Read

something out loud.

sdrawkcaB

:saedi emos

1) Spell your name in reverse
2) Count / say the alphabet backwards

3) Write a word in reverse (example: yadretsey)
4) Write words in a sentence in reverse (example: park the to went I yesterday)

5) Write a sentence completely in reverse (example: krap eht ot tnew I tadretsey)

6) Read reversed sentences, maybe make it a game

7) Reverse the rules of a game. For example first team to get 3 in a line loses.

Sentence Patterns / Builders

Sentence Patterning Charts by Valentina Gonzalez and Svetlana Kandybovich

An interactive version here

Opposites 2

Here is a list of opposites:

1) day and night

2) indoors and outdoors

3) breakfast and dinner

4) speak and listen

5) daughter and son

6) buy and sell

7) now and then

8) cheap and expensive

9) tidy and messy

10) deep and shallow

11) summer and winter

a) What are the differences between the two words? Which one is better and why?

B) With another person, choose one word each from a pair and then argue why the word you chose is better. The other will argue that the opposite thing is better. 1 or 2 minutes?

Cake

Using the word cake and the words below

Make some sentences

1, If
2, yet
3, not as
4, since
5, quickly
6, might
7, than
8, most
9, should
10, never

example:

2, I haven't eaten the cake yet

Drawing by Miguel

A Land Down Under

G'day

After you've decided if each sentence below is

a FACT, FALSE or an OPINION

make some about the country or place where you live.

AUSTRALIA

1) The official language is French
2) It is the best country in the world!
3) The doctors have wings and can fly

4) The people are so friendly

5) Your teacher is from Australia

6) Below is a picture of your teacher in Australia

7) My mum thinks that Australia is dangerous

8) They use € for money

9) The capital is Sydney

10) There are lots of tigers in Australia

Opposites

What is the opposite of these words?

1, read
2, cheese
3, clean
4, easy
5, beach
6, sunrise
7, tidy
8, zebra

9, noise

10, English

Quote from Purland Training:'The aim is to foster discussion among language students. Not all antonym pairs have to be binary e.g. yes/no, black/white. What is the opposite of 'beach' for you? For me it would be 'office'

My Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun

This poem is a powerful look at the gun violence issue framed through a classroom writing exercise.

The Opposites Game (Youtube video)

Compare & Contrast

1) Keep calm and compare and contrast the two words

1, a cat and a dog

2, Spain and Japan

3, Twitter and Instagram

4, The mountains and the beach

5, Watching sport live and watching it on TV

6, Football and basketball

7, The city and the countryside

8, You and your best friend

9, Netflix and the cinema 

and then say which you prefer.

2) Keep calm and compare and contrast the two words but using the word in (brackets)

1, February, July (however)

2, cat, dog (while)

3, Cádiz, San Fernando (both, but) Two cities 

4, carrot, strawberry (the main difference)

5, France, Argentina (neither)

6, nose, feet (whereas)

7, knife, sword (on one hand)

8, coffee, lemonade (however)

9, teacher, student (unlike)

and then say which you prefer.

Drawing by Andrea

Questions

Here are some answers to some questions. What are the questions?

1, I keep in touch with my friends using WhatsApp.
2, My French teacher is fun and explains things very well
3, I like action or fantasy books
4, I’m going to stay at home
5, Yes, I make my bed and help in the kitchen.
6, I’d like to study medicine or maybe be a lawyer
7, Once or twice a month
8, Yes I have. I went in 2018.

9, Not much. I did some homework and then watched Netflix with my cat

Drawing by Marta

Advanced Synonyms

The words is HAPPY

Here below are synonyms for that word with letters missing

How many do you think you know of the 7?

G _ _ _

_ ERR _

_ L _ A _ ED

DELIG _ T_ _

_ OLLY

E _ ATED

_ _ _ _ LLED

Activity from GoGetters

Poetry in 13

Write a (if not poetic then a simple) sentence of 13 words using a starter word. Perhaps a word from the last class: FRIGHTENING

Example: I met you in the cinema after we watched that frightening film in Peru.

Connect Disconnect

Make a list of ten words connected to _____

The words must begin with the letters below:

A ___
B ___
C ___
D ___
E ___
F ___
G ___
H ___

I ___

or

Make a list of ten words not connected to _____.

The words must begin with the letters above

Synonyms

First copy or ask someone to dictate these words to you

1, happy

2, immature

3, outgoing

4, green

5, confusing

6, icy

7, honest

8, strong

9, scary

10, baggy

Then from this grid below match the synonyms.

When you have finished choose one word and try a Poetry in 13.

Dandelion Wine

'A good night sleep, or a ten minute bawl, or a pint of chocolate ice cream, or all three together, is good medicine.'
Ray Bradbury - Dandelion Wine

What in your opinion is good medicine? Make a list.

Movement

HELLO! Thank you for visiting my blog (today or over the weeks, months, years).

I am still reposting activities here for now, but am moving and rebuilding DUST with both old and new posts over here (Wordpress).

Hope to see you there!

