Dobble is a great card game for quick thinking and bit of new vocabulary. I trialled it during a ‘fun and games’ social club last week and it went down well. Actually, the students enjoyed it so much that they… Read More ›
short activities
A fun way to drill
A bit of repetition never hurt anyone! It might not be the most riveting stuff, but sometimes I come across these ‘listen and repeat’ drills in our materials or in books. They’re ok. I used to like substitution drills myself…. Read More ›
Word stress – footballs and sticky balls
I like teaching word stress. I have various ‘go to’ activities for noticing and practising word stress – stuff like this: Using Cuisenaire rods Humming the stress pattern Fist pumping when you say the stressed syllable Building vocab based on… Read More ›
Spelling races with mini-whiteboards
I don’t do enough spelling practice. I should develop in that area, definitely. But one fun thing I do is a simple whiteboard spelling game as a review. Give each team (about 4 students) a mini whiteboard, pen, eraser. Say… Read More ›
Disappearing dialogues, colour-coded support
On the CELTA YL course I did a story retelling task. The students had watched a Shaun the Sheep video, and I’d pre-taught some of the tough vocab. After the video I wanted them to retell the story, but they… Read More ›
Using story cubes
I bought these story cubes a few months ago, and I’ve tried them out a few times this term. They are basically dice with pictures on them, so it’s really up to you how you use them. You can find… Read More ›
Lesson idea: retelling a story in groups
Here’s a great group task for retelling a story. I came across it during the British Council summer school here in Bangkok. My teen group were doing activities based on the movie ‘Jumanji’, but this can work for any movie, fairytale,… Read More ›
Vocabulary review – fortune tellers
Did you ever make one of those origami fortune tellers when you were a kid? They were pretty cool. Anyway, I’ve just planned a lesson on shapes with my young learners (from Incredible English), and thought the classic fortune tellers… Read More ›
Lesson tip: Wheel Decide
Wheel Decide allows you to create instant decision/scoring wheels in class. You can change the categories to anything you want, meaning the wheel could choose who goes next, the next topic of discussion, class groups, anything you want! I plan on… Read More ›
Lesson tip: tidy-up song
Do you use a tidy-up song at the end of class? This is mine… My primary level students start singing this with about 5 minutes of the lesson to go. They love the challenge of getting everything packed away, plus the… Read More ›
ELT Planning 