Acronyms
Give students some random series of letters and have them think of what these letters could stand for. For example:
GFHMA - The Goat Farmers' Hat Makers' Association. If you like, you could choose genuine acronyms and let students know the real answer at the end.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Because Chain
Write a sentence on the board, which uses the word 'because.' For example:
I couldn't go to work because I was sleepy.
Then, have a student use the second part of the sentence in his/her own sentence. For example:
I was sleepy because I went to bed too late.
The next student then does the same. For example:
I went to bed too late because I was watching a soccer game.
Continue as time and interest allow. You can use this for other structures, and it works particularly well for conditionals.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Board concentration
To prepare, draw two 3x3 grids on a piece of paper and choose nine key vocabulary words to write in the squares in each grid. The positions of the words should be different in grids 1 and 2, but you must use the same nine words for each grid. At the start of your class, draw two 3x3 grids on the board. Label the squares in the first grid 1-9, and in the second, A-I. Students can play this game in teams or individually, depending on class size. Have the first student say a number and tell the class the corresponding word from your first grid. Then, have this student say a letter and tell them the corresponding word from your second grid. If the words match, and the student can spell the word correctly, a point is awarded. If not, it is the next student's turn. It is a more challenging version of the well-known game of concentration. To make it even more challenging, you can have concepts in the first grid, and examples in the second. Alternatively, the students could have to match opposites or synonyms.
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Brainstorm superlatives
Have the class brainstorm around a topic on the board until you have up to ten words. In pairs or as a whole class activity, have students think of a superlative statement for each word on the board. The following example applies to means of transport, but any number of topics will work just as well.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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British and American English match
Give students a mixed-up list of paired British and American English words, as in the example below.
Apartment
Band-aid
Burner
Elevator
Flat
Garbage
Hob
Lift
Pants
Plaster
Rubbish
Streetcar
Tram
Trousers
Next, have them decide which words are British and which are American English, and then match the words by meaning. The result would look like this:
AMERICAN |
BRITISH |
|
Pants
|
Trousers
|
|
Burner
|
Hob
|
|
Streetcar
|
Tram
|
|
Garbage
|
Rubbish
|
|
Apartment
|
Flat
|
|
Band-aid
|
Plaster
|
|
Elevator
|
Lift
|
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Can you guess what it is yet?
Draw the beginning of a picture on the board, and have students guess what you are trying to depict. Keep adding to the picture until students guess correctly. The student who guesses first can be the first to have a go at drawing. Repeat until everyone has had a turn.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Categories 1
Have students work in pairs. Ask them to think of as many things as they can that match the description you give them. Below are some examples:
How many things can you think of that:
- ..are red/white/blue?
- ..use batteries?
- ..are long and thin?
- ..cost less than one dollar?
- ..cost over one million dollars?
- ..are made of metal?
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Categories 2
Write up to four categories on the board (for example, 'foods,' 'hobbies,' 'household objects,' and 'animals.') Arrange the students into pairs or small teams and pick a letter from the alphabet. The teams have to think of one word for each category that begins with this letter.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Celebrity interview
Ask students to tell the class which celebrity they would most like to interview. Then, have them write five questions they would ask this person. Once they have finished, put them into pairs and have them role-play, one student playing the celebrity chosen by their partner, and the other asking the interview questions they had written. The person playing the celebrity may need to use their imagination. Ensure that they change roles once they have finished with the first interview.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Challenge cards
Have each student pick a challenge card. They must perform the challenge individually. We have provided a page with ten cards that can be cut out. If you have no time to do this, simply number the cards and have students choose between one and ten, then read the corresponding challenge.
Download a worksheet here.
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Charades race
Think of around ten key words or phrases to review. Make some sets of ten small cards. Write one key word on one side of each card, so that each card set contains the ten words. Next, divide the board into sections - one for each team - and give each team a shuffled set of cards, placing them face down. If necessary, teach some set charades mimes, like 'sounds like.' Have a student from each team come forward, turn over their first card, and mime the word or phrase. Once a student from their team guesses correctly, they switch places and move onto the next card. The team that makes it through all the cards first wins the game.
