oral sentence completion

This activity works well for exercises where students have to complete sentences with their own ideas, such as:

• comparatives and superlatives: ..... is not as interesting as ...
• conditionals: If I were older, ...
• present perfect: I have always wanted to .../ I have never... before

Instructions:

1. You should have a series (about 15- 20 or more, depending on your number of students) of sentences (cues) ready. Put it up on an overhead, or give each student (or each pair of students) a copy.
2. Divide students into groups of no more than 6 people.
3. Have a timer ready.
4. Each group will stand up front, and will have 3o seconds to say as many sentences as they can. Two conditions apply: The same person cannot say two sentences in a row - he/she must give the chance to other members of the group. Secondly, they must produce the sentences in the order in which they are given; they cannot choose their cues.
5. Give one point for each correct sentence.
6. After 30 seconds, the next group comes up and continues producing sentences where the previous group left off.

Livening up the coursebook - musical ball

This is a good way to give weaker students enough time to complete an exercise, while adding an element of fun to the stronger students who usually have to wait for their slower classmates. It's brought a lot of laughs to my class.

1. Have your class sit in a circle, each with their books/worshsheets ready.
2. One of the students gets a soft ball, and starts passing it around while you play music. Meanwhile, all the students should be working on their exercise/worksheet.
3. When you stop the music, whoever has the ball will call out the answer to the first exercise/question.
4. Then the ball starts going around again, until the music stops and whoever has the ball this time calls out the answer to the next question.

as ... as (warmup)

Hold out your hand. Ask the students if any of them have a bigger hand than yours, a smaller hand, and if any of them have hands as big as yours (or one of the students' who has gone up). Ask them to come to the front.

You can then make sentences using their (and your) hands as an example:


Arthur's hand is (just) as big as Keita's.
Marlise's hand is not quite as big as Keita's.
Kristina's hand is almost as big as Marlise's.
Kristina's hand is not nearly as big as Keita's.

Bring me... (comparatives and superlatives)

This has worked as a good warmup activity for reviewing comparatives and superlatives (assuming that students have already studied it sometime before). It really brings energy to the class.

Divide students into groups. Then tell them that the first group to bring the objects you ask for, will win points.
You can say sentences such as the following:

"Bring me the thickest dictionary"
"Bring me the messiest folder."
"Bring me the whitest shoes."
"Bring me a cell phone which is bigger than mine."
"Bring me a watch which is smaller than mine."

Pronunciation Competition (vowels)

This was written up by my colleague, Doris. We joined both our classes for this game, and the students really enjoyed it. It takes a bit of preparation though.

Vowel Sound Pronunciation Bee/Games

Divide class into 4 groups. Each group has to choose as its name one of the vowel phonemes (e.g “We are the /I/ group”).

On OHP, put a Snakes & Ladders game board. Project on wall. Each group has a different colored post-it note that they move around the board (projected on the wall) as a playing piece. The first group to reach the finish point will win.

Having two teachers present (or else a teacher and an assistant) makes this flow better.
Have a dice on hand. Each number corresponds to a type of activity. Roll the dice to select the activity.

All teams play all the time for all the activities. The dice is also rolled by the two teams winning each activity to determine how many spaces on the game board they get to move.

Games/Activities

1. Many Words: The teacher assigns a vowel sound to each group (or uses the team name for the first round). The teams have 1 minute to write on the whiteboard as many words with that sound as they can think of. The 2 teams with the most correct words get to throw the dice and move on the board.

2. Sound Chain: Two teams line up facing each other. The teacher says a vowel sound. The first person on the A team has to say a word that contains that phoneme. Next, the first person on the B team also says a word with the same phoneme. The same word cannot be repeated. This continues, back and forth between the two teams, until one team makes a mistake, repeats a word that has already been said or can’t think of a word fast enough (5 second rule) and loses. The winning team gets to roll the dice to advance on the board. (With two teachers present, all four teams are playing at the same time, A against B, C against D).

3. Fake Words: (prepare a list of nonexistent words that follow the spelling rules/phonemes the class has been studying-ahead of time). The teacher writes a “fake” word on the board for each team (or a representative from each team) to pronounce following the patterns they have studied before. If they are correct, they get to roll the dice and advance.

4. Find it-Bring it: (prepare cards with minimal pairs before hand. Mix them up and put them in bags to be handed out to each team). The teacher calls out two or three words (ex. Cat , chicks). Students must rummage through their cards, select the ones the teacher said, and run to the teacher with the cards in hand. The first two teams to bring the correct cards get to roll the dice and advance. (In their sets, they would have had to make the decision between the “cat “or the “cut” card, or the “chick” or “cheek” card).

5. Rhyme it: Two teams line up facing each other. The first person on the A team has to say a word. Next, the opposing person on the B team has to say a word with the same vowel sound. The second person on the A team can choose to change the vowel sound and say a different word for which the second person on the B team must find a rhyming vowel sound word. The same word cannot be repeated. This continues, back and forth between the two teams, until one team makes a mistake, repeats a word that has already been said or can’t think of a word fast enough (5 second rule) and loses. The winning team gets to roll the dice to advance on the board. (With two teachers present, all four teams are playing at the same time, A against B, C against D).

6. Sound Sentence: The teacher assigns a vowel sound to each group (or uses the team name for the first round). The teams have 1 minute to write on the whiteboard a sentence which contains as many words with that sound as they can think of. The 2 teams with the most correct words get to throw the dice and move on the board.