Warmers for English lesson

1

. NAME AS MANY...

This ‘Name As Many ... as possible’ activity works very well as a warmer to start a lesson hand out the cards to the teams or individual students and have them compete (orally if used with
Intermediate or Upper Intermediate, or using a dictionary with used with lower levels).
Example cards: Name 5 body parts above the neck that have 3 letters, Name the continents
in alphabetical order, Name as many languages as you can, etc.

2

. SHOUT OUT

Ss shout out the words they know in English. Then they use them to make the longest sentense possible. Put them into groups and tell them to make a list of all the words they know in
English. Then get the groups to write the words up on the board. In theory, the board should be
covered by a mass of words. This should boost the students’ confidence and leave your board
pens dry.

3

. LEARNING NAMES

1. Draw on the board as many objects as the letters in your name. The first letter of the name
of each object must be a letter in your name. Draw the objects at random order.
2. Have your students tell you the names of each object and write them on the board.
3. Then, tell them that they have to put the first letter of the name of each object in the correct order so as to come up with your name.
4. Finally, ask your students to do the same so that the rest of the class can guess their names.

4

. SIMILARITIES

This activity requires no preparation. The students must ask each other questions until they
find three things that they have in common. They must be things that are not obvious. For example, they can’t say ‘we both have black hair’. It is easy to model the activity interviewing a student
until you find three things that they have in common with you.

5

. PAIR INTERVIEW

Ss interview their partners, then introduce their partners to the class. “This is my friend, Jim
Thomson, he lives in Dundee, etc...”. Simple enough, but the variations are really fun. Have the
students interview each other and explain to the class the following topics: Their day, Their favorite book and magazine and why, Their favorite food, a memorable vacation, etc...

6

. GOODBYE

Tell them to imagine that this is the last class period, and they should stand up and pretend
that they are saying farewell. If the students seem reluctant, help them with a few useful phrases
such as “I’m going to miss you!” or “Promise me you’ll stay in touch.” Then have them mingle
and say goodbye to at least three people.

7

. IMAGINE A PHOTO

To get students to share information about themselves, ask them to imagine that they have
brought 4 of their favorite photos from home which represent events, people or places that are
important to them for whatever reason. Students can then decide for themselves which information
they want to relay to the rest of the class. The audience then has an opportunity to practice their
questioning skills to find out more. You’ll find you learn a great deal about who your students are
and what is important to them - in a very short time!

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8

. TRUE OR FALSE

The students think of three sentences, two are facts and one is a lie. One by one, students
introduce themselves and say their three sentences. The rest of the class has to guess which one
is a lie. (Go first, not only to provide an example.)

9

. THE DIMINISHING SENTENCE

Have your students add one word at a time to some basic sentence you write on the board,
making the sentence as long as possible. Here’s an example:
The fat and ugly sisters who tried to stop beautiful young Cinderella from meeting the rich
and handsome Prince Charming who lived in the great golden palace were very unhappy
when she married him and they lived happily ever after.
Then you erase one word at a time (delete the words randomly, not in the order they come in the
sentence), and have students read out the full sentence to you. It will first seem easy to them, but
wait until there are only a couple words left on the board! This is great practice for both their memory and pronunciation. (next class you could start with the one word that remained at the end of the
previous class and try to reconstruct the whole paragraph. The students will have already worked
so hard on the paragraph that this should be relatively easy!)

10

. SPELLCHECK

(Focus on pronunciation & spelling.)
Eye halve a spelling checker That came with my pea sea. Plane as day it shoes four my
revue Miss steaks eye kin knot sea. Eye strike a key and type a word And weight four it two
say Weather eye am wrong oar write It shoes me strait a weigh. As soon a a mist ache is
maid It nose bee fore two long And eye can put the error rite Its rare lee ever wrong. Eye
have run this poem threw it. I am shore your pleased two no, Its letter perfect awl the weigh
I did a cheque, witch tolled me sew. (Focus on pronunciation & spelling.) Eye halve a spelling checker That came with my pea sea. Plane as day it shoes four my revue Miss steaks
eye kin knot sea. Eye strike a key and type a word And weight four it two say Weather eye
am wrong oar write It shoes me strait a weigh. As soon a a mist ache is maid It nose bee fore
two long And eye can put the error rite Its rare lee ever wrong. Eye have run this poem threw
it. I am shore your pleased two no, Its letter perfect awl the weigh I did a cheque, witch tolled
me sew.

11

. BRAINSTORMING WORDS

Put the topic of the unit/topic to the board (KITCHEN OBJECTS, UNCOUNTABLE
NOUNS, ADJECTIVES TO DESCRIBE A PERSON, IRREGULAR PAST TENSES, etc) and have
Ss brainstorm what they know about the topic.

12

. INDIRECT (REPORTED) SPEECH

“My name’s George and I like beer.” Students and teacher do this activity together. Student A announces her name and what she likes (or where she lives, what she does, where she’s
been...). Student B reports this to the rest of the class (She said she was X and that she liked X.)
and B then introduces himself. Student C reports student B’s information and so on.

13

. PEOPLE BINGO

First of all using the same outline as you would a normal bingo sheet, fill in each block with
questions. For example, find someone who has a brother or a sister, find someone who can
play the piano, find someone who is crazy about chocolate, someone who is a fan of Brad
Pitt, etc. You can base your questions on students levels. All students receive the bingo sheet and
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they must go around the class and fill in the entire sheet with different people’s names. It is a great
way for students to ask each other questions.

14

. VERBAL CHARADES

Write nouns on slips of paper. Put the slips of paper in a hat and each student takes one.
The student then reads the word on the slip of paper and has to tell the other students what it is
without saying the word or using hand motions. The other students have to guess what the word
is. For example if the word is horse the student might say “it’s an animal that you ride on”. You
might want to add the rule that they cannot make descriptive noises (barking like a dog for the word
dog kind of defeats the purpose!) A student can learn to talk around a word they don’t know instead
of always looking it up.

