My top 4 almost zero

prep activities to use in

any class at any level.
Hi! I’m Ira Maksymova, an English teacher, and
I’ve been teaching English for 10 years now.
Most of these years I’ve been a strong
advocate for Lexical Approach - a way of
analysing and teaching language that is made
of lexical units rather than grammatical
structures. 

Ira Maksymova
 My top 4 almost zero prep activities to use in any class at any level.

1
Beginning/Middle/End

One of my most favourite art-based activities.

You take a picture of your choice, e.g. 

If this painting was the

beginning of a story, what
would happen next?

If this painting was the middle

of a story, what happened
before and would happen next?

If this painting was the end of a

story, what happened before?

This is a perfect activity to practice tenses,

conditionals, reported speech, as well as any other
grammar point you see fit. The choice of the painting
may define the lexical range used by your learners. 

You can find painting for inspiration here:

inspiration
Ira Maksymova

I absolutely love using art in classroom since

it is a perfect springboard for developing
critical thinking, imagination as well as a
valuable tool in language production. 

 My top 4 almost zero prep activities to use in any class at any level.

2
Cross out the target language

You basically take any text or exercises and cross out

the vocabulary you want to revise or check. What’s
important to remember here is that you should think
chunk-wise, as in, don’t just cross out random words,
make sure you draw your learners’ attention to
chunks and frequent language. Reading out loud
also adds to the activity.

*more about that in my Let’s get Lexical workshop

Ira Maksymova
 My top 4 almost zero prep activities to use in any class at any level.

3
Sensory Star

SIGHT

TASTE SOUND

SMELL TOUCH

I usually use this activity as a warm-up after

weekends or a lead-in to a new topic related
to personal experience, e.g:

Think about your weekends. Write/say a word or

phrase that evokes a memorable experience
involving sight, smell, touch etc. 

I’d normally do this activity whole-class, but you

might consider doing it in pairs as well. Your learners
will have to ask each other questions, which
definitely adds to the linguistic value of the exercise. 

Ira Maksymova

*more about group dynamics and how to organise

group work you can learn in my workshop “All about
groups”

 My top 4 almost zero prep activities to use in any class at any level.

4
The Trio

At any stage of the lesson ask your learners to

complete the following columns: 

The words I know and use

The words I think I know

The words I don’t know

I’d normally do the activity

at the beginning of a class to revise the language
from the class befor
at the end of a clas
at the end of a unit

After the students have completed the task, ask

them to make true sentences about them using the
words in section 2 and 3. Could be set as HW. 

Reflection is among key ingredients of learning. This

activity aims to encourage learners to reflect on the
language as well as to produce it.

Ira Maksymova

References:

vogue.u
Outcomes Pre-Intermediate, Student’s Book. Hugh Dellar,
Andrew Walkley
Teaching Lexically. Hugh Dellar, Andrew Walkley.
Teaching Unplugged. Luke Meddings and Scott Thornbury.