Aim: Students learn about collective nouns for animals, people and things. They play a game of three rounds and work together to win points.
Animals - army of ants, swarm of bees, crash of rhinos, pod of dolphins, murder of crows, pack of wolves, pride of lions, school of sharks
People - team. class, band, mob, board, crew, audience
Things - pack, bunch, set, group, pair
Level : Lower-Intermediate - Upper-Intermediate
Finding the Truth
Aim: Students play a game in which Batman and the citizens of Gotham City try to catch some killers before they kill everyone.
They must look for signs that someone is lying then accuse each other or defend themselves of being the killer.
(This is a turn based speaking role-play. The instructions of how to play are included in the teacher notes, there are also role-play card to print)
The role-play is followed by a game of 2 truths 1 lie and a discussion about lying.
Would I Lie to You?
Aim: Students play a game similar to the British TV game show (Would I Lie to You?). Firstly, one student must say a true or false statement about their life, then the other students in their group ask questions to help guess whether they are lying or not. For the second part of the lesson, the students will need their phones and the teacher will need a way to transfer pictures from the students’ phones to the computer. (My students send me the pics on Wechat and then it’s easy to transfer them). Students must then work together in groups of 3. One student is telling the truth but the others must lie about how they know the person in the chosen photograph. The rest of the class can interrogate them with difficult questions to help them guess who is telling the truth.
Level: Lower intermediate - intermediate
Aim: Students follow a survival story in which they land on a desert island. They must use problem solving skills and creativity to survive.
Level: Upper-intermediate (adult political themes)
Aim: Students learn more about graffiti and the different motivations behind this illegal activity.
Students read 3 brief newpaper reports about Banksy’s political graffiti. (Anti-immigration pigeons, Steve Jobs in the Calais refugee camp, French Embassy teargas incident)
Students discuss the effectiveness of using street art to draw the media’s attention to politically sensitive topics.
Aim: Students learn about couchsurfing and how it works.
They create their own couchsurfing profiles, send requests to each other and read the requests.
Then they debate the advantages and disadvantages of using this website to find a place to stay.
Aim: Students learn about famous quotes from history
Game: Students must guess the missing words in incomplete quotes as well as the famous people who said them
Level: Beginner - Elementary (Could be made harder for Lower Intermediate)
Aim: Students learn about pirates and make a treasure map.
Vocabulary: beach, lake, mountain, volcano, island, castle, river, forest, desert, cave
Grammar: in the north of / to the north of
Based on the boardgame “Masterpiece”
Aim: In this lesson students must buy and sell paintings in auctions.
They must use their sales skills to persuade other players to pay more money for their artwork.
The winner is the player with the most money at the end of the game.
Teacher preparation:
Must print out the game board and 21 painting cards + 21 secret value cards
You will need: counters (You can use coins), a die, 21 paper clips (optional)
Instructions for how to play are very clear in the PPT
Christmas
Aim: Students learn about Christmas traditions and words related to Christmas.
Vocabulary set: Rudolf, Santa Claus, Reindeer, Christmas Pudding, Star, Sleigh, Christmas Tree, Snowman, Stocking, Christmas Present, Chimney, Turkey
Activities: Vocab games, Writing a Christmas wish list, Making a Christmas card
Santa Claus
The teacher pretends to be Santa Claus and gives a presentation about their life followed by questions.
Then the students prepare presentations about their lives while pretending to be different characters.
(Characters: The Abominable Snowman, Buddy the Elf, Rudolph, Olaf the Snowman, The Grinch and Elsa)
Christmas Song
Aim: Students learn specific Christmas vocabulary so that they can complete a listening gap fill to a Christmas song.
Vocabulary set: Presents, Stocking, Christmas Tree, Santa, Reindeer, Toys, North pole, Fireplace, Lights, Sleigh, Mistletoe
Song: Mariah Carey - All I want for Christmas is you
Reading Skills
Aim: Students read an article about a man who marries a robot.
In this lesson they:
Predict useful words from the title and pictures
Skim read
Scan read
Detail read
Discuss the topic
Reading skills 2 - (With handout Plumff and Jubulu)
Aim: Students practise using context to help understand unknown words.
