I think it hit home about five minutes before the lesson:
‘Am I really going to base a 30 minute activity around this bottle of murky water? Surely this can’t work…’
Most of the activities I’ve tried from ‘Teaching Grammar Creatively’ have worked quite well. This one though… I must admit, I had my doubts.
It was supposed to be an activity for practising the present perfect (for completion). There’s a poem in the book about a ‘cosmic cocktail’… something like this:
‘I’ve blended everything nicely,
two galaxies,
several stars,
I’ve added a sprinkle of meteor dust…’
Etc.
Sticking with the theme, I made the cocktail (mocktail) as a prop. It consisted of some cheap coffee, some raisins, bits of cut-up rubber… it looked awful.
Somehow, SOMEHOW most of the students bought into it. They enjoyed guessing the ingredients, reciting the poem, then making their own. It ended up a good review of a past lesson on cooking vocabulary, and was (as the book suggests) a fun, creative task.
So, what’s the strangest/most interesting object you’ve ever used in class? And… did it help?!
Categories: General, Lesson Ideas, reflections
ELT Planning 
I have that book, and that lesson had not even crossed my radar! To be fair though, the book has spent most of the time since I bought it in my attic in the UK…hoping to be reunited with it this summer 🙂
Thanks for making me notice this lesson!
Sandy
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