A Choose Your Own Adventure Poem

Missing Letters

 A Word Game. Complete these words using the letters given

1  t_____e

2  __mm__

3  __oo__

4  s_____d

5  co_____d

6  __pp__

7  __ll__

8  b_____n

9  p____ng
10  ___ss

Three Letters

A word game. Start with a three letter word. The middle letter of that word is the first letter of the next word and so on.

example

run - use - say... Can you keep going for up to twenty words..?

To raise the difficulty use four / five / six letter words.

Pyramid

A Word Game. Start the pyramid with a two or three letter word. For example - no

The next word in the pyramid must use the last letter of the previous word and be one letter longer.

For example

no

one

each
heavy

When the word gets too long and difficult you could go back down to 2 again.
Some rules: No repetition of words or plurals allowed.

Zoology

Here are some animals / mammals / insects:

1,

blue whale

tiger

shark

2,

butterfly

elephant

bat

3,

bee

bear

mosquito

Choose a group of 3 and answer one of the questions:

1, Which ones have things in common?

2, Which is the (___est / most ___)

3, Invent a fact about one of them: Did you know that ___.

4, If the ___ could speak, what would it say?

5, What advice would the ___ give to its children?

6, Can you create a new animal from two of the animals? (example: Elebat)

Minimal Pairs (vowel sounds)

A minimal pair is a pair of words which differ only in one sound.

They are a great way to improve pronunciation.

Here are some examples.

1, ankle / uncle

2, ship / sheep

3, space / spice

4, cap / cape

5, man / men

6, pitch / peach

7, golf / gulf

8, hat / heart

9, celery / salary

10, full / fool

Choose one number

1, Can you identify the vowel sounds?

2, Can you think of another word with that sound?

Celery: head, bread, guest

3, Can you explain how the two are different in each number? (or similar)

example: celery is a vegetable whereas a salary is the money you earn. Both are good for you. 

4, Can you make a sentence in the first conditional with each pair?

example: If I eat celery, will you increase my salary?

Holidays

Here are ten things people might take on a holiday:

1, a passport

2, pets

3, a suitcase

4, food

5, family

6, a phrase book

7, a hairbrush

8, sun cream

9, a bicycle

10, a sleeping bag

1, What reasons might someone take ___ on holiday?

2, What reasons might someone not take ___ on holiday?

3, What other reasons for and against are there for taking ___ on holiday?

Drawing by Lucía

Possibilities

Yellow

All these things are of a similar colour:

1,

the sun

banana

Pac-Man

2,

highlighter pen

NY taxi

Pokemon

3,

cheese

lemon

Sponge Bob

Choose one group of three and:

1, Say three things you know about one of the words?

2, Are any things in the list that are sometimes not yellow?

3, How are some things similar in each group of three?

4, Which one is the odd one out and why in each group? Why?

5, Which ones are useful / positive for you?
6, When was the last time you experienced one of them?

Yellow. Words from my students.

Mixed Feelings 2

Here is a wordlist:

1, bomb
2, headache
3, plane
4, window
5, cloud
6, shark
7, road sign
8, hospital
9, lunch

10, tree

Can you match a word above to the most appropriate emotion below?

Emotions: sadness, anger, joy, fear, disgust, anxiety, embarrassment, ennui, envy.

Can you explain how the same word could be used with the other emotions?

Example: The obvious choice for shark is fear but what about a situation where there is happiness related to shark?

Drawing by Claudia

Mixed Feelings

What is a Grade?

"...an inadequate report of an inaccurate judgment by a biased and variable judge of the extent to which a student has attained an undefined level of mastery of an unknown proportion of an indefinite material"

Paul Dressel (1983)

Speed Sentence

Make a 7 word sentence...

1, where the only vowel used is E
2, where there is no E in any word
3, where each word starts with the letter B
4, with words that start with vowels only
5, with words that are 3 letters long
6, where each word has the letters in order: A B C D E F G
7, where each word has the number of letters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8, where each word has the number of syllables: 1 2 3 4 3 2 1
9, where each word contains the letter S
10, where each word finishes with S, T or D

Characters in BOLD subject to change

Speed Words

Think of 3 words... 