15

. TRIVIAL PURSUIT

End of term game. Teamwork – consultation. As well as general knowledge you can ask
commonsense - trick questions to allow calculated answers – gives everyone a chance. Which
country is North of Galicia? What’s Mr Blair’s wife’s name? What day is New Year’s Eve?
You sail West from Barcelona – where do you arrive? Open-ended questions: What time is it?
How many days has September?

16

. YES/NO TABOO

This activity works well for intermediate to advanced students. This activity encourages
students to elaborate beyond simple yes / no answers. It also encourages them to get someone
so engrossed in a conversation that they are caught off guard when they forget not to say the two
“taboo” words. Can be played in pairs or in teams.

17

. DESCRIBE A PLACE PAIRWORK

Imagine you’re describing your home to a blind person. You have to describe in (meticulous) detail everything about your house to your partner, s/he DRAWS IT. (Then it is the next person’s turn). (TIP: It is useful to allow the speaker to see the listeners’ pictures because it jolts him/
her into realising east has been confused with west, right with left, etc. The drawing element is a
nice personal touch.) Spin off: they can exchange pictures and write out their descriptions.)

18

. TREASURE HUNT

Around the school building. Write a sentence of about seven words with each word on
a separate piece of paper. Leave the pieces of paper pinned to the walls in different parts of the
school. On each piece of paper write instructions of where to find the next piece. Like this: Go
upstairs, turn right and look beside the fourth door on the left. The students follow the instructions, making a note of the seven words that they find. They then put the words into the correct
order. Feedback on what was discovered about the school.

19

. SHORT STORIES

Give one sentence from a short story to each student but not in the correct order. Each
student then reads out their sentence in turn. By listening and understanding, the students have
to put the sentences into the correct order and sit/stand beside the student who has the preceding sentence. When they have done this, they read out the complete story. Yesterday a man was
walking in the park when he saw a gorilla. He asked a policeman what he should do. The
policeman said: “You should take the gorilla to the zoo”. The next day the policeman was
in the park when he saw the man again. He was still with the gorilla. “I thought I told you to
take the gorilla to the zoo”, he said. “I did”, said the man. “He enjoyed it so much that today
we’re going to the cinema”.
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20

. BODY PARTS

You will need: tape, paper, scissors. Begin by introducing all the body parts: Forehead to
ankles, big toes to eyelashes, chin, cheeks, freckles, belly button, waist,... Next, get some of the
kids to write the parts fairly large on paper then cut them out separately. Split them into rows with
a mannequin for each row at the front of the class. The object is for each team member to run up
and stick it on their mannequin until all the parts have been stuck. The winner is the fastest team
but also the team that puts them in the correct places.

21

. HANGMAN VARIATION

Using a full sentence. Put the empty spaces of all words in the sentence on the blackboard. Divide the class into two or more teams, and explain that they have to first guess and later
on deduce the words that make up the sentence. In turns, they can say individual letters, and get
as many points as there are letters of that type in the whole sentence, or they can venture a guess
at one complete word. If they get it right, the total number of letters in the word (even previously
entered individual letters in that word) gives them the number of points they get for that turn. This
not only practises spelling, as hangman does, but also syntax, tenses etc., as students will start
speculating on what type of word can go in the empty spaces once they have some information to
work with.

22

. RHUBARB! (WHAT ACTORS SAY WHEN THEY HAVE NO LINES)

This can be helpful for reading, speaking and pronunciation as well as making your students feel less nervous about making mistakes. Divide the class in two. They all have the same
piece of text which should be something they are familiar with. One member of team 1 starts to
read. When team 2 thinks they have made a mistake or pronounced something the wrong way
they shout rhubarb! If they are correct team 2 scores a point and they take over reading, but if the
reader on team 1 was correct then their team scores the point and continues with the next person
in the group reading. They all get to read something and it turns into quite a fun competition.

23

. BARTER

Input: buying, selling and bargaining vocabulary. Scene: you are in the desert and have
these items – 1 slip for each person - 10 PERSIAN CARPETS, 5 LITRES OF WATER, 2 CAMELS, 8 TEAPOTS WITH PACKETS OF TEA, 20 LITRES OF OIL, 10 RIFLES WITH AMMUNITION, 4 DESERT TENTS, 12 PACKETS OF HASHISH, 2 DESERT GUIDES, 5 COPIES OF THE
KORAN, 6 LAND ROVERS, 3 WATER SUBSTITUTE TABLETS, 6 PACKETS OF DRIED FOOD
Aim: to be the richest person in the desert? (Teacher acts as a linguistic policeman: not speaking
in English – sit out for 1 minute.) (Teacher decides points allotted to the different items. At the end
students calculate their points to find the winner.) (Variation: play this game in another scenario:
jungle, mountains, desert island...)

24

. VOCAB SHOW: UP, UP, UP!

This is a vocabulary revision activity. The teacher chooses words to be revised. The class
is divided into groups of 4. Each group chooses a secretary. The teacher starts by giving definitions
to the words s/he wants to be revised. ie. This is something which is used for cutting wood.
The groups try to find the word and the secretaries write “axe”. When the teachers tells them
Up,up,up, secretaries have to raise their cards. Each correct word is 10 points, spelling mistake 5
points.

25

. PHRASAL VERB DICING
A dice and a dictionary (or list) of phrasal verbs with examples for each six students. Write

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six verbs (e.g. GO,COME,GET,TAKE,PUT,GIVE) and six advebial particles (e.g. OFF, AWAY, OUT,
UP, BACK, OVER) in two separate columns on the board and number the items in each column
from 1 to 6. If you use different verbs or particles, make sure that all 36 combinations give at least
one meaningful phrasal verb (the students may not necessarily have met every combination before.) Each team takes it in turns to throw the dice - twice. This will produce random phrasal verbs
(e.g. 2+1 in the above list gives COME+OFF).The team then has time to produce an unambiguous
explanation of the phrasal verb (e.g. the wheel of the car came off because the nuts were loose).
The other team may challenge it and provide a correct version. The teacher is the final arbiter of
any disputes. (TIP: new examples for the same combinations are allowed. – this has students listen VERY carefully.)

