride a unicycle My favourite food is
sushi Now invite students to discuss in pairs which statement they think is the lie. Ask each pair which
statement they think is untrue and have them explain why. Reveal your answer, and ask students to come
up with three sentences about themselves. I find students need quite a lot of time (at least five minutes) to
come up with three ideas. If some students are still short of a sentence or two, start the game anyway, and
they can finish their statements during play. Check students’ statements and then have them take it in
turns to read them out to the class. In each case, the other students have to guess which is the untrue
statement

Quick questions

Write a list of two or three questions on the board which introduce the theme of the lesson. For example,
if you are going to talk about books, you could write: What’s your favourite book? What was the last
book you read? What kind of books do you prefer? etc. Give the students 5-10 minutes to discuss the
questions and then have students report back to the class

Make the most words

Write a topical vocabulary item on the board. In twos or threes, students make as many new words from it
as they can. Use longish seed words such as apologise, dictionary or September. Score teams a point per
word and award a bonus point for the longest.
Make the longest words

Write a topical target word vertically down the board, for example, WINTER. In twos or threes, students
attempt to come up with the longest word that begins with each letter. Give teams a point per word and a
bonus point for the longest.    Waterfall    Industrious    Nausea    Terrified    Empty    Retailer

What does your name mean?

Using a dictionary, google or any other resource, students find and write down an appropriate adjective
that begins with each letter of their first name. For example: Flirtatious, Relaxed, Extrovert, Desirable

Mixed-up sentence

Write a sentence on the board but mix up the word order, then challenge students to reconstruct the
original sentence. For example: morning hadn’t eaten wish that döner kebab I at this 5 am

Hangman

This popular filler can also be a great way to start a lesson with beginner learners who are still unsure of
the alphabet. Just put a recently learned word on the board and let the students take it in turns to guess a
letter.

Word ladders

In this activity, a word must be transformed step by step into a target word. To illustrate the idea, write
the word run on the board and explain that the target word is fit. For each turn, only one letter can be
changed. See if the class can find a valid sequence together. Some possible sequences are:
run fun fin fit cat cot cog dog head bead beat boat boot foot gives lives likes lakes takes
 Students will need access to a dictionary in order to check if their words are valid. If you want to find
possible word pairs, there is a site with a  handy word ladder generator. Put students in pairs and have
them create their own word ladders to test their classmates with.

Mixed-up sentence (anagram variation)

Write a sentence on the board but this time scramble the letters of each word. For example: hwy ddint’ I
dusty draher ta vieyunrsit?

The A to Z game

Give students a theme, for example, jobs, things you take on holiday, food. Write the letters A to Z on the
board. Teams of students must race to write an appropriate word next to each letter on the board. 

What’s the missing word?

Find a group of compound words or collocations which share a common word. For example, bedroom,
bathroom, living room, classroom, showroom, etc. Give students one of the word/collocation parts, such
as bed and have them guess the missing part, add to the list writing bath, living, class, etc., until they
successfully guess the word. Here are some more examples:
 ear, boxing, diamond, finger, wedding  (ring)
 tea, soup, table, dessert (spoon)
 kitchen, tea, bath, beach (towel)
 green, light, ware, boat, work, wife (house)




What do you know about bananas?

Set a five-minute time limit and in groups have students think up and write down as many facts as they
can about bananas (or cats, Belgium, David Beckham, etc.). One point should be given for each true
sentence.
 How many sounds can you hear?

Students sit in silence for two minutes and write down every sound that they hear. Let them compare their
lists with their neighbours before seeing who has the longest list?

Odd one out

Give the students a couple of examples to guess, then get students to come up with their own ideas. Here
are some examples: apple, peach, banana, tomato – a banana doesn’t have seeds strawberry, branch,
bowling ball, boat, iceberg – bowling balls don’t float window, river, envelope, client, oregano – client
doesn’t begin and end with the same letter comb, champagne, knife, plum – the word plum doesn’t
contain any silent letters Note:  There can be more than one correct answer

Name ten

Have students think of 10 items that fit particular criteria. For example:
 Jobs where you have to wear a uniform
 English football clubs
 Sports that are played with a ball
 Foods that contain egg
 Animals that lay eggs
 Three letter parts of the body – eye, arm, leg, hip, ear, toe jaw, rib, lip, gum