1, that start with HE...
2, that end in SS

3, that contain double LL

4, with the structure: S + vowel + vowel + consonant

5, of 4-letters that start with N...

6, words that start and end in the same letter

7, related to fruit / veg that start with P...

8, that are adjectives and start with T...

9, that are written in alphabetical order

10, verbs that have 2 syllables

Characters in bold subject to change.

Drawing by Álvaro

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

Revision Categories

Using all the categories below think of a word with a given starting letter.

The same letter could be used for all the categories (no repeating of words)
or a random letter for each one.

1, Hello! I am from _____

2, a 6 letter word

3, In this town there is a/an _____ 

4, Contains a double letter (example LL or SS)

5, I have _____ here for 5 years 

6, _____y (must finish in Y)

7, ? + vowel + vowel + consonant

8, A Phrasal verb

9, French is not as _____ as English

10, I don't have much _____

11, _____ness

12, My ____ escaped and we can't find it

Example with the letter P:

1, Peru

2, Plough

3, Pub

4, Pill

...

Word Squares

A good one for those that finish fast or look bored.
Draw a 3 x 3 square. Place a letter in diagonally as in the example below.

N _ _ 
_ N _ 

_ _ N 

and then complete with words...

N O T 

A N D

T E N

If thats too easy make the grid 4x4, 5x5 and so on

Alternatively
Think of a 3 letter word and place it in the grid to make words

H _ _
_ E _

_ _ Y

Repeating

A sentence that goes around the class / group.

Person one says the first word of the sentence

Person two repeats the first word then says the second word

Person three repeats words one and two and adds a third (grammatically correct of course)

and so on around the group until we feel the sentence is finished.

Example in a group of 8

I asked them to do a conditional:

Person 1: If

Person 2: If I

Person 3: If I see

Person 4: If I see you

Person 5: If I see you tomorrow

Person 6: If I see you tomorrow I

Person 7: If I see you tomorrow I will

Person 8: If I see you tomorrow I will give

Person 1: If I see you tomorrow I will give it

Person 2: If I see you tomorrow I will give it to

Person 3: If I see you tomorrow I will give it to you

Question Constraint

For these questions you must use the word in (brackets) in your answer.

1, How do you usually keep in touch with your friends? (and)
2, Tell me about your favourite teacher. (however)
3, What kind of things do you like reading? (for example)
4, What are you going to do this evening? (but)
5, Do you help your parents with jobs around the house? (such as)
6. What would you like to study in the future? (although)
7. How often do you go to the cinema? (well)
8. Have you ever travelled to France? (because)
9. What did you do last night? (so)

Normal Questions. Crazy Answers.

First, complete these questions with your own ideas.

How far...
How often...
When...
How much...
Who...
Which...
What...
Where..

example: How far is it from here to Madrid?

Next, answer the questions but using any of the following 10 random words in the answer.

head, giraffe, hat, handbag, daisy, sun, balloon, comic, holiday, handkerchief

example

It is 10,000 Giraffes to Madrid 

Revision

 

Inference

Look at the following sentences.
Think of a reason as to why they are happening / happened.
Use language of deduction.

A) Present

1, Where is (absent student) today?

2, The town square is very busy.

3, Enrique is wearing shorts.

4, Abraham blew out the candles.

5, Olivia is not answering her phone.

6, Saiko is eating croquettes.

7, The English academy is closed.

8, Ana is at her favourite restaurant.

9, Taylor is getting up at 5 a.m.

B) Past

1, They were told to get off the bus.
2, It was not safe to play on the street.
3, I had to measure the length of my couch.
4, The man has dirty knees.
5, When he got home, he went straight to bed.
6, He didn’t go to many football matches after that.
7, John ran into the street without looking.
8, He isn’t very happy - in fact he is miserable.

9, She's sitting in an armchair in the Queen's lounge.

Why?

The Five Whys

This is a useful technique to get to the root of the problem, as demonstrated in the poem above, for an example closer to work we could ask why someone doesn't do their homework. Here is the method explained on wikipedia

Slamina!