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Classroom maze
Arrange the tables and chairs in your classroom to make a simple maze, and blindfold a 'volunteer' student. Have the class shout directions to help this student find his or her way to the finish point. Repeat for every student if you have a small class, or choose randomly if your group is too large. You can also play in teams if you'd prefer.
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Code-breaking
Use a simple substitution code (A=1, B=2, C=3, etc.) to write students a simple message, and give them a time limit to decode it. There are three easy codes in the table. The messages below say 'English is fun' according to each code. Choose a code and play!
CODE 1: 5-14-7-12-9-19-8_9-19_6-21-14.
CODE 2: 22-13-20-15-18-8-19_18-8_21-6-13.
CODE 3: Vmtorhs_rh_ufm
LETTER | CODE 1 | CODE 2 | CODE 3 |
| A | 1 | 26 | Z |
| B | 2 | 25 | Y |
| C | 3 | 24 | X |
| D | 4 | 23 | W |
| E | 5 | 22 | V |
| F | 6 | 21 | U |
| G | 7 | 20 | T |
| H | 8 | 19 | S |
| I | 9 | 18 | R |
| J | 10 | 17 | Q |
| K | 11 | 16 | P |
| L | 12 | 15 | O |
| M | 13 | 14 | N |
| N | 14 | 13 | M |
| O | 15 | 12 | L |
| P | 16 | 11 | K |
| Q | 17 | 10 | J |
| R | 18 | 9 | I |
| S | 19 | 8 | H |
| T | 20 | 7 | G |
| U | 21 | 6 | F |
| V | 22 | 5 | E |
| W | 23 | 4 | D |
| X | 24 | 3 | C |
| Y | 25 | 2 | B |
| Z | 26 | 1 | A |
Download a worksheet here.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Colorless green leaves
Write the following sentence (famously written by Noam Chomsky) on the board:
'Colorless green leaves sleep furiously.'
Ask students if the sentence is grammatically correct and, if you want, break the sentence down into its constituent parts. Next, ask them if the sentence is meaningful - which, of course, it is not. Now, have them think of their own grammatically correct nonsense sentences - the crazier the better!
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Comparative sentence race
Make a numbered list of nouns - one for each student in your class. Assign students into pairs and have each pair tell you two numbers. When they do so, tell them the corresponding word. When every pair has two words between them, tell them to write sentences which compare their two words. The pair with the most grammatially correct, meaningful sentences at the end, wins. For a more challenging warm-up, you could use abstract, rather than concrete, nouns.
Example list:
- Badger
- Pencil
- Sports car
- Stove
- Sofa
- Gun
- Sausage
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Comparatives cards
This explanation is much easier to follow if you view the worksheet first.
Print and cut out the attached cards, ideally enough for one set for every two students in your class. If you have a large class, you could play in teams instead. Write these structures on the board:
(1) ..not ________ at all.
(2) ..not very ________
(3) ..kind of ________.
(4) ..quite _________
(5) .._________
(6) ..pretty _________
(7) ..very ____________
(8) ..extremely ________
(9) ..the most_____ /____est animals.
(A) (Dogs) are (faster) than (pigs).
(B) (Chimpanzees) are more (intelligent) than (birds).
Run through an example animal and adjective, for example, the animal 'pig' and the adjective 'cute.' Chorus one to ten, i.e. from '(Pigs) are not (cute at all)' to '(Pigs) are the cutest animals.' Next, chorus (A) and (B).
Now, choose a strong student to model with and deal the cards, face down, evenly between you. Take the top card and choose an attribute of the animal on this card. Make a sentence based on the number written on the card and the corresponding structure on the board. The student must then make a sentence about the same attribute of the animal on his or her card - i.e. if you choose 'strong', so must the student. If your sentence corresponds to the higher number, you win. You keep your card and the student's, and choose the next attribute. You must also make a grammatically correct comparative statement, as in (A) or (B). If it's a draw, you both keep your cards, but you lose the right to go first. If you lose, the student takes your card and chooses an attribute from the next card. Once students have got the idea, set them up in pairs and have them play.