26

. 3-PART SENTENCES

This game is a great way to get your students involved in practicing their grammar both
out loud and on paper. You need three boxes (box tops, hats, or bins will work). The first should be
labelled Tense, the second labelled Pronouns and the last labelled Positive/Negative. In Tense
- have future, past, present on slips of paper. In Pronouns - I, you, he, she, they, we. In Positive/
Negative you will have one with positive and the other with negative. Each student comes up to
the front of the classroom and pulls out one slip of paper from each box. The teacher then calls out
an infinitive verb and the student must say a sentence for the class using that verb with the Tense,
Pronoun and Positive/Negative slips they pulled. (TIP: After each correct sentence is said aloud
by a student – you can have all students write it down on a piece of paper to turn in at the end of
class. This way, they are practising written and oral grammar.)

27

. DICTIONARY

Divide the class into 3 or 4 teams. Choose at random a page from a monolingual dictionary and tell the students the letter with which all the words begin. Start reading out the definition
(or definitions) of each word. Students shout out the word they think is being defined. Examples:
1. C, a public carriage of various sizes and shapes. Original: Horse-drawn, modern: taxi (CAB) 2.
P, a piece put on to mend a defect, a pad for the eye, an amendment for a faulty piece of software
(PATCH) 3. E, to gain by labour, to acquire, to deserve. (EARN)

28

. THE DEFINITIONS GAME

The teacher cuts up paper, preferably waste paper, into little squares, writes an English
word on the paper, folds it in half, and hands it to a student. The student must NOT say the word
on the paper! That is very important! The student must communicate the defintion to the class,
and the class tries to guess the word. The student can use body language to try to convey the
meaning, and obtain help from a friend sitting next to him/her if so desired. What are you doing?
First player turns to next and mimes an action, say brushing their teeth. The person next to them
asks “what are you doing” the first person says anything but brushing their teeth, say “I’m tying my
shoelaces” that person now starts miming tying their shoelaces and the person next to them asks
“what are you doing” they could say “I’m flying a kite” and then that person starts miming flying
a kite then next person in the circle asks “what are you doing” and so on... Whispering. (V) This
game is great for reviewing vocabulary. Place two sets of flashcards on the board. Draw a line on
the board to seperate team A from team B. Have each team form a row, straight from the board to
the back of the room. (At this point you should have two rows of students facing the board.) The
teacher should move to the back of the rows and whisper 3 or 4 of the flashcards into the back two
students ears,at the same time. The student at the back must whisper these cards to the student in
front of him/her IN THE ORDER HE/SHE HEARD THEM. That student must whisper the flashcards
to the student in front him, and so on, until the words have travelled all the way to the front of the
row. The student at the front must jump out of his or her seat and grab the mentioned flashcards
and stick them to the whiteboard in the order heard. After that round is over, the students at the
front of the class move to the seats at the back, and everyone else slides up a seat. This game is a
lot of fun, but it will make your class a little hyper!
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29

. WORD ASSOCIATIONS

This was a famous game show somewhere and it works with ESL students too: give 2
words, ie: “bread” and “baby”. They have to link the two words through a progression of word associations, so for example: bread-food-drink-milk-baby you can either determine the number of
words used to link, or have a contest to see which pair can do it in the fewest steps.

30

. JUST DO IT!

This is fun way of recycling vocabulary and much more! Make a list of words, phrasal
verbs, expressions, etc, that you have taught your students recently. Next to each word that you
can glue to a card write M for mime, S for speak, D for draw. Explain the game to the class.
Divide the class in two groups. One student from each group comes forward, you show the card
and he/she goes quickly back to his/her group to mime, draw or speak and thus try to give the correct information so that the others can guess the word. You keep the score. Warning: students can
become very competitive so don’t let the activity go on too long. This is suitable for all levels and
adaptable to grammar practice: prepositions (the group gets an extra point by giving the correct
one in the context), word order (producing a correct sentence with the word/expression).

31

. HANGMAN

Hangman is one of the most requested games. Place on the board the number of blanks
for one word (example “police officer”). Then, provide clues about the word such as appearance,
duties, associated accessories, etc... This requires the students to know not only the word but also
what it means. Works best with occupations, locations or animals.

32

. TO COFFEEPOT

Start explaining some verb to your students by giving examples of its use in sentences,
only replacing the actual word with ‘coffeepot’. Variation: have your students ask you questions
using ‘coffeepot’ instead of the actual verb. You can do the same with noun, replacing the words
with ‘thingby’. Something you do. DO YOU COFFEEPOT IN THE MORNING? Something. IS THE
THINGBY ROUND/SQUARE?

33

. WORDS FROM WORDS

How many words can you make from: INTERNATIONAL / CAMBRIDGE / WEATHER, etc.
Have Ss work in pairs or in groups for this one.

34

. EVERYDAY WORDS

Words from everyday things on board. Class guesses the object they’re written on.
CRUSH-PROOF PACK (cigarette packet) TWIST (ON/OFF) (jam jar) BACK SPACE (computer)
THANK YOU (receipt) PRESS (seat belt) SHIFT (computer) P.I.N. (cell phone) (= Personal Identity
Number) etc

35

. DICTATION RACE

Small groups – choose Runner, Secretary, Correctors – 4 copies of a Dictation Text –
around classroom. When you clap secretary and runners must change. Points for finishing first,
points for mistakes. Least points is winner. (Also works in the computer room)

36

. NOUGHTS AND CROSSES

Draw up scheme on board to form 9 partitions, team one is O, team 2 is X.
Nine categories: ANIMALS / NEGATIVE / SPORT / FOOD / DESCRIPTION / COUNTRIES /
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JOBS / WH-QUESTIONS / CLOTHES / IRREGULAR PAST TENSE, Play out noughts and crosses using categories: TIP 1 - write correct answers (to emphasise them) TIP 2 : no repetition allowed!)