Can you define these words and use them in a sentence? Secondly, each of the words rhymes with an animal. Can you work out which animal?

1, fat

2, coat

3, carrot

4, word

5, house

6, break

7, scare

8, park

9, course

Now can you make a two line poem (a couplet) using the word and the animal it rhymes with?

an example: In my house / there is a mouse

These ones are a bit harder:

1, legal

2, iron

3, socks

4, deep

5, towel

6, relevant

7, chunky

8, trail

9, plough

Misplaced

There each two words misplaced in are sentence. Find them correct and the sentence. 

1, I later thinking of going to the park was.
2, Is England English in spoken
3, They said us would help they with the work.
4, was the party, everyone after tired
5, this time we week next will be in Madrid
6, I have my friend cut by a hair
7, We’ll have a swim it long as as doesn’t rain
8, She got into of her car and went out the house

9, Would you like a coffee sugar in your little?

Inspiration from A Journey in TEFL

Numbered Sentences

This activity was taken from Borja Uruñuela at The ACEIA Conference in 2013. It has been a favourite and I still use it today. Each word in a sentence is given a number. After seeing and memorising the sentence a few times, hide it from view and ask yourself or a partner: What's number 4? cars What's number 9?

The Individual

Let's think of an individual. Someone we all know, maybe someone famous or an animal or somebody we all read about. Now, let's work on these questions:

1, What is this individual best known for?
2, What other people / objects / developments are connected to this individual?
3, What things do you have in common with this individual?
4, What questions / wonders can you form about this individual? 

5, Imagine you are the individual, tell us something that you enjoy(ed) doing.
6, Create a question where the individual is the answer.

Based on the individual spotlight idea by Kate Jones (Twitter)

Drawing by Ana

Vowel Categories

7 to 1

Write a dialogue between two people

However,

The first line must be 7 words

and then each line is one

word less until you get

right down to just 

a single word

it's that

simple

Here it is visually:

A: (7 words)

B: (6 words)

A: (5 words)

B: (4 words)

A: (3 words)

B: (2 words)

A: (1 word)

From my C2 class. They had to include the words ALL OF A SUDDEN.

Hello, do you know what happened yesterday?

I do not. Please enlighten me.

Forgotten... all of a sudden

Do you have amnesia?

I probably do

A pity

Yep

The Colbert Questionert

Questions to ask people - taken (and slightly adapted) from The Colbert Questionert.

Apples or oranges?
What is the best sandwich?
What is the most used app on your phone?
What is your favourite / least favourite smell?
Window or Aisle?
Have you ever asked someone for their autograph / a selfie?
What is you favourite movie (at the moment)?
What number am I thinking of?
What's one thing you own that you really should throw out?
Exercise: worth it?
You get one song to listen to for the rest of your life: what is it?
What is the scariest animal?
Describe the rest of your (week / life) in 5 words.

Hey!

What's stopping you?

Flying Furniture

More from Joseph Fasano.

We did this poem template in class in a Mad-Lib style where I went round the students asking for the random words needed (without showing poem) and then we tinkered with it a bit at the end (showing poem)

There are days when I am Luis
and days when I am not
My heart is a smart climbing monkey in the morning
and a blue swimming whale at night
If only I could lift weights
I would be strong
If only i could let go of horses
I would be flying furniture
Fernando this poem is for you
To love you is to be flying furniture

Original Template:

The Wishing Wolf

I asked my A1 classes to choose an animal (wolf)

and tell me some things it CAN'T do (in the first person)

Some examples that they said:

I can’t fly

I can't put on shoes

I can't watch TV

I can't dance

I later asked my B2 class to use WISH and the appropriate structures that follow

it to think about what the wolf might wish due to the things it can't do.

Here are a few of the results:

THE WOLF

I can’t fly

I wish I had wings

I can’t put on shoes
I wish I had been born with feet

I can’t dance

I wish I had rhythm
I wish I could move my paws
I wish I wasn’t fat

Words into Questions

First, write an item for each thing on this list:

1, An activity you enjoy doing (example: Basketball)

2, Something you sometimes do

3, A verb in gerund (ING) form

4, A place in your town

5 Another place in your town

6, Two subjects at school

7, Two countries on our planet

8, An APP on your/a phone

9, Your favourite sport / hobby

10, An object in the house (plural)

Now put your words in the questions below and ask them to a friend, partner or yourself.