Download a worksheet here.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Consequences
Every student needs a piece of paper, preferably A5 or larger. Explain to students that they are going to write short stories as a class. Have them write a sentence at the top of their piece of paper, which begins, 'First..'. Then, have students fold down the top of their paper so that their sentence is covered. They must now pass their pieces of paper along to the student next to them to continue the story, This time, students must write 'Then..' and write another sentence. Again, they fold the sentence down and pass on the paper. Continue using the following adverbs of sequence:
- First..
- Next..
- Then..
- After that..
- Finally..
By the end of this there will be some comically disjointed stories, which students can take turns reading out.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Correct the questions
Write five simple warm-up questions on the board, each with one grammatical error. E.g.
- How was you weekend?
- Did you go to anywhere?
- What did you did?
- Who do you see?
- What are you are going to do next weekend?
Have students work in pairs to find and correct the mistakes. Elicit the errors and correct them on the board (or have students do this themselves) and then reassign pairs, having students ask and answer the corrected questions.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Crossword
Write a word across the center of the board, for example, 'elephant.' Next, give a hint for another word that shares a letter with your first word, for example, 'Hotel.' Once a student has guessed this second word, write it in the correct place on the board, as in the image below. Once students understand the game, have them take turns creating their own hints and then writing the word on the board.
For low level students, you can have them simply race in pairs to write as many words as they can to make a crossword.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Describe a picture
Have students work in pairs. Give the (A) students a simple picture and the (B) students a blank piece of paper. As long as the (B) students can't see any (A) student's picture, you can photocopy the same image for every pair. Now, give the pairs a time limit and have the (A) students describe their pictures to their partners. Their partners must draw what they hear. At the end, have a vote on most acurate picture. If you like, you can have the pair switch roles and play again with new pictures, either immediately, or as your next lesson's warm-up.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Desert island
Draw a simple picture of an island on the board. Tell students to imagine that they are alone on this island, and can only have three possessions with them. Explain to students the items that you would choose to have with you, and then have them work in pairs to discuss their choices. Have pairs feed back to the group once they have finished.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Devil's advocate
Have students discuss some controversial statements. If you have a good relationship with them you could even pretend you hold these views yourself (assuming, of course, that you do not!)
- A woman’s place is in the home
- Some people are born evil
>
- Everything happens for a reason
- Global warming is a myth
>
- Everyone has a price.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Dilemmas
Think of some hypothetical situations which result in moral dilemmas, and have students discuss what they would do if faced with these situations. Have them work in pairs or small groups and ask them to feed back to the whole class after five minutes or so. Here are some examples you could write on the board, but keep cultural sensitivities in mind!
1. You saw your best friend kissing somebody who was not her husband. You are good friends with her husband. What would you do?
2. Your wife has had a new hair cut and it looks terrible. She asks what you think about it? What would you say?
3. You were caring for somebody's goldfish while he was on holiday, but it died because you forgot to feed it. Would you tell the person, or buy another goldfish?
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Don't say 'yes' or 'no'
Write ‘yes’ and ‘no’ on the board and indicate that these words are forbidden. Ask a student a yes/no question, and if still they answer with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ then point furiously to the word ‘No’ to indicate that this is not permitted. Continue asking yes/no questions until the students have got the idea and then set them up in pairs to play together. Set a time limit. If a student can answer his or her partner’s questions without saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ until the time runs out then he or she is the ‘winner.’ Change roles and play again.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Editing
Write a very long sentence on the board. Have students take turns cutting the sentence down. They have to delete as few words as possible each time, while keeping the sentence grammatically correct. The 'loser' is the student who can't delete a word without making the sentence incorrect. For example:
- London Zoo has a huge collection of jungle, desert and forest animals, including various parrots and monkeys, rare rodents and large cats.
- London Zoo has a collection of jungle, desert and forest animals, including various parrots and monkeys, rare rodents and large cats.
- London Zoo has a collection of desert and forest animals, including various parrots and monkeys, rare rodents and large cats.
