Guess The Year

What is something you like / dislike about the following companies?

What year do you think they were founded?

(Year founded may be open to debate)

(sources: Wikipedia And Steven McGuire Aceia conference 2010)

Baloney

Can you spot the nonsense in each sentence?

1, Always wash a banana before you eat it.

2, They watched the show on the radio.

3, It’s starting to rain. Let’s take a towel along.

4, I used a dictionary to check the meaning of the traffic signs.

5, Spain is further away from France than from Germany.

6, She’s very fit. She never does any sport.

7, We’re both thirsty. Let’s stop playing for a moment and eat some biscuits.

8, She eats a lot of ice cream, even in winter. She just loves hot stuff.

9, It was so cold that people were not allowed to water their gardens or wash their cars.

For this idea and more check out Herbert Puchta.

Wednesday

Can you make a sentence using the letters of a day of the week? or any word?

Words Within Words

From Byrdseed where you can find a list of answers and more great activities.
Artwork by Sandra

7

Missing Letters

TRAN    REGU    GNIF    URIA    URIS     IRTH     FERE    NFIR    RENG

Put the letters above in the spaces below to make words.

Can you define the words or use them in a sentence?

1, B _ _ _ _ 
2, INSI _ _ _ _ ICANT
3, TO _ _ _ _ M
4, EN _ _ _ _ CE
5, RE _ _ _ _ RENCE
6, B _ _ _ _ L
7, CO _ _ _ _ MATION
8, ST _ _ _ _ TH
9, IR _ _ _ _ LAR 

The words are from an FCE word formation activity.

What do you think the original words were (BURIAL - BURY)

What do you think the text was about?

Rhyme Time

Look at the sentences and complete the missing word. The missing word should rhyme with the last word of the sentence before.

example:

I was walking down the street

when I saw my mate had new shoes on his feet

1, When I arrived home at half past ten

my sister was chatting to her best _____ 

2, On Tuesday morning I burnt my leg

while I was cooking a fried _____

3, When I first met you

I was suffering from _____

4, When I woke up this morning at half past eight

My mum was shouting YOU ARE  _____!

5, one boring morning we were driving to school

when my mum said 'oh dear we have run out of  _____'

6, They arrived at the party at half past four

but the party wasn't happening any_____

Now, Can you make some sentences of your own?
(using the same structure as above)

7, ________________ book
________________ cook

8, ________________ sing
________________ king

9, ________________ train

________________ rain

Artwork by Vera

Tic Tac Tell

Example: My sister hurt her leg while playing basketball.

(artwork by Sandra)

Mad Libbing

Mad libs for exam style speaking questions.

Solicit some random words as in the brackets below

(making sure they will work before you use them)

and choose the best.

Then ask some questions with the words.

(plural noun)

What are the pros and cons of _____

(action verb in continuous form)
How important is _____ to you?

(verb)

Do you have much opportunity to _____?

(superlative adjective)

What is the _____ thing in your home town?

(transport)

Why do people choose to travel by  _____? 

Drawing by Daniela

Horror

Two-word horror stories

Can you sum up some horror in two words?

Some examples:

On mute
No coffee
Google translate
Vomit everywhere
Shopping centre
Biology class
No wifi

Drawing by Blanca

 

Scary Things

Here are some things that – according to (some of) my students – are scary.

1, Spoilers
2, Life
3, The shower
4, Mothers
5, A ghost
6, Spiders

Why are they scary? (or not)
Which is the scariest or the least scary?

Drawing by Ádrian

Impossible

Here are some things that – according to my students – are impossible:

1, Being a mermaid
2, Living on the sun
3, Flying
4, Never going to school
5, Getting a 10 in Biology
6, Studying medicine
7, Sucking your elbow

Are they actually impossible?
How could they be achieved?
Which would be the easiest / hardest to achieve?

Drawing by Alejandra

Teachings

Pangrams

A Pangram is a sentence that includes every letter of the alphabet. For example: The five boxing wizards jump quickly.

Can you make one? Can you make one in the past tense?

Reminder

Remember: Every day I go to work is an absolute privilege. Because teaching and learning alongside kids is amazing.