1, What is the objective of ___? (Basketball)

2, When was the last time you ___?

3, Do you agree that ___ is important?

4, What is a benefit of ___?

5, What is the worst thing about ___?

6, Which is better: ___ or ___?

7, Are there any similarities between ___ and ___

8, What potential risks are there in using ___?

9, What advice could you give someone about ___?

10, How might ___ be different in the future?

Ping Pong Proverbs

This idea from The Philosophy Guy:

Construct a sentence with a partner (or around a group) where you say alternating words in a sentence  – which starts with ALWAYS or NEVER. Is it a good proverb or nonsense? One example from my class below.

A: Always

B: Fly

A: Across

B: the

etc..

Youtube video | Website

Banana

Player 1
Your verb is EAT (it's a secret)
You must make sentences for player 2 using this verb but when you want to say the verb you must say BANANA instead

Example: Did you BANANA any food last night?

Player two will try and guess the verb

Player 2
You are going to hear a sentence including the word BANANA. You must try and guess what verb BANANA is replacing.

Thoughts
It could be made more complex by using past simple or past participle forms or that a conditional form must be used (if you BANANA more vegetables you will feel better)

Here is random verb generator to help get you started
Here is a more advanced one
Hope you BANANA a good time.

Alternative Proverbs

What is a proverb?

Do you know any in your own language?

Here are parts of some English proverbs.

Complete the sentences with your own ideas.

1, All good things must... 
2, Better late than... 
3, If it isn't broken... 
4, If you can't beat them... 
5, You can't teach an old dog...
6, Knowledge is...
7, ...is the best medicine.
8, No human is a...
9, Practice makes...

10, The early bird... 
11, The grass is always... 
12, The pen is mightier than... 
13, Time is... 
14, Too many cooks... 
15, You can take a horse to water... 
16, Children should be seen and not... 
17, Where there's smoke there's... 
18, You can't always get... 

Compare yours with the originals.

Here are some from my class:

All good things must... happen
Better late than... dirty
If it isn't broken... use it
If you can't beat them... confuse them
You can't teach an old dog... maths
Knowledge is... nature
Sleep ...is the best medicine
No man is a... ghost

Practice makes... humanity

The early bird... doesn't have a life
The grass is always... growing
The pen is mightier than... the pencil
Time is... over
Too many cooks... too much food
You can take a horse to water... but you'll get wet
Children should be seen and not... eaten
You can't always get... popcorn in the cinema.

Exquisite Categories

This is a word-to-sentence game inspired by Exquisite Corpse. Complete the table below with the appropriate words (as shown in the second example). You will then have a table of words that can be made into sentences and which are willing to be played around with.

For example these could be written out or done orally:

A: An artistic aunt asked for an awesome apple.

Mixed up: A colourful aunt became a beautiful doodle.

Using C and the word ALREADY: The colourful car had already cut through the calm countryside. (Notice the need to think about extra language here)

Using D and YET: Has the drunk doctor done a dirty doodle yet?

Using B and C and No sooner: No sooner had the artistic aunt asked for an awesome apple than a boring bowl had become a beautiful basketball.

and so on...

What is it not?

From this list can you choose a word and tell me what it is not

1, elephant

2, dolphin

3, whale

4, garlic

5, silence

6, banana

7, language

8, tea

9, book

10, Chinese

Some ways you could start:

A whale is not...

It does not...

It can't...

It hasn't got...

It will never...

Idea from NaPoWriMo

Haiku

This idea by Pie Corbett (Twitter link)

Write your own Haiku using the prompts.

There is no need to stick to syllable counts associated with Haiku but it should try and capture a moment / season. In the pic below there is extra guidance on the right hand side if needed. Further below is what my kids class (aged 8,9) came up with. Done as a warmer. See the link above for some more examples.

Mr Agana

The answers to each pair of definitions below (A&B) are made up of the same letters. They are anagrams.