- London Zoo has a collection of desert and forest animals, including parrots and monkeys, rare rodents and large cats.
- London Zoo has a collection of desert and forest animals, including parrots and monkeys, rodents and large cats.
..And so on.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Exceptions to the rule
In pairs or small groups, have students discuss possible exceptions to some basic moral rules. Encourage them to provide examples of hypothetical situations that would lead them to reconsider their adherence to these rules. For example:
1. In what situations (if any) is it OK to kill?
2. In what situations (if any) is it OK to lie?
3. In what situations (if any) is it OK to steal?
Be aware of cultural and religious sensitivities when setting up this activity.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Ghoti
Advanced students should enjoy this one. George Bernard Shaw famously complained about English spelling, arguing that 'fish' could be spelt 'ghoti' and still remain consistent with other English words ('gh' as in 'tough', 'o' as in 'women' and 'ti' as in 'station.') Give students this example and then write simple words on the board, inviting students to think of some crazy alternative spellings. Have them justify their choices with examples of words that use the letters in this way. Here are some that should work nicely:
1. Fable (phaibel, ghaybull, etc.)
2. Enough (ipnuf, eneuff, etc.)
3. About (abowt, erbowt (in British English 'butter' is butt-ah), etc.)
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Guess my job
This is a variation of the 'Who am I?' guessing game. Make cards with the names of occupations that your students should recognize. Hold one card to your forehead and ask students yes/no questions, e.g.' Do I work in an office?' or 'Do I wear a uniform?' until you can guess the job on your card. Now, ask a strong student to take a card and place it on his or her forehead. Have this student ask the class yes/no questions until he or she can guess the occupation. Now, move on to another student until everyone has had a turn. (If you have to many students then you may need to split the class into smaller groups or pairs.) You can award points to the person who guesses after asking the fewest questions.
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Guess the next line
Think of some song lyrics that fairly simple and have an obvious rhyme scheme. Write the first part of the lyric on the board and have pairs discuss what the next line could be. Have them feedback to the group after a given time limit. Points could be awarded for either the most creative or the closest to the original. Try to think of a song that your students are unlikely to know. E.g:
All the leaves are brown
And the sky is grey
I went for a walk
___ _ _____ ____
(On a winter's day)
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Guess the question
Question structures are often more difficult than answers so chances to practice questions are always valuable. Choose a strong student to model this activity with. Write an everyday question and answer on the board, for example:
Question: How are you?
Answer: I'm fine.
Draw some arrows on the board to suggest that you are switching the order of the conversation, so that the answer comes first. Say the answer, and have a student say the question. Now, write the answer to another simple question on the board, e.g. 'My name's (John.)' and elicit an appropriate question from the student, e.g. 'What's your name?' If the student phrases the question properly then move on to another answer, this time without writing it on the board. Make the answers more difficult and see how long the student can continue producing questions. If you'd like to do this as a teacher-led activity, see the attached worksheet for 25 answer/question ideas. Otherwise, arrange the students into pairs and have them play together. Ensure that they change roles halfway through the activity.
Download a worksheet here.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Guess the Student
Give each student a slip of paper. Each student must write three things about his or herself that the other students probably won't know. Once they've finished, take the slips in and redistribute them among the students. Have a student read the first sentence on his or her slip and see if the students can guess who wrote it. If they cannot, repeat through questions two and three. If the students are still at a loss, then ask the student who wrote the sentences come forward. Repeat the activity until everyone has had a turn.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Hometowns
Tell everyone the name of your hometown, and list three things for which it is famous. Next, have students tell each other about their respective hometowns in pairs, and encourage them to ask lots of follow-up questions.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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How do you say?
Write some words on the board that are pronounced irregularly. Have students take turns guessing the pronunciation. Be prepared to give definitions and award points for the best attempt. Here are some example words, but obviously you'll need to tailor them to your students' levels:
- Thoroughfare
- Quiche
- Pneumatic
- Rapport
- Phlegm
- Oestrogen (British English)
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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How well do you know your teacher?