37

. ACT IT OUT

Act it out. Hand out plots. Pupils write the script and act it out:
The Fire. Detective or journalist interviews witnesses (one of whom may be a suspect) about what
they saw/heard/did. (The Fire can be changed to a Bizarre Noise, Disappearance, Murder, Theft
etc). Lots of questions and past simple.
The Hold-up. Group of gangsters planning a hold-up. “Stop. Now it’s two days after the hold-up
and you’re all in prison. Now discuss what actually happened, whose fault etc.” Could be a Hi-jacking. Television Interview. Filmstar, politician, sportsperson etc.
The Amnesiac. Student A is in bed in hospital, having lost his memory. The other Students are
medical staff, police officers, visitors (family, friends etc) who try to bring memory back. They must
be careful. A shock could be fatal.
Teachers’ Meeting. Teachers discuss imaginary students to decide who should continue next year.
One teacher is the ‘chairman’ and has a list of students (“Now we’ll discuss Erika...”)
The Neighbour. A neighbour who needs to sleep or revise etc knocks on door and complains
about the noise from a party.
The Small Ad. For sale/To rent/Friendship. Student A has seen a classified ad in the paper. Student A decides for herself the subject of the ad. She then chooses any other student (Student B,
who has placed the ad) and calls her about it. “I’m calling about your ad for a live-in nanny...”
The Hypochondriac. Student A is a hypochondriac determined to have as many pills as possible.
He consults Student B who is a doctor strongly averse to giving out pills willy-nilly.
The Clairvoyant. Student A consults a clairvoyant. Asks questions about lover, money, health etc.
(Useful for practice of future.)
Directions. A young girl stops passers-by in the street and asks for help/directions in finding an
address.
The Tourist. Student A goes to another country (or planet) and calls home to tell Student B all
about it.
The Answering Machine. Student A calls B and gets answering machine (B’s voice). Leaves message.

38

. THE BALLOON DEBATE

Each group/person is someone famous and has to defend his/her right not to be thrown
out of the basket.

39

. CASINO

Hand out a list of sentences containing one (or two) incorrections to groups. Students
group and you allot 100 points to each group. They have to bet a number of points (maximum: 10)
that they can correct an error. This is added to, OR SUBTRACTED from, their score if their correction is right, or wrong. (The level of concentration even from students who usually don’t worry too
much about how correct their English is can be miraculous!)

40
41

. NOTE FOR WAITER
“I O U O 4 I 8 O.” = I OWE YOU NOTHING FOR I ATE NOTHING.
. PUZZLE STORIES

a. A man with a pack on his back went into a field and died. (PARACHUTIST)
b. A man walked into a bar in Texas. He asked for a glass of water. The barman pointed his gun at
him. The man said “Thank you,” and walked out. (HICCUPS)
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c. A couple have built a square house. In each wall there is one window. All the windows look
south. (ON NORTH POLE)

42

. STORY REVISION

Cut sentences of story into words HAND OUT IN CORRECT ORDER. EACH STUDENTS
READS THEIR WORD AND THE NEXT STUDENT REPEATS FROM THE BEGINNING. The process gets harder as students have to remember more and more of the sentences that have already
been read out.) Variation: use the same technique when teaching days of the week to lower levels.
S1 says ‘Monday’, S2 says ‘Monday, Tuesday’, S3 - ‘Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday’, etc. Works
great when you point at Ss at random, so they can never be sure they’re not next. :)

43

. REPETITIVE QUESTIONS

(Question forms + V) New answer each time: Who? Where? When? What are? What did?
What will?

44

. BACK TO THE BOARD

Write a word on a postIt note and stick it to the back of one of the students, have him/her
come to the board. CLASS GIVES CLUES IN ENGLISH and volunteer guesses.

45

. PAIRWORK CROSSWORD

Each has a crossword with half the answers in and half missing. Partner has missing answers and the other half missing. Give clues in English.

46
47

. ANAGRAMS
Vocabulary revision: anagrams of words used in the course book.
. ALPHABET GAME
Round class. Give a word beginning with last word mentioned. Apple - Egg - Gun - Nose -

etc etc

48

. TELEPHONE CHAIN

Quick phone calls about anything. Student A calls (well, pretends to call!) any student
(Student B) about anything. When the conversation is finished, Student B calls any student (Student C) about anything. Keep the chain going. Must be fast.

49

. VISUALIZATION

Writing warmer. Visualise a PLACE while you suggest its description. They use their picture to write a composition. (Useful to describe a person, too.) (- instrumental MUSIC is also effective.) (- useful in SPEAKING, too)

50

. MIME IT!

Mime what you had for breakfast / lunch / favourite food. Write the answers on the board.
You (the teacher) should always be the first to mime something, don’t be afraid to make a fool of
yourself (well, in a funny way!) - it helps Ss to enjoy the activity!

51

. THE FOOD MARKET

I went to the supermarket to buy a kilo of apples... Each person repeats and adds more
food. The chain goes round the class. Also works well with ABC revision (apples, ....bananas, ....
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cherries, ...etc). Practice a/an vs. some for countable/uncountable nouns.

52

. GUESS THE PICTURE

Hidden picture ( you can use one from any textbook - the only thing is that it must be
relevant to the topic to be discussed). Teacher shows Ss a small part of the picture - students in
groups discuss what it might be - you can put some of their ideas on the board if you wish. If you
don’t hear any nice ideas, you can try gradually revealing some other parts of the picture. Gives an
overview of any reading text with a picture.

53

. MAKE A STORY TAPE

Grab that tape recorder and a blank cassette, find a story you enjoy, and make your own
story tape! Each student can read for a while, or can take on the part of a particular character.
Make the appropriate noises too! You will probably have to practice a few times to get the hang of
it, and be prepared for lots and lots of giggles!

54

. TEACH US YOUR DANCE

Ask a student to demonstrate a dance, and assist the student in explaining the movements in English. Hint: for this to work well, you need to be ready to show an example - teach them
some of your own dance moves! :)

55

. CLASSROOM OBJECTS NAME RACE

Ask students to name as many objects in the classroom as they can while you write them
on the board. This can be made slightly more competitive by splitting Ss into teams and giving
them a 5-min time limit (in which case they’ll need to brainstorm those words and put them on a
piece of paper, not the board).