Example:

A: at the present time, not in the past or future = NOW
B: past simple and past participle of win = WON

Now try these:
(Definitions from The Cambridge Dictionary)

A. the part in the middle of the arm where it bends
B. in a lower position (than), under

A. costing little money or less than is usual or expected
B. a round fruit with sweet yellow flesh that has a lot of juice,

A. the planet third in order of distance from the sun
B. the organ in your chest that sends the blood around your body

A. armed fighting between two or more countries or groups
B. (of food) not cooked

A. to (cause something to) separate suddenly or violently into two or more pieces
B. a person whose job is to make bread and cakes for sale,

A. (especially of liquids, gases, or electricity) to move in one direction, especially continuously and easily
B. a wild animal of the dog family

A. The soft part of the body of a person or animal that is between the skin and the bones,
B. a long, flat board fixed horizontally, usually against a wall or inside a cupboard so that objects can be stored on it

A. very interested, eager, or wanting (to do) something very much
B. the middle joint of the leg that allows the leg to bend

A. the third month of the year
B. a quality that makes you like or feel attracted to someone or something

A. used to indicate duty; should
B. strong; not easily broken or made weaker

Nonet

A Nonet is a 9-line poem where each line contains 1 syllable less than the line before. So the first line contains nine syllables, the second has eight, the third has seven, and so on.

I asked my class to complete the sentence Monday (or Tuesday) is ___ and complete with adjectives, feelings and language of comparison or anything they wanted. The B2 group used some recent vocabulary. Here are some examples of what we put together as a group on the whiteboard:

Monday (An A2/B1 level Nonet)

Monday is more boring than Friday
It is not as great as Friday
Monday is a normal day
Monday is the worst day

It is depressing
disappointing

annoying
It’s bad
Man

Monday (A B2 level Nonet)

Monday is the worst day of the week

Monday is as bad as Sunday

Monday is a confession

Monday is pitiful

Monday is tiring

It is pure hell

Monday night

It is 

odd

Tuesday (A C2 level Nonet)

The day the gates of hell open wide
Tuesday is no bed of roses
Seldom do weeks cease to be
Hearts will be filled with woe
There’s no salvation
That’s depressing
Or is it?
It is
Help!

Flip

Flippity is a great tool, which turns spreadsheets into activities for class. One of my favourites is the Randomizer. This week, inspired by the game Quicktionary, I have been playing categories using it. I have made easy, medium and advanced versions. How would you use it?

Categories

Choose a letter (example P) and try to complete each slide in one minute using it

Example 1: Plod, part, press...

Example 2: Pi, peg, pose...

Example 3: Pious, painter, partition

The words could be used to make sentences afterwards.

Under the Weather

What happens when you're ill?
What do you think and how do you feel?
What do family or friends say?

The results from my class: #theirwordsmyverse
(Poem style inspired by Michael Rosen)

I'm ill, I'm ill
The T.V is on
I'm doing my homework in my bedroom.

I'm ill, I'm ill
my mother's shouting
the dog is barking
the phone is vibrating

I'm ill, I'm ill
my sister is singing
'You should be at school!'
'Do you have exams?' asks my Mother

I'm ill, I'm ill
I'm not at school
I miss my friends
I wish it was summer

I'm ill, I'm ill
I feel bad
I am in pain
I
am
BORED.

Between Us

In class or in a group:

What is between us? Be it obvious or abstract.

Make a list.

Here's mine from the CPE class:

Air

I don't understand

Rose tinted glasses

The humming of working brain cells

The chaos of philosophical questions

masked as C2 tasks

Shiritori

Think of a word that starts with the last letter of your opponent's word.
Win by picking longer words and answering as fast as you can!
Play HERE

Orange

All these things are of a similar colour:

1, a lifejacket | a traffic cone | a basketball

2, a carrot | a pumpkin | a black box

3, a Dorito | a tiger | a goldfish

Choose one group of three and:

1, Say three things you know about one of the words?
2, Are any things in the list that are sometimes not orange?
3, How are some things similar in each group of three?
4, Which one is the odd one out in each group? Why?
5, Which ones are useful / positive for you?
6, When was the last time you experienced one of them?