Two truths and a lie

An ESL classroom staple. Write or dictate three sentences about yourself. Two statements should be true
and one false, for example: I used to be an air steward I can ride a unicycle My favourite food is
sushi Now invite students to discuss in pairs which statement they think is the lie. Ask each pair which
statement they think is untrue and have them explain why. Reveal your answer, and ask students to come
up with three sentences about themselves. I find students need quite a lot of time (at least five minutes) to
come up with three ideas. If some students are still short of a sentence or two, start the game anyway, and
they can finish their statements during play. Check students’ statements and then have them take it in
turns to read them out to the class. In each case, the other students have to guess which is the untrue
statement
Mastermind (AKA Bulls & Cows, Jotto)

Based on the code-breaking board game where players have to deduce the order of 4 coloured pegs which
the other player had hidden behind a plastic guard. It’s slightly complicated to grasp but fun when you get
the hang of it. Think of a four-letter word and write XXXX on the board, each X represents one of the
letters of your word. Invite the first student to guess what the word is. Start a new line underneath your
original XXXX. If the first letter in the student’s word is the same as the first letter in your word put
a ✓ in the first position. If the first letter is not the same as the first letter in your word but is contained
somewhere in your word put a half-tick /. If the first letter of the student’s word is not contained
anywhere your word put an X. In the following example, the teacher chooses the word
FIRE. XXXX XXXX – COAT X/XX – BEST X✓X✓ – HIKE /✓X✓ – RIDE ✓✓✓✓ – FIRE A word of
warning. Stick to 4 or 5 letter words. It’s much more difficult to guess longer words and it can also be
tricky trying to mark each guess. When students are familiar with the game you can get them to come and
put their own words on the board.

I’m going on a picnic and I’m taking a …

This is a guess the rule type game. Think of a rule which governs which items can be taken on a picnic,
for example, it must be six letters long, or it must start with a vowel. In this example, the rule is that the
word must be an uncountable noun. Teacher: I’m going on a picnic and I’m taking milk. Student A: I’m
going on a picnic and I’m taking eggs. Teacher: No, you can’t take eggs. Student B: Can I take orange
juice? Teacher: Yes, you can take orange juice. And so on. Continue adding items to your picnic list until
a student correctly guesses the rule (the choices don’t have to make sense within the picnic scenario
e.g. love, information, air ). When you’ve finished, invite the students (alone or in pairs) to come up with
their own rules and let them run the game.

Word Association

This must be one of the oldest ESL warm-up activities, but sometimes the simplest ideas turn out to be
surprisingly effective and word games don’t get any simpler than word association. Give an initial word,
for example, banana and each student takes it in turns to say a word which they associate with the
previous word. If the connection isn’t obvious, challenge the student to justify their choice. banana –
monkey – zoo – tourists – hotel – bible …
Tell a story

This is another circle game. Go around the class students take it in turns to add three words to your story
stem. You could start it off with relatively mundane stems such as Yesterday I went …, If I won …, I have
never or something more imaginative like, A wolf howled, the rocket landed …, Princess Martha
kissed … Write the story on the board and elicit corrections as you go along.

Three things in common

This is a great icebreaker, but you can also use it as a lead-in to a theme or to test your students’
knowledge of a grammar point. Simply ask students to work in pairs and find three things that they have
in common and then report back to the class. You can narrow the topic down to areas like three things we
both did at the weekend, three foods we both like, three things we both don’t like about this city, three
things neither of us has done yet but would like to, etc.

Just a Minute Tic Tac Toe

Based on the BBC Radio show. Draw a Tic Tac Toe grid on the board and in each space write a topic that
you think some of your students might be interested in or have some knowledge of. Play the game with
two teams, to claim their X or O, a team member must attempt to talk about the topic in the chosen square
for 45 to 60 seconds (depending on their level) without pausing or repetition. Check out this tic tac toe
past tense activity for more information about how to play this popular ESL game. Possible topics for
your Tic Tac Toe board might include Sport, Breakfast, Smartphones, Family, Movies, Cats, Rock Music,
Soap Operas, Chocolate, etc.