56

. UNIQUE GESTURE

Ask students to present to the class a gesture that is unique to their own culture. Provide
an example by demonstrating the famous ‘OK’ gesture with your thumb and index finger, or any
other.

57

. SECRET QUESTION

Ask students to write one question they would feel comfortable answering (without writing
their name) on an index card. Collect all of the index cards, put them in a bag, have students draw
cards, and then ask another student the question on that card.

58

. HUM THAT TUNE!

Ask your students if there are any songs running through their heads today. If anyone
says yes, encourage the student to sing or hum a little bit, and ask the others if they can identify it.

59

. BLACKBOARD MEMORY CHALLENGE

At the end of class, erase the board and challenge students to recall everything you wrote
on the board during the class period. Write the expressions on the board once again as your students call them out.

60

. PERSONALITY STRUGGLE

Begin by telling your students about an internal struggle between two sides of your personality (bold side vs. timid side OR hardworking side vs. lazy side), providing a brief example of
what each side says to you. After a few minutes of preparation in pairs, have students present their
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struggles to the class.

61

. CELL PHONE GUESSING GAME

Bring a cellular phone (real or toy) to class, and pretend to receive calls throughout the
class. As the students can only hear one side of the conversation, they must guess who is calling
you and why. Make the initial conversation very brief, and gradually add clues with each conversation. The student who guesses correctly wins a prize.

62

. GUESS THE DISH

Bring a fork, knife, spoon, bowl, plate and chopsticks (if you have them) to class, and
mime eating some different dishes, letting students guess what they are. Then let your students
take a turn!

63

. COMBINE IT!

Choose one topic (food, sports) and elicit a list of examples (food - chicken, pudding,
rice). Then have your student come up with the most unusual combinations of items from that list
(chocolate-beef or wrestling-golf).

64

. CELEBRITY INTERVIEWS

Collaborate with your students on a list of famous people, including movie stars, politicians, athletes, and artists. Have every student choose a famous person, and put them in pairs to
interview each other. Make it competitive by having a vote for the best-performed interview afterwards. Or use an MP3 player to record their interviews and then play them for everyone to enjoy!

65

. LEARN A PHRASE

Copy pages from various ESL textbooks (at an appropriate level for your students), put
them on the walls, and have students wander around the classroom and learn a new phrase. Then
have them teach each other what they learned.

66

. WRITE YOUR OWN CAPTION

Copy some interesting pictures of people from magazine ads. Give a picture to each student, have the student fold up the bottom of the picture about half an inch, and write something the
person might be thinking or saying. Put all the pictures up on the board, and let everyone come up
and take a look.

67

. MAP IT

Draw a map of your country or another country that your students know well. By drawing
lines, show students where you went on a trip, and tell them about it. Then call on several students
to do the same. The trips can be truthful or fictional.

68

. DESERT ISLAND: DRAW YOUR ITEM

Draw a pancake-shape on the board, and announce that the school will soon be moving
to a desert island. Invite students one by one to go to the board and draw one thing they would like
to have on the island.

69

. YOUR OWN COMICS

Copy a page from a comic book, white out the dialogue, make copies for your class, and
have them supply utterances for the characters. To complicate it for your students, you can ask
them to ‘have’ the characters discuss some specific topic (you suggest it to the Ss).
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70

. GUESS WHO WROTE IT

First, instruct your students to write on a slip of paper the name of one book, CD, or movie
that changed them in some way. Collect the papers, call out the titles, and ask the class if they can
guess who wrote it. Finally, let the writer identify him or herself, explaining his or her choice.

71

. POP SONG LYRICS DIALOGUES

Give each student a piece of chalk/pen and tell them to fill the board with pop song lyrics.
Then put them in pairs, and get them to use the words on the board to create a new dialogue.

72

. SAY A COMPLIMENT

Hand a student a ball of yellow yarn. Have him toss it to another student, while saying
something positive about that student and holding onto the end of the yarn. Continue in this manner until there is a web between all the students.

73

. POSTER DILEMMA

Hang up four different posters (example - one of a world map, one of a famous singer,
one of a flower, and one of Einstein) in the four corners of your room. Tell students to choose one
corner to stand in, and talk about why they chose that particular poster.

74

. TOILET PAPER ICE-BREAKER

All you need is toilet paper. Firstly you tear off some squares of toilet paper by yourself.
Then you offer to do the same to your students WITHOUT ANY EXPLANATIONS! When everybody
has toilet paper you explain the rules. Every person must say as many sentences about himself/
herself as many squares of toilet paper he/she has. You should introduce yourself firstly in order to
show the example.

75

. BOARD RELAY

Split the class into two groups. Write up four columns with A, B, C, D on either side of the
board. Call out a topic like Country, Food, Animal, etc. Get them to run to the board and write up a
category in each column that starts with the corresponding letter i.e. A, B, C, or D. I do it like a relay only allowing one at the board from the team and making them run back to pass it to someone
else. Great for teenage learners as they love being active.

76

. HOW WAS YOUR WEEKEND?

‘How Was Your Weekend?’ Boring when it’s asked every Monday, but give SS the identity
of a famous person on a slip of paper (or let them think of their own). In pairs SS ask questions and
try to guess the other’s identity based on what they did over the weekend. Alternatively, brainstorm
what they think the King of Spain did, or Madonna, Harrison Ford, Mickey Mouse, Brad Pitt etc.

77

. HALF DICTATION

T dictates half a sentence, SS complete by themselves and read out at the end.
Some example:
As soon as she walked into the room...
I’m having a lot of trouble deciding...
One Saturday morning in late summer...
If you want to lose all of your friends...
All through history, people have...
Nobody knows who really...
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If you climb to the top of a high mountain...
I believe that everybody should...
They all started laughing because...
SS check spelling with each other, then with T. You could also stick the sentence halves on SS
backs, get them to mingle and copy them down. That should wake them up!

78

. THE FIRST

1. Ask a student ‘What was the first thing you did this morning?’
2. When he/she has answered, you can go on asking the same question, or even better, make little
variations like ‘What was the first thing you saw this morning?’ or ‘Who was the first person you
met this week?’
3. After a few answers you can prompt students to take over asking the questions. This is one of
the warmers that can be used often, because it’s so variable.

