Innovation

Shimpei Takahashi shares a simple word game anyone can play to generate new ideas. (Ted Talk in Japanese with English subtitles.)

Drawing by Amalia

Almond Appreciation

A classic test of creativity. Complete the drawings below with your own ideas. Higher praise is awarded for detail, humour or fantasy. To present the drawing: I have drawn... In this picture... This picture shows... 

Unconditional Love

First make a list of five to ten objects or places and then complete the sentence below with your own ideas. Look at the examples from my classes to see how it's done.

1, If I were ___ you'd be ___

If I were a book you'd be the words
If I were a dance you'd be my moves
If I were a beach you'd be the sea
If I were a mountain you'd be my gravity

If I were a song you'd be the lyrics
If I were the trees you'd be the forest
If I were a chicken you'd be the potatoes
If I were a cliff you'd be my
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Drawing by Guillermo

Love

What I love about ___ 

Generate a list of objects, people and actions you love then complete the sentence above with your own ideas. Here are some examples from my class to help. 

Lower Level Love

What I love about my grandma
is her cooking

What I love about my computer
is it’s really fast

What I love about summer
is not going to school

What I love about cats
is they are so cute and furry

Advanced Love

What I love about my mobile phone
is its staggeringly-biblical capability

What I love about Tik Tok
is peoples absolutely amazing creativity

What I love about thin-crust pizza
is its emotional support

What I love about fries is they go well with everything
and are extremely versatile

Drawing by Lucía G

The New Rose - by Spike Milligan

 The new rose

trembles with early beauty The babe sees the beckoning carmine the tiny hand clutches the cruel stem The babe screams The rose is silent Life is already telling lies.

Drawing by Blanca

Advice Bureau

What advice would a ____ (animal, object, place) give to its offspring?
Think of 3 or 4 things.

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?