Have each student think of a closed question that they might want to ask you, and ask them write it on the board. The students should write down everyone's questions and predict your answers. Next, have the students ask you their questions in turn. Each time they guess correctly they award themselves one point. The student with the most points at the end is the winner.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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If I had a million dollars
This gives students a chance to practice large numbers and the second conditional.
Write these sentences on the board and read them aloud:
-
If I had 1000 dollars I would (buy a new computer.)
-
If I had 100,000 dollars I would (buy a sports car.)
-
If I had 1,000,000 dollars I would (buy a luxury apartment in Paris.)
Put the students into pairs and have them take turns, explaining what they would do with their money.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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If you were an animal..
Write on the board 'If I were an animal I would be (a dolphin) because (I like being in big groups and I enjoy swimming.)' Next, have students ask each other 'If you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be? Why?' When they have finished have them feed back to the group about their partners' answers. As an extension or variation, change the question to something more creative or difficult, e.g. 'If you were a (vegetable/biscuit/car)..'
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Important numbers
Write your age on the board and then explain that this number represents how old you are. Next, write three separate numbers that have some significance in your life, e.g. your zip code, your birthday, and number of people in your family. Next, have students guess what each number represents. Then, have students think of their own three numbers, and have them work in pairs to guess their significance.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Inkblots
Show students the worksheet provided or find/design your own inkblot-style pictures. Tell students what you can 'see' in number one and then have them discuss in pairs what they can see in images one to four. Have them feedback to the group about their answers.
Download a worksheet here.
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Lists
Choose one word as a topic and have pairs write as many related words as they can - within a time limit you choose. Explain that points will only be given for words which no other pair has written in their list. This will encourage students to broaden their vocabularies. Use fairly broad topics to avoid making the exercise overly difficult.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Longest word
Have students take turns giving you a random letter from the alphabet until you have written nine letters on the board. Explain that students need to create the longest word they can from these letters in under two minutes. You may need to model this a few times. Once two minutes have passed, elicit the word length of each student's longest word. The student with the longest word is the winner. Ask this student which word he/she found, and then play again.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Make a story
Write up to ten words on the board (perhaps from the previous lesson's key vocabulary if applicable.) Have students work individually or in groups and set them a time limit to write a very short story using all of the words from the list (or as many as they can.) When the time is up, have them read their stories to the group.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Me too!
Write these sentence beginnings on the board:
- We are both..
- We both have..
- We both like..
- We both want..
- Neither of us..
Ask a strong student a question about something that you both probably have in common. For example, you could ask, "Are you a soccer fan?" If the student says "Yes" then complete the first sentence on the board, i.e. "We are both soccer fans." Continue until you and the student have completed sentences 1-5. Now, have students work in pair to complete the five sentences with their own answers.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Odd man out
Write some groups of four words on the board, and have students discuss in pairs which words do not belong in the group. For added difficulty, make each odd word belong to another group in the list, so students have to reallocate them. Here is a very simple example:
- Monkey cow brown octopus
- Train car bus brocolli
- Coat scarf sheep jacket
- White red bicycle orange
- Potato pants onion cabbage
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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One word at a time
Have students create a story by saying just one word each. You could write the sentences on the board as they are produced or find a volunteer from the class. To make the activity competitive, set a time limit for each student to think of their next word and disallow any words that would make the chain either grammatically incorrect or nonsensical.
If this sounds too difficult, then have the students make a story one sentence at a time.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Pictionary race
Think of around ten key words or phrases that you'd like to review. Make some sets of ten cards or slips of paper, and write one word or phrase on one side of each. (Decide how many teams you want, and make one set per team.) Next, divide the board into sections - one for each team - and give each team a shuffled set of cards, placing them face down. Have a student from each team come forward, turn over the first card from their pile, and draw a picture that represents the word or phrase. Once a student from their team guesses correctly, they switch places and move onto the next card. The team that makes it through all the cards first wins the game.
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Pronunciation couplets
The worksheet provided is intended for Japanese students, as it focuses on the sounds they commonly find difficult. For mixed groups or students with another native language, you'll need to think of your own sentences.