Spontaneous Scatter Sheet

Scatter Sheets are a great way to review vocabulary, introduce a theme and get students talking. As a
warmer, have students brainstorm words connected to a theme, for example, the seaside, London,
marketing, etc. Write these words on the board randomly, not in straight lines or columns but higgledy-
piggledy and at jaunty angles. When you have around 20 words on the board, go around the room asking
each student, in turn, to describe one of the words, when it’s been successfully guessed, circle it and move
on to the next student. Encourage students to let the describer produce at least two sentences before
shouting out the answer.
Spin the marker

Sometimes students just want a chance to talk and express themselves in an unstructured way and it’s a
good idea to encourage this. Spin the marker pen and whoever it points to can dictate the conversation,
ask questions, suggest the topic, etc. Spin the marker again when you feel the conversation has run its
course. I find this activity works best when students are sitting in a small circle not too far apart.

Fortunately / Unfortunately

English learners often have trouble remembering and correctly pronouncing these two useful words. One
way to practice it is to start a story and have learners alternately advancing the story using these adverbs.
For example: Teacher: Yesterday my car was stolen. Student A: Fortunately, it was insured. Student
B: Unfortunately, the insurance company went bankrupt. Student C: Fortunately, my grandfather said
he would buy me a new car. Student D: Unfortunately, he’s lost his mind and doesn’t have any
money. Etc.

Whose weekend?

Give each student a slip of paper and ask each student to write down three things they did at the weekend.
Collect up the slips of paper and randomly read each one out. The students must guess whose weekend is
being described.

Provocative statements

Write a provocative statement on the board and then put students into small groups to discuss their
opinion of it. For example, some drugs should be legalised, Facebook should be banned, Breaking Bad is
overrated, one child is enough, organic food is a waste of money, etc. Have students report back to the
class. You could make a list of arguments for and against it.

Draw the kitchen

I often use this when I work in-company. Ask the students to think of a room or area which they are all
quite familiar with and then have them guide you as you try to draw a plan of the room on the board. This
is great for practising there is and there are as well as prepositions of place and furnishing vocabulary.
Quick questions

Write a list of two or three questions on the board which introduce the theme of the lesson. For example,
if you are going to talk about books, you could write: What’s your favourite book? What was the last
book you read? What kind of books do you prefer? etc. Give the students 5-10 minutes to discuss the
questions and then have students report back to the class.

Make the most words

Write a topical vocabulary item on the board. In twos or threes, students make as many new words from it
as they can. Use longish seed words such as apologise, dictionary or September. Score teams a point per
word and award a bonus point for the longest.

Make the longest words

Write a topical target word vertically down the board, for example, WINTER. In twos or threes, students
attempt to come up with the longest word that begins with each letter. Give teams a point per word and a
bonus point for the longest.    Waterfall    Industrious    Nausea    Terrified    Empty    Retailer

What does your name mean?

Using a dictionary, google or any other resource, students find and write down an appropriate adjective
that begins with each letter of their first name. For example: Flirtatious, Relaxed, Extrovert, Desirable.
And then promote conversation by asking students to share with the group the history behind their name.
Why did they get that name?

Mixed-up sentence
Write a sentence on the board but mix up the word order, then challenge students to reconstruct the
original sentence. For example: morning hadn’t eaten wish that döner kebab I at this 5 am

Hangman

This popular filler can also be a great way to start a lesson with beginner learners who are still unsure of
the alphabet. Just put a recently learned word on the board and let the students take it in turns to guess a
letter. If you don’t know how to play, you can read an explanation here.

Word ladders

In this activity, a word must be transformed step by step into a target word. To illustrate the idea, write
the word run on the board and explain that the target word is fit. For each turn, only one letter can be
changed. See if the class can find a valid sequence together. Some possible sequences are:
run fun fin fit cat cot cog dog head bead beat boat boot foot gives lives likes lakes takes

Students will need access to a dictionary in order to check if their words are valid. If you want to find
possible word pairs, there is a site with a  handy word ladder generator. Put students in pairs and have
them create their own word ladders to test their classmates with.

Mixed-up sentence (anagram variation)

Write a sentence on the board but this time scramble the letters of each word. For example: hwy ddint’ I
dusty draher ta vieyunrsit?

The A to Z game

Give students a theme, for example, jobs, things you take on holiday, food. Write the letters A to Z on the
board. Teams of students must race to write an appropriate word next to each letter on the board. 

What’s the missing word?

Find a group of compound words or collocations which share a common word. For example, bedroom,
bathroom, living room, classroom, showroom, etc. Give students one of the word/collocation parts, such
 as bed and have them guess the missing part, add to the list writing bath, living, class, etc., until they
successfully guess the word. Here are some more examples:
 ear, boxing, diamond, finger, wedding  (ring)
 tea, soup, table, dessert (spoon)
 kitchen, tea, bath, beach (towel)
 green, light, ware, boat, work, wife (house)

What do you know about bananas?