79

. THE LONGEST TAIL IS THE WINNER!

Divide the group in small teams, give a piece of paper to each team, the warmer is called
“The longest tail is the winner”. So, ask your students to cut the paper (without using scissors/
just with their hands) to get “the longest tail”. Tell them that they have just three minutes to get
the longest tail. So that they start and after ten seconds, play a song (retro music is better to give
pressure). While they are working, remind them the phrase “The longest tail is the winner”. When
time is over, verify who has the longest tail and say: Here we have the longest tail. Then, you take
another tail and join it with another one from other team. Here you will say: Do you remember the
instruction? The instruction was: THE LONGEST TAIL IS THE WINNER, And explain that they
could get a longer tail if they’d worked together... Finally, tell them that the same happens if we
work helping each other to learn English... They’ll get a lot of fun and you`ll teach them to work in
teams.

80

. CONTROLLED NARRATIVE WRITING

Students at lower levels get bogged down with narratives: they either try to be too imaginative and the grammar goes haywire, or they get all the tenses right but have added no description. Although very controlled (and teacher centred) at first this task offers students a way to produce simple, but accurate and descriptive narratives on their own.
Procedure:
Have prepared a short story in the past tense (below is a suggestion). Tell the students that you
will read them a story but you will pause after a noun for them to shout out suitable adjectives. As
the story goes on they will get the idea. Listen to all the suggestions and write down the one(s) you
think is most suitable (without telling the students) and carry on.
For example: (T) There once was a woman. (SS) old /mad/ugly/fat/stupid/lonely (T) who lived
with her dog. (SS) fat/black/useless/lazy/funny Then read it out loud again, including your chosen
adjectives. This time pause after a verb and elicit adverbs. For example: (T) There once was a
lonely, old woman who lived (SS) alone/happily/ (T) with her useless dog. One summer’s day she
walked... (SS) slowly/quickly/ (T) to the... Read it a third time with the added adjectives and the
adverbs, this time eliciting any other interesting information, including past continuous tenses (E.g.
The puppy was sleeping). Pause at a suitable point in the story. You may want to prompt the students with why? or how? If they say she walked with her stick, that’s great! Finally read the whole
story out, completed. Tell students that in pairs they are going to follow the same procedure and
develop a story step by step. Hand out the story on the first worksheet and guide them through the
stages, encouraging the students to use their imaginations but making sure the added words and
phrases are appropriate. Pin up the finished versions and invite students to read them all and to
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decide whose is best. Why is that? For homework they do all the stages themselves, but using the
second worksheet to make sure they don’t leap to the last stage.
A possible story:
There once was a woman who lived with her dog. One day she walked to the village and bought
some fruit and vegetables. When she came back to her home she found that her dog was gone.
But inside the house she saw a puppy.
Alternatively
• put the original story on an OHT so students can see how you add the extra information
• also introduce linking words, or for higher levels, relative clauses or past perfect
• elicit the first simple story so students feel more involved but make sure it’s simple enough
• for a follow up lesson encourage a more interesting story line, perhaps by giving a suggested
name: The Secret Door, Lost in Space, Never Again, etc.

81

. TOILET PAPER INFORMATION (ALTERNATIVE)

Time: depending on class size and amount of paper taken
Level: All (except complete beginners)
Focus: Sharing personal information.
Materials: One roll of toilet paper
Procedure:
• Meet students as they enter the classroom and ask them to take as many sheets of toilet paper
from the roll as the think they’ll need (do NOT explain what it ‘s for).
• Then when students are sitting down you take as many sheets as you wish (a minimum of three
is needed to demonstrate what students have to do). Tear off one sheet and give one piece of information about yourself e.g. name, age, etc. and throw it away.
• Do this with each sheet.
• Ask the students if they have any questions to ask you.
• Once you have answered all the questions get them to tell the class one thing about themselves
per sheet.
• Tell the other students to listen to each student and think of at least one question they’d like to
ask the student.
• When you have finished ask the class to sit in pairs and try to remember all the details they can
about the people in the class.
• As feedback get the pairs to tell the class everything they can remember about the couple to their
left. The initial surprise of the students as they come into their first class to find their teacher offering them toilet paper makes for a fun and expectant atmosphere. The students are immediately
interested in what’s going to happen and you have a captivated audience.

82

. CREATE A SENTENCE

Prepare colored letters of the alphabet on cardboard squares and put them in a bag. Students must draw a letter from the bag, and work together to create a sentence on the board. Each
student must raise his or her hand to make a contribution, but the word the student calls out must
begin with the letter he or she chose. Put the expanding sentence on the board, adding words only
when they the grammar is correct.

83

. DIFFERENT CONTEXTS

Print phrases such as “in the library”, “at an elegant dinner with the Royal Family”, “in a
noisy bar”, “in a dangerous neigborhood” etc on separate strips of paper, put them in envelopes,
and tape them to the underside of a few students’ desks/tables before they arrive. Write on the
board a useful expression like “Excuse me. Could I borrow a dollar?” When students arrive, tell
them to look for an envelope under the desks/tables. The ones who find envelopes must say the
sentence on the board as if in the context written on the page. Other students must guess the context from the student’s tone of voice and body language.
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84

. ADVERBS INTO A STORY

Produce a list of commonly used sentence-modifying adverbs on the board, such as suddenly, actually, unfortunately, and happily. Then launch into a story, which each student must contribute to, with the rule that everyone must begin the first sentence of his or her contribution with a
sentence-modifying adverb.

85

. LISTEN AND ANSWER

Provide each student with a list of the current top ten popular songs. Play excerpts from
some or all of the songs, and choose some questions to ask your students, such as: Did you like
the song? Have you heard this song before? How did the song make you feel? What instruments
did you hear?

86

. POSTCARD TO MISTER X

Purchase a postcard for each member of your class, writing his or her name in the name
and address space. Turn the postcards picture side up on a table, have each student choose one
(without looking at the name), then he or she will write a message to the person whose name is on
the other side. If a student chooses the postcard that has his or her own name on it, the student
must choose again.