Print a copy of the worksheet provided for each student. Chorus the underlined words on the sheet, emphasizing the differences. Next, read one sentence from each A/B pair and have students circle (A) or (B), according to the sound they believe they heard. Then let students know the answers. Finally, have students perform the same activity in pairs, one choosing a sentence, and the other guessing, then switching roles. Have them provide each other with the answers at the end.
Download a worksheet here.
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Proverbs
Write an English proverb on the board. Give a ‘true’ story that illustrates its meaning and significance, then choose another proverb and have students do the same.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you cry alone.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Ratings
Ask students to rate their day/week/month/year on a scale of 1 to 10. ‘One’ means ‘terrible’ and ‘ten’ means ‘perfect.’ Have them discuss their ratings in pairs, and then write 1-10 on the board, with the word ‘terrible’ by the number one, and the word ‘perfect’ by the number ten. Elicit adjectives to fill out the numbers in between.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Read my lips
Write and number up to ten words on the board that are difficult for your student to pronounce. Chorus them until you are confident about their pronunciation of these words. Now, mouth one of the words silently and have your students guess which word you are saying. Continue a few times before having the students play together in pairs. Have the partners switch between speaking and watching after each practice. This should help to make students more aware of the placement of their mouths when pronouncing English words.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Riddles
Start the class with a riddle or two for students to puzzle over in pairs. Here a few traditional examples:
- What disappears when you say it? (silence)
- What gets wet when it's drying? (a towel)
- What belongs to you but others use it more than you do? (Your name)
- What gets larger the more you take away from it? (A hole)
- What joins two people but touches only one? (A wedding ring)
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Sales pitch
Divide the class into pairs or small groups. Draw a doodle for each pair - either on the board or on scrap paper. Tell them that each doodle is a picture of a new product. They have to decide:
1. What is the product?
2. What is its purpose?
3. What is one good thing about it? (teach the phrase 'selling point' if you want)
Tell students to prepare a short presentation or sales pitch for the item and give them a time limit. When the time limit has been reached, have each pair present to the class. If appropriate, have students vote for the best pitch at the end.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Sentence chain
Tell students something that you want, e.g. ‘I want a motorbike.’ Have a student tell you something that they want, and recount the item that you want, making this sentence
‘The teacher wants a motorbike, and I want (a Nintendo DS.)
The next student adds an item that they want, making this sentence:
‘The teacher wants a motorbike, (Pascal) wants a (Nintendo DS) and I want a (beach house.)’
Continue until the list becomes too difficult to remember.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Shiritori
Japanese students know this game very well. Write a word on the board and circle the last letter. Then, write another word underneath that begins with the letter you circled. Repeat this with the second word and continue until students get the idea. If you want to play the game verbally then choose a strong student to model with and say the first word that you wrote on the board. Then, point to the second word and ask the student to read it. Continue until you reach the end of the list and then encourage the student to think of his or her own answers. Go back and forth a few times with this student and then arrange the class into pairs, giving them all a word to start with, such as 'English.'
You can do this as a written activity by arranging students into pairs and having them work together to create a list of words, each beginning with the last letter of the previous one. Give them a time limit and have the pairs race each other. Once the time limit has been reached, allocate points for every correctly spelt word to decide a winner.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Shopping list
Write 'I went shopping and I bought..' on the board. Write the first three letters of the alphabet underneath and say 'I went shopping and I bought (an apple.) Then say 'I went shopping and I bought (an apple) and (a banana),' pointing to A and B as you do so. Next, have a student say 'I went shopping and I bought (an apple), (a banana) and (a cabbage)' by pointing to the sentence and then the appropriate letters. By now, students should understand the game. Have the next student continue onto D and so on until Z has been reached.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Short stories
Tell students to write a story in the first person in less than 100 words. Their stories must end with a line provided by the teacher. Think of your own idea or choose one from the examples below.
..and that's why I don't eat meat.
..and it has been there ever since.
..and I never saw her again.