Set a five-minute time limit and in groups have students think up and write down as many facts as they
can about bananas (or cats, Belgium, David Beckham, etc.). One point should be given for each true
sentence.

How many sounds can you hear?

Students sit in silence for two minutes and write down every sound that they hear. Let them compare their
lists with their neighbours before seeing who has the longest list?

Things to do with a potato

(one of many brilliantly simple ideas from this very handy book) Produce a potato (if that’s not possible,
introduce the concept of a potato). Ask students to come up with a list of as many unconventional uses for
it as they can. For example paperweight, weapon, pen holder, smartphone dock. The longest list wins the
potato.

Odd one out

Give the students a couple of examples to guess, then get students to come up with their own ideas. Here
are some examples: apple, peach, banana, tomato – a banana doesn’t have seeds strawberry, branch,
bowling ball, boat, iceberg – bowling balls don’t float window, river, envelope, client, oregano – client
doesn’t begin and end with the same letter comb, champagne, knife, plum – the word plum doesn’t
contain any silent letters Note:  There can be more than one correct answer
 Name ten

Have students think of 10 items that fit particular criteria. For example:
 Jobs where you have to wear a uniform
 English football clubs
 Sports that are played with a ball
 Foods that contain egg
 Animals that lay eggs
 Three letter parts of the body – eye, arm, leg, hip, ear, toe jaw, rib, lip, gum

Two truths and a lie

An ESL classroom staple. Write or dictate three sentences about yourself. Two statements should be true
and one false, for example: I used to be an air steward I can ride a unicycle My favourite food is
sushi Now invite students to discuss in pairs which statement they think is the lie. Ask each pair which
statement they think is untrue and have them explain why. Reveal your answer, and ask students to come
up with three sentences about themselves. I find students need quite a lot of time (at least five minutes) to
come up with three ideas. If some students are still short of a sentence or two, start the game anyway, and
they can finish their statements during play. Check students’ statements and then have them take it in
turns to read them out to the class. In each case, the other students have to guess which is the untrue
statement. See this page for more ideas on using dishonesty for fun and profit.

Mastermind (AKA Bulls & Cows, Jotto)

Based on the code-breaking board game where players have to deduce the order of 4 coloured pegs which
the other player had hidden behind a plastic guard. It’s slightly complicated to grasp but fun when you get
the hang of it. Think of a four-letter word and write XXXX on the board, each X represents one of the
letters of your word. Invite the first student to guess what the word is. Start a new line underneath your
original XXXX. If the first letter in the student’s word is the same as the first letter in your word put
a ✓ in the first position. If the first letter is not the same as the first letter in your word but is contained
somewhere in your word put a half-tick /. If the first letter of the student’s word is not contained
anywhere your word put an X. In the following example, the teacher chooses the word
FIRE. XXXX XXXX – COAT X/XX – BEST X✓X✓ – HIKE /✓X✓ – RIDE ✓✓✓✓ – FIRE A word of
warning. Stick to 4 or 5 letter words. It’s much more difficult to guess longer words and it can also be
tricky trying to mark each guess. When students are familiar with the game you can get them to come and
put their own words on the board.
I’m going on a picnic and I’m taking a …

This is a guess the rule type game. Think of a rule which governs which items can be taken on a picnic,
for example, it must be six letters long, or it must start with a vowel. In this example, the rule is that the
word must be an uncountable noun. Teacher: I’m going on a picnic and I’m taking milk. Student A: I’m
going on a picnic and I’m taking eggs. Teacher: No, you can’t take eggs. Student B: Can I take orange
juice? Teacher: Yes, you can take orange juice. And so on. Continue adding items to your picnic list until
a student correctly guesses the rule (the choices don’t have to make sense within the picnic scenario
e.g. love, information, air ). When you’ve finished, invite the students (alone or in pairs) to come up with
their own rules and let them run the game.

