Disappearing Text

Read the text. 

One grey and rainy morning in The Big Apple (New York) in the cold and snowy month of January, Fran, a chatty but grumpy taxi driver, ate a very large and tasty breakfast as usual and then drove her passengers around and around the wonderful city that never sleeps.

1, Each time you have read it eliminate five words. Then read again remembering the words you eliminated. Keep going until there is no text to see but it is all in your head. Recreate the text on paper.

Or

2, Look at the text.

Eliminate words in the text so that the text still makes sense. You can eliminate one, two or a maximum of three words in a row on one turn. You receive one point for each word eliminated.

For example in the sentence: One grey and rainy morning you could eliminate 'grey and' for two points or 'grey and rainy' for three.

Slamina

1, Can you define these words and use them in a sentence?

1, fat

2, coat

3, carrot

4, word

5, house

6, break

7, scare

8, park

9, course

2, Each of the words rhymes with an animal. Can you work out which animal?

A bit harder:

1, legal

2, iron

3, socks

4, deep

5, towel

6, relevant

7, chunky

8, trail

9, plough

Compare and Contrast 2

Compare and contrast the two words 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)

Predictions

Here is a list of words.

Pen
Robot
Elephant
Dog
Invent
Car
Train
Interesting
Orange
Nothing
Snake

Can you make sentences predicting the future using one or a few of the words. It may help to use a sentence stem: In the future...

example
In the future snakes will have big noses and someone will invent a car that can fly.

Apple

Using the word apple

and one of the words/structures from 1 to 9

Can you make a sentence?

B1

1, If

2, yet
3, not as.. as
4, since
5, by my sister
6, might
7, than
8, should
9, said

example

1, If i eat an apple...

B2

1, regret

2, in spite of

3, wish

4, accused

5, such

6, as well as

7, therefore

8, unlike

9, being

example

1, I regret not eating that apple before we left

For & Against

Choose one of the options below:

1, Eating junk food

2, Halloween
3, Going to the cinema
4, Learning English
5, Having Pets
6, Using mobile phones in class
7, Exams
8, Making your own pizza

9, Online classes

Make a list of three things FOR and three things AGAINST your chosen option.

Fact. Opinion. False.

Are the following sentences fact, opinion or false?

1, The cat is an animal.
2, Cats see in black and white.
3, Chocolate can be toxic to cats.
4, Everybody likes cats.
5, Cats are in the same family as Lions and tigers.
6, Cats are nocturnal.
7, Cats have more teeth than dogs.
8, Seeing a black cat on a Saturday brings good luck.
9, Cats always land on their feet.
10, When people see a cat, they want to touch it.

Can you write one fact, one opinion and something false about your favourite animal?

Compare & Contrast

Can you find a similarity and a difference between:

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, You and a tree

7, The city and the countryside

8, You and your best friend

9, Netflix and the cinema

10, Football and basketball

and then say which you prefer.

The Things They Always Say

Can you complete these sentences with typical things that parents say?

1, Don't...
2, Stop...
3, Why..?
4, Have..?
5, Are you sure...?
6, When I was young...
7, I promise...
8, There is...
9, If...

How do you feel when / if you hear these things said?

Sentences like this make for good list poems, for example if everybody completes 'Don't' a few times, the list can make for interesting reading. Here's one i made from my students work.

Here are the stems above completed by one of my students (Instagram)

Ideas like this were inspired by Michael Rosen and his poems (Michael Rosen Learning Resources)

Incomplete

How could the things on the list below be incomplete?

Example

A window without glass

a garden without grass

(it doesn't have to rhyme but it could)

a window

a garden

a movie

a lamp

a guitar

a wedding

a mobile phone

a bee

a ship

a website

a bottle

Look around you at some of the objects. how might they be incomplete?

Incomplete is an idea taken from Brian Moses short writing ideas.

Opinions

Complete some of these sentences with your own ideas:

1, _____ is / are better than _____.
2, _____ is the best day of the week.
3, _____ is the best ever invention.
4, I think _____ is boring.
5, In my opinion _____ is the best time of year.
6, _____ is the easiest way to communicate.
7, It is cruel to _____

8, _____ would be amazing.

9, _____ should be banned.

10, I believe _____

Now share your opinions and see who agrees or disagrees with you.

Try to justify why you agree or disagree.