87

. DESCRIBE THAT SMELL

Prepare several paper bags, each with a different scent inside (perfume, cinnamon,
cheese), pass the bags around the class, and let students describe what they smell.

88

. PLAN THE TEACHER’S VACATION

Put the students in small groups, and ask each group to plan a vacation for you. They
must plan where you will go, what you will do, who you will go with, and what you will buy. When
they are finished, have each group present their plans.

89

. MAKE AN ERROR

Put students in pairs. Tell them to converse, but to deliberately make one grammatical error over and over, stopping only when one student can spot the other’s intentional error.

90

. WHO CAN SAY IT...?

Review a phrase or sentence that you want students to remember, by holding a competition to see “Who can say it the loudest/the quietest/the quickest/the slowest/in the deepest voice/in
the highest pitched voice?”.

91

. SAY IT TO ...

Write down the names of about five very different people on the board (a small baby, a
rude waiter in a restaurant, a fashion model, a stranger in a crowd, and a grandfather). Give students a common expression, such as “Good morning!” or “Sorry!”, and ask students how they
might say it differently when talking to a different person.

92

. ADJECTIVES FOR YOUR NAME

Write your name on the board vertically, and add a suitable adjective that begins with
each letter of your name. The next step is to invite students to do the same.

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93

. COLOR ASSOCIATIONS

Write a number of adjectives, such as mysterious, happy, peaceful, sad, angry, and frustrated on the board. Call out a color, and ask your students to tell you which adjective they associate with that color. You can also turn it into a TPR activity by assigning each of the 4 corners of the
room to one reaction, and have Ss run to the corner with the adjective they agree to.

94

. ADJACENCY PAIRS

Write a common adjacency pair (Thank you./You’re welcome OR I’m sorry./That’s alright)
on the board. Ask students if they know of any expressions that could replace one of the ones you
just wrote. Write any acceptable answers on the board.

95

. TELL ME SOMETHING I DON’T KNOW

Write “Tell me something I don’t know.” on the board, then ask students questions about
things they know about and you don’t, such as their lives, cultural background, interests, and work.

96

. WHISPER IT

Write a word on a slip of paper and show it to a student. This student must whisper it to
the second student. Then the second student must draw a picture of what he or she heard, and
show it to the third student. The third student, then, writes the word that represents the picture and
shows it to the fourth student. Then the fourth student whispers it to the fifth student.... and so on.
This continues until you get to the last student, who must say the word to the class.

97
98

. POCKETS
Each student looks into his/her pockets and describes what they have in them and why.
. IDIOM GUESSES

Write an idiomatic expression (such as “It beats me.” or “I’m fed up.”) in big letters on the
board. Call on a few students to guess what it means before you tell them.

99

. MEMORIZE IT

Pairs. SS look very carefully at the room and the people in it for 1 minute. 1 S closes his/
her eyes. Other S asks questions.

100

. THE ROOM IS THE WORLD

Tell the SS that the wall with the whiteboard on it is North. Ask them what the opposite wall is. “South?”, fantastic, and this wall? “East”, and this? “West”. Good. So if this classroom
is the world, where is Spain? And France? What about Canada? Tell SS to stand up and go and
stand in a country they’ve always wanted to visit. Without moving they ask each other where they
are, and why they’ve always wanted to go there. They’ll have to shout across the world at distant
SS.

101

. CHAIN OF WORDS

T reads out a list of words, and SS can join in by supplying a word once they’ve spotted (or think they have) the connection. Do you know? Carpet, train, never, rubbish, heavy, yellow,
weather, reason, nuisance, end, drip, pencil, letter, respect, trip, painting, gallop, print, talking, go,
operation, love, England, dark, kitten, nurse, engineer... (They all begin with the last letter of the
previous word)

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102

. FIND THE PATTERN

The teacher’s chair is the ‘Hot Seat’. Send a S outside the class to think up questions
for his/her classmates. Give the rest of the class a pattern. They must use this pattern to answer
questions when the S outside comes back in and starts asking things while sitting in the chair. For
example: Answer only using three words. Say ‘yes’ first, then say whatever you like. Say what you
like, but you must touch your nose when you answer. Only answer using adjectives. Repeat the
question, then answer it any way you like. Touch your ear. Begin with ‘Erm..’ Cross your legs, etc.
Can the S guess the pattern? Now the T leaves the class, and the SS think up a pattern for him/her
to guess.

103

. DON’T SAY YES OR NO

Put a S in the hot seat. The rest of the class (including the T) fire questions at the S
to try and get him/her to say yes or no. A demonstration by the T may help for a lower level class
(‘I don’t think so’, ‘that’s true’, ‘that’s not quite right’, ‘ ‘ah huh’, ‘sometimes’, ‘I do’ etc.)

104

. THREE WISHES

SS write down three wishes. SS get up and mingle until they find someone with a
matching (or similar) wish. Then they sit down in pairs and talk about it .
Variations:
- Two bad experiences.
- The last seven things you did before leaving your flat this morning.
- Places you’d visit if you won three plane tickets.

105

. BODY SPELLING

Groups of three, four or five. SS think of a word then pretend they are the letters of
the word. SS stand up in front of the class and mime the word. The rest of the class has to guess
which word is being spelled. Caution! Know your students.

106

. HIDDEN TOPIC

Write a list of different subjects on small cards or slips of paper (e.g. Tennis, computers, shopping for food, traffic, beer, suits and ties, cycling, babies). Show a subject card to one S
and start an informal chat with the S without naming the subject on the card (circumlocution). Other
SS write down the subject on paper (without the other SS seeing) when they think they know what
it is. If they’re correct, they can join in the chat.

107

. CLASS REACTION

A S is in the ‘Hot Seat’ and talking about his/her favourite subject, hobby, last weekend or what they did during the holiday. S has his/her back to the board and must not turn around.
T writes a word on the board and the rest of the class reacts to it, eg. Happy, sad, bored, interested, energetic, emotional, Italian, Japanese, English etc. The speaker, of course, has to guess the
word from the class reaction to it.