Word Association

This must be one of the oldest ESL warm-up activities, but sometimes the simplest ideas turn out to be
surprisingly effective and word games don’t get any simpler than word association. Give an initial word,
for example, banana and each student takes it in turns to say a word which they associate with the
previous word. If the connection isn’t obvious, challenge the student to justify their choice. banana –
monkey – zoo – tourists – hotel – bible …

Tell a story

This is another circle game. Going around the class students take it in turns to add three words to your
story stem. You could start it off with relatively mundane stems such as Yesterday I went …, If I won …, I
have never or something more imaginative like, A wolf howled, the rocket landed …, Princess Martha
kissed … Write the story on the board and elicit corrections as you go along.

Three things in common

This is a great icebreaker, but you can also use it as a lead-in to a theme or to test your students’
knowledge of a grammar point. Simply ask students to work in pairs and find three things that they have
in common and then report back to the class. You can narrow the topic down to areas like three things we
both did at the weekend, three foods we both like, three things we both don’t like about this city, three
things neither of us has done yet but would like to, etc.

Just a Minute Tic Tac Toe

Based on the BBC Radio show. Draw a Tic Tac Toe grid on the board and in each space write a topic that
you think some of your students might be interested in or have some knowledge of. Play the game with
two teams, to claim their X or O, a team member must attempt to talk about the topic in the chosen square
for 45 to 60 seconds (depending on their level) without pausing or repetition. Check out this tic tac toe
past tense activity for more information about how to play this popular ESL game. Possible topics for
your Tic Tac Toe board might include Sport, Breakfast, Smartphones, Family, Movies, Cats, Rock Music,
Soap Operas, Chocolate, etc.

One-upmanship

I discovered this great activity at BusinessEnglishResources.com. Start off by explaining the concept of

one-upmanship, that some people always like to appear to be more interesting or superior to others in
their company. Tell the students a relatively mundane story about something that happened recently and
invite a student to tell a similar story but to top it in some way. Each student, in turn, tries to top the
previous student’s tale. For example: You: Yesterday I overslept and was five minutes late to
class. Student: That’s nothing, I overslept and was an hour late. Student B: An hour! I once overslept a
whole day! If the students are sufficiently advanced you could have them watch and read through Monty
Python’s Four Yorkshiremen sketch which is a very funny skit on the subject of one-upmanship.

Spontaneous Scatter Sheet

Scatter Sheets are a great way to review vocabulary, introduce a theme and get students talking. As a
warmer, have students brainstorm words connected to a theme, for example, the seaside, London,
marketing, etc. Write these words on the board randomly, not in straight lines or columns but higgledy-
piggledy and at jaunty angles. When you have around 20 words on the board, go around the room asking
each student, in turn, to describe one of the words, when it’s been successfully guessed, circle it and move
on to the next student. Encourage students to let the describer produce at least two sentences before
shouting out the answer.

Spin the marker

Sometimes students just want a chance to talk and express themselves in an unstructured way and it’s a
good idea to encourage this. Spin the marker pen and whoever it points to can dictate the conversation,
ask questions, suggest the topic, etc. Spin the marker again when you feel the conversation has run its
course. I find this activity works best when students are sitting in a small circle not too far apart.

Fortunately / Unfortunately
English learners often have trouble remembering and correctly pronouncing these two useful words. One
way to practice it is to start a story and have learners alternately advancing the story using these adverbs.
For example: Teacher: Yesterday my car was stolen. Student A: Fortunately, it was insured. Student
B: Unfortunately, the insurance company went bankrupt. Student C: Fortunately, my grandfather said
he would buy me a new car. Student D: Unfortunately, he’s lost his mind and doesn’t have any
money. Etc.

Organise yourselves!

Have students arrange themselves in order according to a given criterion. For example by age,
alphabetical order of first name or surname, the number of shoes owned, etc.

Letter string dictation

This is a great way to lead into the topic that you want to cover in the class and also serves as a simple
activity to help students recognise letters of the alphabet. Think of a couple of questions for students to
discuss in pairs or groups. Write the questions down and then dictate them as a long string of letters. For
example: whatsyourfavouritecolour? whatdidyoudoattheweekend? whatkindofbooksdoyouliketoread? Aft
er dictating the letter strings, students should attempt to form the questions and then discuss and report
back to class. To make it more challenging, dictate the letters backwards and then have the students figure
out the question. This is more challenging because students will find it more difficult to predict the next
letter and therefore must focus on the letters being dictated. ?teemotekiltsomuoydluowohw For more ideas
on using dictation see the article 10 dictation activities.

Whose weekend?

Give each student a slip of paper and ask each student to write down three things they did at the weekend.
Collect up the slips of paper and randomly read each one out. The students must guess whose weekend is
being described.

