Monday, May 29

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)

Friday, May 26

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 

Thursday, May 25

Monday, May 22

Inference

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

A)

1, The boat drifted on the lake.
2, John ran into the street without looking.
3, Everyone stopped when the referee blew the whistle.
4, She blew out the candles.
5, Emily sat in her bedroom and began to cry.
6, The man has dirty knees.
7, Edward had a much bigger breakfast than usual.
8, Natasha is eating at her favourite restaurant.
9, The bookshop doors were open at midnight.

B)

1, They were told to get off of the bus.
2, It was not safe to play on the street.
3, I had to measure the length of my couch.
4, We have our meal after they have had theirs.
5, When he got home, he went straight to bed.
6, He didn’t go to many football matches after that.
7, I must go to the post office every week.
8, He isn’t very happy - in fact he is miserable.
9, She's sitting in an armchair in the Queen's lounge.

Sunday, May 21

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

Friday, May 19

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

Thursday, May 18

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

Wednesday, May 17

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?

Tuesday, May 16

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



Monday, May 8

Wednesday, May 3

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)

And an 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

Tuesday, May 2

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.

Monday, May 1

Hey!

What's stopping you?