Remote Associates 2

Each set of three words can be connected by a fourth. Can you think of the word?

example
human, horse, track (race)

1, cycle, insurance, second

2, fish, trek, pop

3, high, secondary, private

4, suit, pencil, phone

5, cereal, fish, dust

6, friend, scout,  young

7, royal,  holiday, friendly

8, plastic, sleeping, hand

9, corner, lamp, life

Seven Words 2

Can you use one of the following words and make a sentence that is exactly 7 words long?

example

1, I have not eaten anything since lunch

1, eaten
2, if
3, wasn't
4, any
5, since
6, yet
7, who (not a question)
8, would
9, won't

Always Sometimes Never

Decide if these sentences are always / sometimes / 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.

Seven Words

Can you answer these questions in exactly 7 words?

1, How are you today?
2, What's the weather like?

3, What do you remember from school today?
4, What did you do last night?
5, Do you like broccoli?
6, What would you do If you won 50 euros?
7, What plans do you have for this weekend?

Transport

Some forms of transport:

1, car

2, plane

3, UFO

4, camel

5, elephant

6, magic carpet

7, skateboard

8, train

9, horse

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 transport using two words? (example magic camel (include a brief explanation))

Chunks

These are some of the most frequently used three-word chunks in written English:

1, one of the
2, out of the
3, it was a
4, there was a
5, the end of
6, a lot of
7, there was no
8, as well as
9, end of the
10, to be a

Use some of them to construct a sentence about _____

example (the last time you had pizza)
2. my dad took the mozzarella out of the fridge.

7. there was no pineapple on mine because I hate it

example extras for a higher level: in spite of / on one hand / due to the / in addition to / having said that

Emotional

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

Emotions: anger, fear, happiness, satisfaction, worry

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

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

and explain your choices.

Antonyms

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

Choose one pair of words and explain why one word is better than the other. For example in number 4 is easy better than difficult or the other way round? Explain your reasons.

Quote from @purlandtraining: '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'

Inspiration - Purland Training

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

Life on Earth

Here are some animals / mammals / insects:

1, blue whale

2, tiger

3, bee

4, butterfly

5, elephant

6, bat

7, shark

8, bear

9, mosquito

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)

Double letters

The double letters are given. Use the clue in brackets to complete the word:

1. _ _ O O _     (what you do with a gun)
2. _ _ L L _ _    (a colour)

3. _ _ N N _ _   (not breakfast nor lunch)
4. _ _ E E _      (you do this when you're tired)
5. _ _ R R _ _   (opposite of wide)
6. _ P P _ _      (a fruit)
7. _ _ P P _      (not sad)
8. _ _ O O _     (you eat soup with it)

9. _ _ E E _ _   (when water turns to ice)

Name 4

Can you name 4...

1, verbs that are followed by ___ on
2, adjectives that end in ed
3, foods that are orange
4, household tasks
5, words that end in y
6, words that start with z
7, adjectives that collocate with problem
8, words that end in less
9, things you normally keep in the freezer

Also known as name 3, name 5, list 5, say 4, think of 3, list 4...

Water

Water some differences between these?

a lake
a waterfall
a river
the sea

Which one is the best?

Which one is the (___est / most ___)

Which one are you actually most like?

What are the weaknesses of _____?
What feelings do you associate with _____?
What actions do you associate with _____?

Questions for a Picture

1) Choose a photo (no image included in this post) and create some answers related to the photo. Here is an example:

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?

The More the Merrier

More from Herbert Puchta

Choose one question. In a couple of minutes how many answers can you think of?

1, What weighs more than it did half a year ago?
2, What looks different when it is cold than when it is hot?
3, What can you do at school, but not at home?
4, What can cats do that people can’t?
5, What can you use to protect yourself against the sun?

6, What’s your most creative excuse for not handing in your homework?

7, What would you never eat with salt?
8, What stays hot all winter?
9, What are things money can’t buy?

Right Words Wrong Place

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

Homophones

Homophones are pairs of words that sound the same, but have different meanings and different spellings.

example: for and four

Here is a list of homophones. Can you think of a word you can pair it with?

1, some
2, sale
3, meat
4, here
5, die
6, break
7, flour
8, right
9, weather

Now you have the pairs. Choose one number and make a sentence using both

example: I waited for four days for four people to hand in four assignments for goodness sake.

The Last Time

Complete the space with an idea
When was the last time you _____? 

Now complete some or all of these questions to interview another person about it:

Where...?
Who...?
Why...?
What...?
How...?
How much / many...?
Did...?
Was...?
Have...?