108

. SPELLING DICTATIONS

Dictate whole sentences letter by letter. SS divide up into words and punctuate.
(Good for revising/introducing phrases and course book texts).

109

. RUNNING DICTATIONS

SS in pairs. One sitting with pen and paper, while the other runs to the opposite wall,
reads a few words, and runs back to dictate (and spell) to his/her partner. Which pair can finish first
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with least mistakes? (T can obstruct and hold fast SS to prolong the activity!)

110

. CROSS PURPOSE

SS in pairs. Hand out topic cards, one to each S (‘fruit’, ‘getting up in the morning’, ‘discos’, ‘the beach’, ‘petrol’). SS start speaking and have to guide the conversation back to
their topic. After a couple of minutes stop the activity to see if they’ve guessed each other’s topic.
Change topic cards.

111

. GETTING YOUR LINE IN

Give SS slips of paper with conversation gambits written on them. Here is an example
list, but we’re really looking for conversational expressions which wouldn’t normally be found in
course books: ­
Absolutely, I couldn’t agree with you more.
You must be joking!
How can you say that?
To be honest, I can’t see that myself.
I really think you’re missing the point completely.
But then again, there’s another side to it.
Of course, another way of looking at it is...
It seems to me you’re rather biased in your opinions.
Bollocks!
That might be true elsewhere, but not in this country.
I really don’t think you understand the complexities of the situation.
So what you’re saying is...
I’d never have thought that you know.
I think that’s a fair point.
Can I come in here for a second?
It’s funny you should say that...
..etc.
SS speak on a given subject for a few minutes, e.g. fashion, German cars, George W. Bush, The
Middle East conflict, seafood, ‘House’ music, smoking etc., and try to slip their line in without the
other S noticing. Ask at the end what their partner’s line was. The lines can and should be carefully
selected for level and register, but not pre-taught. At least not in the same lesson.

112

. FIVE THINGS BEGINNING WITH ‘F’

Each S writes five things beginning with ‘F’. SS are put in pairs to define their words
as quickly as possible. First pair to finish wins. Give them another letter.

113

. SPELLING RACE

Two teams. One S from each team stands at the board with a board pen. T holds up
a piece of paper with a word on, so that the two SS at the board can’t see it. The teams shout the
spelling to their team mate at the board. The first S to correctly spell the word scores a point. Rotate SS.

114

. HOW ARE YOU FEELING?

SS are given a long, thin strip of paper, and write a sentence (12 to 16 words?) describing how they feel at the moment. Give out scissors so that they cut up the strips into individual
words. SS shuffle the words and leave them in a pile on their chair. They change places and rearrange someone else’s sentence. Early finishers can change again or write the sentence in L1 to
sensitise to word order.
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11 5

. FAVOURITES

Divide the board into four. In one section draw a picture of your favourite food (or just
write it!), in another your favourite country, in the third your favourite book, and the last your favourite person (famous or otherwise). Elicit questions from SS as to why you’ve drawn these on the
board. When you arrive at ‘favourites’, maybe SS have some questions for you. SS choose their
own favourites and discuss in pairs.

11 6

. WHAT IS MY LINE?

Give SS a profession on a slip of paper (or get them to think of one). Either in the
Hot Seat (open class), or in pairs, SS try to guess the profession without asking more than twenty
questions. SS must ask yes/no questions e.g:­Do you wear a uniform? Do you work at night? Do
you use a gun? Do you wear a hat? Are you a soldier? Etc. SS only answer correctly formed questions. A small bell may help here for re-phrasing and soul-searching.

11 7

. CLASS STORY

T starts by feeding in one line, e.g. ‘Mary was walking home late last night...’ SS continue to add to the story one by one around the class.

11 8

. COMPLETE THE DIALOGUE

SS complete a dialogue in pairs using their imagination. Then they act it out in front of
the class. Which dialogue was the best? (vote)
E.g. 1)
Ann: ...
Ben: My God!
Ann: ...
Ben:...
Ann: A big red one.
E.g. 2)
George:...
Sharon:...
George: In the car park, I think.
Sharon:...
George:...
Sharon: Thirty-seven pounds fifty!

11 9

. THE BECAUSE GAME

Use this fun warmer to review ‘because’ and to practice listening skills. Begin by
telling the class something you did yesterday. eg: I went to the market. Choose a student and
have them repeat what you said, add because, and give an explanation. eg: I went to the market
because I needed cilantro. Then have that student choose a classmate, and have her repeat the
process. eg: I needed cilantro because I was making tacos. (S chooses a classmate to create a
sentence using because) I was making tacos because it was my turn to cook. And so on until SS
are warmed up!

120

. DAD’S VISIT

Tell the SS that your Dad’s come to the school, and he’s going to answer questions
for ten minutes. Get them to write down any questions they’d like too ask him about you. T checks
question forms then tells the SS that he’s/she’s going outside to send Dad in. T then comes back
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in as his/her Dad (a disguise would help - old jacket, pipe, hat etc.). SS ask questions about T.
(They’ll probably laugh at first, but it’s surprising how quickly they’ll imagine it’s your Dad they’re
talking to.

121

. GUESSING FROM CONTEXT

SS guess a nonsense word by using the context of the sentence.
Examples: Can you turn the zong on, it’s cold in here? This food can’t be re-zonged? My wibble’s
not working, so I had to take the bus.

122

. THE TEACHER CANNOT READ

T reads aloud and makes mistakes. SS correct. After a while you can modify the activity slightly by inviting a student to read out some sentences with mistakes, so that the class can
correct.

123

. GESTURES ONLY

Tell your students to practice a conversation from their coursebook that they are familiar with, but this time they can only use gestures, no words.

124

. NEWS REPORT

Tell each student to report the latest news in their country or city to the class. Leave it
for them to choose the news item.

125

. CHANGE SOMETHING!

When they are practicing a dialogue, have students play around with the volume,
intonation, pitch, or speed of their voices.

126

. WORDS YOU HAVE LEARNED

Just a few minutes before the bell rings, call on your students to choose the ten most
useful words they came in contact