..and it cost $5000 to repair.
..and now I always check the label.
Have them read their stories to the group.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Small talk
Ask students to think of three good small-talk questions, and then have them ask and answer the questions in pairs. To turn this into a game, explain that English speakers generally find long silences uncomfortable and encourage them to continue the conversation without any gaps for a given length of time.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Substitution
Write a fairly long sentence on the board, and replace any word with any other you can think of - so long as the sentence's grammatical accuracy is retained. Then, have students change another word, then another, and so on. Encourage your class to be creative, and think of words that produce crazy - yet grammatically sound - sentences. For example:
- 14 chimpanzees were taken to a sanctuary in Ontario last Friday.
- 14 butchers were taken to a sanctuary in Ontario last Friday.
- 14 butchers were taken to a circus in Ontario last Friday.
- 14 butchers were carried to a circus in Ontario last Friday.
- 14 butchers were carried to a circus in briefcases last Friday.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Super powers
Write on the board, 'If I could have a super power, I'd want to be able to (fly).' Have a student ask you 'Why?' Explain your reason(s), for example, 'Because I'd want to be able to help people anywhere in the world.' Have students ask each other the same question in pairs, and encourage them to ask follow-up questions. Have students feed back about their partners' answers to the whole group.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Superlatives quiz
Have teams or pairs compete in a quick general knowledge quiz, where the answers require gramatically correct superlative statements, for example, 'The cheetah is the fastest animal.' The examples below are also available in pdf format - just follow the worksheet link below.
- What’s the fastest animal? (The cheetah)
- What’s the longest river in the world? (The Nile)
- What’s the biggest country in the world? (Russia)
- What’s the tallest waterfall in the world? (Angel Falls, Venezuela)
- What’s the biggest animal ever to exist? (The Blue Whale)
- What’s the world’s largest ocean? (The Pacific)
- What’s the smallest country in the world? (The Vatican)
- What’s the tallest mountain in the world? (Mount Everest from the ground or Mauna Kea from the ocean floor.)
- What’s the largest desert in the world? (The Sahara)
- What’s the most deadly spider to humans? (The Sydney Funnel Web Spider)
Download a worksheet here.
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Survival 1
Give your students this scenario: 'You plane has crashed in the mountains. You are at least 100km from the nearest city. Some items from the plane landed near to you, so you can use them. How are you going to survive?' Print and cut out the cards attached (or just create your own number key, as below, and have students give you random numbers.) Distribute the help item cards and have students work in pairs. Some cards are obviously useful and others are not. Give them a time limit to come up with ideas, and then have each pair feed back to the group with their plan.
Download a worksheet here.
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Survival 2
Write some survival scenarios on some paper and number each, according to how many pairs/small groups you want to assign. Have the pairs/groups tell you a number and give them the corresponding scenario. Give them a time limit to devise a plan, and have them feed back to the group.
Examples:
- Your plane crashed on a desert island. You have no matches or cigarette lighters but you need some way to contact passing ships.
- You are on the top floor of a tall office building. The floors below are on fire. You can't use the elevator or stairs. How will you escape?
- Your boat is sinking in the middle of the ocean. You have no flares and the radio isn't working. How will you alert others of your situation? How will you get to shore safely?
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Taboo terms
Print one copy of the questions worksheet provided and keep it secret from the students. Explain to the group that to be successful in this game, they must try to give original answers to your questions, not relying on vocabulary which is too vague or simplistic. Explain that for each question you ask, there are three 'taboo terms.' Saying one of these words leads to exclusion from the game. Choose a student to go first and ask him or her Question One. If the student responds with a taboo term, then it is the next student's turn, and so on. If you think your students are likely to last too long in the game, then set a target of three or four non-taboo answers to ensure that everyone has a go. Alternatively, you could end a student's turn if he or she pauses for too long. Ensure that there enough questions for the size of your group (20 have been provided on our sheet.)
Download a worksheet here.
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Time machine
Draw a simple timeline on the board and teach the concept of a time machine. Tell students what you would do if you had such a contraption. Write a couple of structures on the board to help them, e.g:
If I had a time machine, I'd go to 400BC.