Drawing by Sandra

Recipe for Happiness

A poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Try your own recipe for happiness: Start each sentence with One...

What's the Question? (using pictures)

Using a photo (no photo included in this post) create some answers related to the photo (before class or learners in groups with their own):

1, France
2, Late afternoon
3, A house
4, Yes, on the right hand side
5, No
6, A young family
7, They are playing tennis

8, It might have been 1910

9, It could be Spring

Now decide what the questions could be for these answers by looking at the photo:

example 1, Where was the photo taken?

Excuses Excuses

Reasons why they didn't do the homework. A list.

I forgot

I was ill

I was absent

I had to study

My dog ate it

I had a headache

I didn't have time

I did the wrong page

I didn't understand it

I couldn't be bothered

I did the wrong exercise

I can't find my workbook

I left my workbook at home

I didn't come to the last class

I hurt my leg and was in hospital

I know it already so it's a waste of time

I left my bag in my grandparents house

I left my books in my grandparents house

Was there homework?

@theirwordsmyverse

Drawing by Claudia

Preference

A) Do you prefer ____ or _____?
B) ____
A) Why?
B) Because ____

Restlessness

Here are some forms of transport:

1, car | plane | UFO

2, camel | elephant | magic carpet

3, skateboard | train | horse

Choose one group of three words and answer the questions:

1, Which ones have things in common?
2, Which is the (___est / most ___) 
3, If the ___ could speak, what would it say?
4, What advice would the ____  give to its children?
5, Can you create a new transport using two words?
(example magic camel (include a brief explanation))

Respect

1, Here are some reasons you might get into trouble at school:

Not doing homework
Using a mobile phone when you shouldn't
Punching another student in the playground
Insulting another student in the playground
Speaking to friends in class

Can you rank them in order of the one that gets you into the MOST trouble to the one that gets you into the LEAST trouble. Compare and justify your answers.

2, Here are some alternative ideas from The Philosophy Man. A bit more thinking involved. Rank them.

Hitting someone
Hitting someone back
Stealing food from the school canteen
Stealing someone’s lunch
Calling another pupil a bad name
Calling a teacher a a bad name

Positive Thinking

What are you good at? (a sport, hobby or subject at school etc.)

Answer these questions

1, What advice would you give a beginner?

2, What do you enjoy about it?

3, When was the last time you did it?

4, Whose feedback do you need?
5, Who/What stops you from doing it?

Present your ideas.

What is wrong?

 (From Treasure magazine, 1963)

Some more modern stuff on Brightside

Grandparents

How do you feel at their house?

What can you smell / hear / see?

What things do they say?

What do you think?

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

At my grandparents house

I feel happy, loved, bored
I can smell soap, socks, food and air freshener

At my grandparents house
I have to eat lentils

At my grandparents house
My grandad doesn't drink water
he drinks Fanta

At my grandparents house
There are old photos, old films
an old TV and a rocking chair

At my grandparents house
They ask me how things work.
They ask me for my dads mobile number (again)
and they call me by my sisters name

At my grandparents house
I talk about school, do my homework
I think about my future
I think about pizza

Length

What is the longest word you can think of starting with the following letters:

S

E

P

T

E

M

B

E

R

example: S – Salubriousness.

Be Yourself

Be Yourself

Be calm and aware
Be who why and where?

Be the child looking up
Be the team with no cup

Be the road that takes longer
Be the battery that gets stronger

Be the film without a script
Be the chocolate amongst the chips

Be the experiment that fails
Be the fish with no scales

Be the stranger thats kind
Be the stars unaligned

Breathe in. Breath out
Sit straight. Stand tall

Dare to be true
Dare to be you

Clarence Greenway 

What is going on in this picture?

A good website for speculating and guessing

Unlimited

Here is Nike's staff memo from the 1970's.

How many of these can we apply to our class to ensure a successful year and passed exams?

Rules

Effective teachers don't focus so much on rules, but more on relationships, routines, & expectations. If you focus mainly on rules, you will spend most of the year enforcing them. But if you focus on relationships, routines, & expectations, you rarely have to defer back to rules.

Brad Johnson

Flip it

Ask them what they didn't do on their summer holidays.