Provocative statements

Write a provocative statement on the board and then put students into small groups to discuss their
opinion of it. For example, some drugs should be legalised, Facebook should be banned, Breaking Bad is
overrated, one child is enough, organic food is a waste of money, etc. Have students report back to the
class. You could make a list of arguments for and against it .
Draw the kitchen

I often use this when I work in-company. Ask the students to think of a room or area which they are all
quite familiar with and then have them guide you as you try to draw a plan of the room on the board. This
is great for practising there is and there are as well as prepositions of place and furnishing vocabulary.

The Categories Game

Put students into teams and write on the board six vocabulary categories. Now give them a letter of the
alphabet and the teams must race to think of a word beginning with that letter for each category. Writing
stops when the first team yells finished! and points are given for each correct answer.

Dice-led questions

Write two lists on the board. The second list can be any list of topics you think your students will be open
to talking about.
1. What? 2. Where? 3. When? 4. Have you? 5. Why? 6. How? 1. Travel 2. Plans 3. Weekend 4. Work 5. Food 6. Family

Put students into pairs or groups of three and give each of them a dice. Students take it in turns to roll the
dice once for the question word and once for the subject and then ask a student a question about that
theme.

Vocab Circle
Start with a random student and ask for a word beginning with A, then circle around the room,
proceeding through the alphabet. Choose one part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb) or lexical
group (sports, countries, colors, animals) and change this each time you play the game. With my
advanced students, I also ask for only polysyllabic answers, and if the answer is

of an intermediate level, I ask for something more sophisticated. For example, I recorded this

classroom moment, a warmer using adjectives:

Teacher: OK, what’s next? G?

Student 1: Great!
 Teacher: That’s nice, but let’s go up a level. What about... Gratifying?

Student 1: Or... Gargantuan

Teacher: Beautiful! Now, H?

Student 2: Happy!

Teacher: (Gestures with a raising, flat palm)

Student 2: Hilarious!

Teacher: Much better! Who’s got I?

If a student gets stuck, classmates can help, or the teacher can make suggestions, e.g.:

Teacher: Next is M, right?

Student: M... erm...

How about that awesome adjective for a really big, beautiful mountain... or
Teacher:
an impressive building?

Student: M... Magnificent?

Teacher: Great job! OK, what shall we have for N?

Catch-up

Students quickly interview the people around them (in pairs, or groups of 3-4) and

discover what’s happened in their lives since the class last met. This is a mixed listening and

speaking exercise; encourage students to take notes, so that they don’t forget details such as the

name of the town they visited, or the store at which they got a great bargain. Summarizing

information they just heard is also an important skill, so guide students away from a formulaic

answer such as, “Last night he went home from school, then had dinner, then sent an email to
 his father, then made dinner with his friend, then...” Help the student to use time expressions

and perfect forms, rather than repetitive structures, e.g. “He’d already finished his homework

before dinner, so afterwards, he played video games for an hour.”

Finish The Thought

Write the beginning of a sentence on the whiteboard and ask students to complete it. My

favorites are:

 Today I’m happy about...

 Today will be awesome because...

 Today I want to learn about...

 By the time we finish today, I want to have... (learned, done, found, improved...)

 Yesterday, I wish I had...

I Went to Market...

A classic, fun memory exercise, this circle game begins with the simple statement, “I went

to market and bought a (noun)”. The second student adds a noun: “I went to market and

bought a plant and a bag of flour”. The third adds another, and so on. By the end of the circle,

the student will be required to have memorized a dozen or more nouns. This is also a terrific

way to practice measure expressions, e.g. a bag of flour, a kilo of rice, a bunch of flowers, a

bottle of coke.

20Questions
One person thinks of an object (person, place, or thing). Everyone takes turns asking yes/no questions
until someone can guess correctly (or until 20 questions are asked). The difficult part is that you cannot
ask "wh" questions!
Example: PINEAPPLE. Does it talk? No. Does it make life easier? No. Do you eat it? Yes. Is it
something you would eat for dinner? No. Etc...
If someone makes a mistake in forming the question, other club members can help turn it into a proper
question.

