Talking About Pictures

I often show photos from the BBC news in pictures website (week in pictures is good) in class. A lot of news websites do them.

Choose one and answer some of the questions:

1, What do you see and think?
2, Speculate and wonder.
3, Give an opinion. Criticise it.
4, Ask 'What would happen if...?'
5, Why is ___ actually...? (example: Why is the man actually protesting?)
6, How could I do this? (be part of or do what is in the picture)
7, Find a similarity with the picture and your life.
8, What might have happened before the picture was taken?
9, What might happen next if the picture became a video?

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...

Situations

Imagine you are in a fast-food restaurant.

What language would you use for each of these situations in a fast-food restaurant? Write sentences.

1) Ask for information
2) Refuse to do something

3) Justify your opinion

4) Make a suggestion

5) Persuade somebody

6) Complain about something
7) Instruct somebody
8) Apologise to somebody
9) Fake / feign something

Example:

5) Go on, have some nuggets then we can share them.

Drawings by Aimar & Sofía

Keep 3

You can only keep 3

1, Instagram
2, Cake
3, Pizza
4, Dogs
5, Netflix
6, Books
7, Cats
8, Chocolate
9, Chips

Which three would you keep? and why?
What are some of your reasons for not choosing the others?

Drawing by Ariadna

Utensils

Knife, fork, spoon.

Which is the most useful?

Which is the most useful in childhood?

What are some advantages / disadvantages of each?

Which is the most dangerous?
If you make them bigger, what could they become? (e.g knife – sword)

The Wind

Inspiration: The Wind
Challenge: Starting with one word, write an extra word each line until you have 7 words. No rules. See what you come up with.

Some examples from my class:

It
was strong
very very strong
I lost something important
The wind DESTROYED our house
The wind was very very dangerous
You can't hit the wind. It's invisible


wind
it's annoying
very annoying
It is very annoying
It is cold and annoying
It is cold and very annoying
It is very cold and very annoying
wind

Variations

Using this sentence:

'My dad overcooks and burns the sausages at lunchtime every Saturday.'

Rewrite it using an idea from below

1) Next Saturday

2) Start the sentence with the word IF 
3) Use 'must' in the sentence
4) Make a prediction starting with 'I think'
5) Put the sentence into reported speech
6) Rewrite the sentence without using the letter A 
7) Write the opposite of the sentence (nouns and verbs only)
8) Start with 'In this picture...'
9) Rewrite in the passive

(Example: 3, it must be Saturday lunchtime as dad is overcooking and burning the sausages.)

Harder...

1) Start with the word Seldom
2) Rewrite so that each word Starts with the same letter
3) Use Some similes
4) Use Anadiplosis
5) Start with No sooner
6) Use Personification
7) Rewrite using the word Foregone in the sentence
8) Use Deduction
9) Rewrite without using the letter A

Drawing by Dario

Instructions for a Heatwave

A Choose Your Own Adventure Poem

Missing Letters

 A Word Game. Complete these words using the letters given

1  t_____e

2  __mm__

3  __oo__

4  s_____d

5  co_____d

6  __pp__

7  __ll__

8  b_____n

9  p____ng
10  ___ss

Three Letters

A word game. Start with a three letter word. The middle letter of that word is the first letter of the next word and so on.

example

run - use - say... Can you keep going for up to twenty words..?

To raise the difficulty use four / five / six letter words.

Pyramid

A Word Game. Start the pyramid with a two or three letter word. For example - no

The next word in the pyramid must use the last letter of the previous word and be one letter longer.

For example

no

one

each
heavy

When the word gets too long and difficult you could go back down to 2 again.
Some rules: No repetition of words or plurals allowed.

Zoology

Here are some animals / mammals / insects:

1,

blue whale

tiger

shark

2,

butterfly

elephant

bat

3,

bee

bear

mosquito

Choose a group of 3 and answer one of the questions:

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)

Minimal Pairs (vowel sounds)

A minimal pair is a pair of words which differ only in one sound.

They are a great way to improve pronunciation.

Here are some examples.

1, ankle / uncle

2, ship / sheep

3, space / spice

4, cap / cape

5, man / men

6, pitch / peach

7, golf / gulf

8, hat / heart

9, celery / salary

10, full / fool

Choose one number

1, Can you identify the vowel sounds?

2, Can you think of another word with that sound?

Celery: head, bread, guest

3, Can you explain how the two are different in each number? (or similar)

example: celery is a vegetable whereas a salary is the money you earn. Both are good for you. 

4, Can you make a sentence in the first conditional with each pair?

example: If I eat celery, will you increase my salary?

Holidays

Here are ten things people might take on a holiday:

1, a passport

2, pets

3, a suitcase

4, food

5, family

6, a phrase book

7, a hairbrush

8, sun cream

9, a bicycle

10, a sleeping bag

1, What reasons might someone take ___ on holiday?

2, What reasons might someone not take ___ on holiday?

3, What other reasons for and against are there for taking ___ on holiday?

Drawing by Lucía