Completion Competition

Beforehand, write down all the answers to a set of exercises in small pieces of paper (one piece of paper per answer). Make enough sets for each group of 3 -5 students (depending on the size of your class).

Then put a basket or hat in the middle of the room (where you can see it clearly).

Tell the student you'll read a random sentence, and they need to find the paper that contains the answer to fill the "blank" of the sentence you're reading.

The first group to put the correct answer into the basket or hat wins a point.

After the game, you can either get them to work on the exercise again (now that they can read the sentences), or assign it for homework as review.

(This is very good for their listening skills, too).

Grab the bell

Purpose: oral practice, accuracy.


1. Divide students into groups of about 4.

2. Place a bell (or some other easy-to grab object) in the center of the room. The reason I like the bell is that it makes noise, so it's clear who is holding it.

3. Have a set of sentences or exercises ready. Give each student, or each group, a copy.

4. Call out a random sentence (for example, "exercise 2, sentence 3"). (Alternative: this can also be done with brief listening tracks, which students listen to and try to remember)

5. Someone from each group must memorize it and grab the bell before he/she can say it to you. It he/she says it correctly, the team earns points.

Note: Let students know that, in each team, the same person cannot participate twice in a row. This will give others in the team the chance to participate.

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.

Livening up the coursebook

Activity 1:

I learnt this one from my students. It's a good way to brighten up a coursebook exercise. Simply copy the exercise, mount it on cardboard, and cut it up like a jigzaw puzzle. That way, before students can complete the exercise, they have to put the pieces together and have a little fun.


Activity 2:

No time to plan for today? No problem as long as each student has a book (or worksheet)! Simply sit them in a circle, and get them to complete an exercise- but every minute (or less), blow a whistle or ring a bell, and they have to pass their book on to the person on their left- at the same time, they get a book from the person on their right. They then continue where the last person left off.
This way, all students will probably finish at around the same time, and the activity brings a lot of laughs.

NB: Make sure each student has a lead pencil - some students get very upset by having someone else mess up their books!


Activity 3:

This one might sound really dumb, and I don't recommend it to happen often, but sometimes teachers have those days in which there's no inspiration... In that case, choose an exercise from your coursebook, and divide your students in groups of 2 or 3.

Beforehand, for each group, make little papers with the exercise numbers on them: 1a, 1b, 1c...

Then the students work in groups, but don't follow the order of the exercise. Rather, they draw a paper (e.g. 2.c) and complete that sentence first. Then they draw another paper (e.g. 1.b) and complete that one.

Activity 4:

1. Divide the class into 3 or 4 groups (depending on the size of your board). Also, divide the board and assign a section of the board for each group.

2. Tell Ss that they will complete exercise so-and-so on the board, but only one student from each group can go up to the board at a time (one student, one sentence). If that person makes a mistake, the next student who goes up can correct it.

3. The objective is to see which team finishes first. Points can be assigned by giving 1 (or 1000!) points for each correct sentence, plus giving 2 (or 2000) points to the team which finished first, and 1 (or 1000) points to the team which finished second).


Activity 5:

If a worksheet or coursebook exercise has either/or answers, make students stand up if it's one answer, and sit down if it's the other- or any other type of action that's appropriate for your group.