Steve

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

What do things Dream of?

Look at this list. What do you think these things dream of?

1, a notebook
2, a streetlight
3, a frog
4, the sea
5, a computer
6, your pet / sibling
7, a wall
8, a lamp
9, a pencil case

Think of another object. What does it dream of?

Here are the efforts from my classes put into verse:

Idea From Brian Moses

Poetry at Work

I have self
Individuality

I have intelligence

Capacity

I have creativity

To transcend

I have youth

Spirit

I have space

Radical possibility

I have praise

Admiration

I have expectation

Looking forward

I have memories

Thank you

Above is a poem by me. Inspired by the poem below by Tomaz Salamun. We could ask our learners - What do you have? And tell me something about it.

Pictionary

Note to self: Don't forget the simple, classic games.

Last Christmas 2

What did you do in the holidays?
Here is an A to Z of what my students did in the holidays.
Can you guess what the verbs are?

An example: USED my phone all day

Mad Libs

PART 1

Write some ideas for the following on a bit of paper. Without looking at PART 2

a) two animals (e.g. pig and cat)
b) a food
c) a place in the town where you live
d) An object
e) Another object

PART 2

Put your words in the spaces below.

a) Do you prefer _____ or _____? (e.g. Do you prefer pigs or cats?)
b) When was the last time you ate _____?

c) What are the main problems with_____?

d) What are the positives of_____?

e) Describe a typical day for a/an _____.

Ask a partner the questions.

Last Christmas 1

What presents didn’t you receive?

Howmanyywords?

How many words are contained in each sentence.

1, Howdoyouusuallykeepintouchwithyourfriends?

2, Tellmeaboutyourfavouriteteacher.

3, Whatkindofthingsdoyoulikereading?

4, Whatareyougoingtodothisevening?

5, Doyouhelpyourparentswithjobsaroundthehouse?

6. Whatwouldyouliketostudyinthefuture?

7. Howoftendoyougotothecinema?

8. HaveyouevertravelledtoFrance?

9. Whatdidyoudolastnight?

Now answer them.

Drawing by Pelayo

Rank

Choose a number.

1, river, lake, ocean
2, chips, mashed potato, baked potato
3, cat, dog, rabbit
4, breakfast, lunch, dinner
5, England, France, Spain
6, Knife, fork, spoon
7, football, basketball, tennis
8, books, music, series

9, boat, train, bus

Can you rank the three words by one of these abstract nouns:

beauty, fear, adventure, cost, dislike, childhood, joy, anger, excitement

and explain your choices (if necessary)

Errosr

Can you find the errors in each sentenec?

1, I didn’t have any homeworks so I watched Netflix

2, My dad works like a lawyer 6 days a week
3, Since 3 days I have been trying to call you!
4, We are 6 in the group on Facebook
5, I might come to the party, it depends of my parents letting me
6, I did a mistake so I started again
7, After running to the bus stop we lost the bus
8, I’m agree with you about the best option
9, What means unhealthy?

Always, Sometimes, Never

Decide if these sentences are always, sometimes or never TRUE.

Explain your answers. 

1, I get up early on Saturdays
2, I do my English homework when we have it
3, If you add two odd numbers you get an odd number
4, The Antarctic Circle is located south of the equator
5, Cádiz province is a very hot place
6, The Olympic games take place every 4 years
7, It’s a good idea to use free software
8, Triangles have a line of symmetry
9, Water is a liquid

example

1, Sometimes True: I sometimes get up early on Saturdays because I have a basketball match. If I don't have a match I stay in bed.

News of the World

Here are some headlines:

Can you complete them with your own ideas?

1, Big risk for young people who are _____.

2, Scientists say _____ cream doesn't work.

3, Schools says plastic _____ should be banned.

4, Kids losing language skills due to _____.

5, The happiest country in the world is _____.

6, ____ are helping to save the world's oceans.

7, ____ triggers (starts) global recession.

8, EU says the minimum age to use WhatsApp is _____.

9, ______ swims under water for a record of 32 minutes.

Spoiler. Here are the original words removed:

1, obese  2, sun, 3, straws 4, emoji 5, Finland  6, sharks 7, pandemic 8, 16 9, penguin

Drawing by Hugo (Words added by me)

Comparative Categories

The word is: BUS

Now think of...

1. Something bigger than a bus:
2. Something smaller than a bus:
3. A verb that goes with bus:
4. A word that comes earlier in the dictionary than bus:
5. A longer word beginning with the same letter: 
6. A shorter word beginning with the same letter: 
7. An adjective to describe bus:
8. The opposite of that adjective:

9. Three things similar to a bus:

Now change the word and go again. To make it harder you could say all the answers have to include or start with the letter C. Or any other letter.

Where are the spaces?

OnegreyandrainymorninginTheBigApple(NewYork)inthecoldandsnowymonthofJanuaryFranachattybutgrumpytaxidriverateaverylargeandtastybreakfastasusualandthendroveherpassengersaroundandaroundthewonderfulcitythatneversleeps.