In this lesson they:
-Discuss context clues
-Read a text including made up words and answer reading comprehension questions
-Read a text including very difficult vocabulary and match synonyms
Aim: Students review a badly written résumé and compare it to a model example to discover common résumé errors. Next students must write their own résumé (using a template for guidance). Then they will swap résumés with a partner to proofread each other’s work and give peer feedback. Finally, they must summarise the main tips and advice for people who are writing a résumé for the first time.
Level: Lower - Upper Intermediate
Aim: Students learn about 5 supernatural creatures (witch, mummy, zombie, vampire, werewolf) and are quizzed about them. Following the quiz, students navigate a haunted house interactive story in which they must use what they know about each creature to survive.
Download and attach the sound clips to the relevant slides to create a scarier atmosphere for the story.
Aim: Students act out 2 auctions. In the first they need to read about each item, to work out its true value, so that they can buy carefully to make a profit. In the second auction they must identify the common grammar mistakes in example sentences and buy correct sentences to win points.
Aim: students learn about 9 different types of TV Show and practise asking for and giving opinions about them.
Vocabulary set: The news, Sport, Talk show, Crime drama, Documentary, Game show, Cartoon, Soap opera, Advertisement, R emote control, TV channel, a couch potato, to channel hop
Sentence structures:
What do you think about (TV Show)?
I like/ don’t like watching (TV show) because it’s + adjective
Hitch-hike - Aim: Students learn all about hitch-hiking and discuss it in a debate
(Attached video - Hitch-hiking in China, social experiment)
Bucket list - Aim: Students share their lists of things they want to do before they die and things they recommend doing.
(Attached video - around the world in 360 degrees selfie)
World Wonders - Aim: Students learn about the world wonders (from ancient to modern) then they discuss the lists and create their own version.
Cheap Travel Tips - Aim: Students learn about different ways to save money on transport and accommodation when they travel. They debate which is better, going with a tour group or independent travel. Finally, they create a weekend itinerary for the local area (with the goal of spending as little money as possible).
Aim: To teach students different types of weather and how to read the temperature
Level: Elementary / Lower-Intermediate
Best suited as a review for students who have already learned many weather words and want to put them together into sentences. (This lesson could be split into two lessons for weaker groups.)
Vocab set:
Weather adjectives - cold / rainy / stormy / windy / cloudy / sunny / snowy / foggy / overcast / hot
A range of temperatures - e.g. - 5°C - 1°C 0°C 1°C 5°C
Grammar: Students should be able to talk about the weather today, yesterday and tomorrow using clear sentence structures.
Countdown
Aim: Students practise spelling, mental arithmetic and solving anagrams while playing the British game show, Countdown.
Jeopardy
Aim: Students learn about phonemes and compete in a Jeopardy style quiz (Phoneme focus: /ʌ/- /u:/ -/ɔ:/- /i:/ )
Chain Letters
Aim: Students review their vocabulary and spelling while playing 3 rounds of the British game show, Chain Letters.
Pointless
Aim: Students review their vocabulary and spelling while finding obscure answers to general knowledge questions.
Catchphrase
Aim: Students learn about common English idioms try to guess expressions with the help of picture and GIF clues.
Million Dollar Drop
Aim: Students gamble with game money while reviewing multiple choice questions about common grammar errors.
Connections
Aim: Students find links between connected words then create unique reasons to justify why other words are unconnected.
Level: Upper Intermediate
Aim: to introduce students to different target setting strategies
Students write a to-do-list about their week, then they practise prioritising the items on their list using the urgent/important grid. After that, they will watch a 3 minute TED talk and read the transcript about drawing goals. Taking inspiration from the video they will then draw their goals and then create 3 SMART targets to help them set their targets appropriately.
Aim- to test and develop student’s general knowledge and introduce them to an aspect of British Culture - the pub quiz
Firstly, students read about the origins of a pub quiz and learn how they work. (teams, a quiz-master, question rounds, a prize)
Secondly, students work together in teams to compete in a pub quiz.
The question rounds are: Geography, History, Music, Sport, Famous People, Maths
Aim: for students to understand when and how to use euphemisms
Students discuss the reasons for using Euphemisms. Then students are introduced to many examples of euphemisms and must use them in writing and speaking activities.