Can't Say Yes or No

In this game everyone is given a certain number of coins or squares of paper (about 10). Everyone moves
around the room starting conversations and asking each other questions. The only rule is that you cannot
say the words YES or NO. If you accidentally say one of these words, you have to give a coin or square
to the person who you said it to. Try to trick each other by asking questions that you would almost always
answer with a yes or no. Think of other ways to trick your friends. Sometimes asking two quick questions
in a row works well. (Especially tag questions: Are you new here? This is your first time in America, isn't
it?). This game is a great way to practise using small talk and to add variety to your vocabulary. It also
makes everyone laugh.

Fact or Fiction
In this game, one person tells a short story about themselves or someone they know or heard about.
Usually it is something funny or crazy. It can be a true story, or something made up.
Example: Josh tells a story about his Uncle Leo who sleeps in the nude. One day Uncle Leo was
sleepwalking and he went outside and took his dog for a walk. The next door neighbour was coming
home late from work and saw him! She called the police and he got arrested for being naked in public.
Everyone around the room has to say whether they think Josh's story is fact (true) or fiction (made up).
Josh reveals the truth when everyone has guessed. Members can take turns telling a story.

Chain Fairytale
This is a fun writing warm-up. Everyone has a piece of paper and writes the first sentence or two to start a
fairytale (not one that already exists).
Example: Once upon a time there was a frog that had no legs. He wanted to get married, but there were no
female legless frogs in the land.
After one minute the leader will say "SWITCH". At this time the writers have to put down their pens and
pass the papers. They cannot finish their sentences. Then, the next writers will continue the story. After
about ten minutes you will have as many silly stories to read as you have club members. The leader
should warn the writers that they will soon have to wrap-up the story during the last two minutes so that
each story has a conclusion. Read all of the stories out loud for a good laugh

Draw the Picture

In this activity members split up into pairs or small groups. One person looks at a scene from a magazine
or book (the leader should cut out enough pictures, or bring in enough magazines for the club). The other
person has a pencil and a blank piece of paper. The person with the picture will try to describe everything
he sees to the drawer. This is good practice for using prepositions of place. When the describer is
finished, compare the drawings to the real thing! Whose is the closest to the original?
Categories
For this game, one person thinks of a category, such as MOVIES. In a circle, everyone must take a turn
thinking of a Movie title (in English of course). If someone takes too long to give an answer (the leader
should count to five) then that person is out and a new category begins. If someone gives an answer that
doesn't make sense or is incorrect, he is also out of the game. For example, if the category is
VEGETABLES and someone says "banana" that person is out. The game continues until only one person
is left!

Who am I?
In this game, the leader prepares cards with famous people's names on them. The leader tapes one card on
the back of each member. Then everyone pretends they are at a party and asks each other questions to
find out their own identities. When someone guesses their own name correctly, the name-tag gets taped to
their front and they continue to chat with the party guests until everyone is wearing the nametag on the
front.

Jeopardy
In this game, which is based on the famous gameshow Jeopardy, everyone writes down ten answers to
questions about themselves. After writing down the answers, people have to form pairs or small groups
and try to find out what the questions are.
Example: (answer = purple) "What is your favorite colour?" "Blue." "What colour do you hate?" "Green."
"What colour is your underwear?" "Purple!" You can stop at three guesses if you want, or keep going
until someone in the club can guess the question.

Hot Seat
In this game, the club is split up into two teams. One member from each team sits facing the group. The
leader holds up a word (or writes it on the board if you are in a classroom) for all of the team members to
see except for the two players in the hot seats. The teams must try to get the person in the hot seat to
guess the word or phrase. The first person to guess correctly gets to stand up and a new member from
their team takes the hot seat. The person on the other team has to remain in the hot seat until she gets an
answer first. You can keep score or just play for fun. This game can also be played in pairs. One pair
member closes their eyes while the leader shows the word to the other pair members. The first pair to get
the word right gets a point.  This is a loud game because people tend to get excited and yell! But do not
worry this is what we want!

Chinese Whispers
This is a listening and pronunciation activity that always gets people laughing. The leader first must think
of a sentence or phrase and whisper it to the person beside her. That person will then whisper what she
heard to the next person. Each person can only say, "Can you please repeat that?" one time. When the
message reaches the end of the chain that person must speak out loud. Oftentimes the message will be
completely different when it reaches the end. Try to find out where the chain broke! In a big group you
can send the message two ways and find out which team comes closest to the real message. (A famous
example is the army message that started as "Send reinforcements, we're going to advance" and ended as
"Send three and fourpence, we're going to a dance.")