I'd go to Athens, Greece and meet Socrates, my favorite philosopher.
I'd ask him lots of questions and take his picture for Facebook.
Then, have students discuss (1) what year they would visit, (2) where would they go and (3) what they would do. Finally, have them feed back to the group about their partners' answers. This activity can be performed with any hypothetical situation you see fit. For example, if you were invisible, where would you go? What would you do?
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Tongue twisters
Write a few tongue twisters on the board and chorus them until everyone understands how they should be performed. Give students a few minutes to practice with them, and then have a competition, giving points for speed and accuracy.
Tongue twister ideas:
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Red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry.
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Six thick thistle sticks. Six thick thistles stick.
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How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
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We surely shall see the sun shine soon.
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She sells sea shells by the sea shore.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Translate a joke
Tell a short, simple English joke, and then give students a minute or so to think of a joke in their native language and translate it into English. Have them tell their jokes, either in pairs or to the whole group. If your students are fairly thick-skinned, you can have students rate each joke as it's told, and calculate a winner at the end.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Two truths and a lie
Model the concepts of 'truth' and 'lie' to students with a few example sentences. Explain that you will tell them three things about yourself - two will be true and one will be a lie. Tell students two true statements about yourself and one lie, and have them guess which of the three sentences is untrue. You can ask more advanced students for their reasons. Finally, let students know which of your sentences was a lie, and then have them perform the activity in pairs with their own sentences.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Uscramble the conversation
Write a simple conversation on the board, with the word order of each line scrambled. Have your students work in pairs to unscramble the dialog. Elicit the correct word order after a given time limit, and write it on the board. For example:
A: You are today how?
B: Bad too not. About you how?
A: A sleepy little.
B: Is why that?
A: I because bed to went late really.
To personalize the activity, have pairs practice the dialog and then erase those words from the dialog which students can change with their own information. For example:
A: How are you today?
B: ________. How about you?
A: __________.
B: Why's that?
A: Because ______________.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Who am I?
Make some cards before the lesson and write the name of a different famous person on one side of each card. Pick a random card yourself and hold it to your forehead, with the name facing the students. Ask the class yes/no questions until you can guess the identity of the person on your card. Now, ask a strong student to take a card and place it on his or her forehead. Have the student ask the class yes/no questions until he or she can guess. Now, move on to another student until everyone has had a turn. (If you have too many students for this, then you may need to split the class into smaller groups or pairs.) You can award points to the person who guesses after asking the fewest questions.
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Word association
Write an evocative word on the board, for example, 'fire.' Model a few associated words by writing them on the board, e.g. 'hot,' 'smoke' and 'chimney.' Suggest that any of these words would be OK for the activity. Then, erase all but one of these associated words, e.g. 'smoke,' and ask a strong student to give you a word that relates to it. Next, say a word that relates to this student's and go back and forth until everyone understands the activity. Arrange the class into pairs and give them a new starting word - perhaps related to the topic of the class. Encourage students to say their words without pausing to think too much.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Word disassociation
This is a variation of the game 'Word Association,' except in this case, students must think of a word that is completely unrelated to the previous one. For example:
Student A: Fish
Student B: Pencil
Student A: Honest
Student B: Refrigerator
Students can play in pairs or as a whole group. This is much more difficult than first appears!
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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Word maps
Brainstorm around a topic until you have a good collection of words, then choose one from these and brainstorm around this new word. Do the same again for as long as your students can keep thinking of relevant words or phrases. This is a good way for students to check the depths of their English vocabularies.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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You in five words
This works nicely with regular classes containing students who know each other pretty well. Have students write five words that describe their own personality on a slip of paper. Have them write their name on the paper and pass it to you without the other students seeing. Redistribute the slips of paper and have each student read theirs, asking the question:
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Who is funny, intelligent, witty, talented and modest?
Have the other students guess who the person is. Have the student who read the piece of paper confirm the answer then move on to the next one.
No preparation is required for this warm-up!
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