Chinese drawing. Divide your students into teams. Line them up, facing the board. Give a new or a key word to the students at the back. They must use their finger to write the word on the next students back. This continues along the lines. The winning team is the first to reach the board and write the word correctly. They gain an extra point if they can use the word in a sentence, or give the definition. For beginners, work with letters of the alphabet upper and lower case.

Compare and contrast. Give two pictures and ask the students to make comparisons between them. E.g. Harry Potter and Gandalph, Mona Lisa and Medusa, 2 famous sportsmen or women, someone from the distant past and someone from the present.

Hot seat There are many variations on this activity. Put one student in role he has to be a character in a book/film youve studied and the rest of the class prepare questions to ask. You could: Make question cards with the wh- question words and give them out. The students have to make questions with the word they are given. Or, allot tense cards past simple questions with did, present with do or does and future with will.

Splat/Wipeout Nice and simple, great activiity. Good for revising vocabulary. Wipeout. Write or draw your items on the board (about 12 is good.) For beginners, a simple vocabulary item or letters of the alpahabet. For mainstream, key words, or main characters, etc. Invite two students to the board. Say the word, or give the definition.The winner is the first to hit the item. He then wipes it out. Call another student and repeat the exercise. Splat You can prepare the items in advance on a slide, with picture. The same activity, except students just hit the item. For more advanced students, give the definition, or some clues. You can also have a student to give the clues. They love the competition.

Eleven. Students stand in a circle. They count around. The student who says 11 is out and has to sit down. Each student can say up to 3 numbers, so when there are just a few left,they can calculate how to get each other out. Or twenty one...

Guess the object. Take or draw a picture. Then take 5 pieces of paper (all the same size as the original picture.). Cut various sized holes in them. Put them all on the picture. Take one off at a time can they guess what the object is, or where street scene etc. Each time, they are allowed 5 questions to help them guess. You can do this as a whole class activity, or put them in teams.

MatchupTried and trusted; always works. Picture-word or word-definition match ups. Make it kinaesthetic by giving the cards out and asking students to match them up. Get great resources from MES-English.

Beat the clock Students love this!!! They take turns in the hotseat. The rest of the class prepare questions the object of the exercise is for the hotseater not to say yes or no. So the students need to write questions which are the most likely to elicit a yes or a no. This can be general questions, Have you got any sisters? etc, or it could be based on a topic you have studied Do plants need light to photosynthesise? etc. This is an excellent way to practise tag questions, as these are the most likely to get a yes or no. Mr Bean went to the dentists, didnt he?

Rules

1) Students cannot prevaricate maybe I dont know obviously etc are not allowed. I sometimes insist on a full sentence. Mr Bean did go to the dentists. Plants need light for photosynthesis.

2) No nodding or shaking of the head.

3) If the hotseater answers the questions for more than 90 seconds, then he has beaten the clock!

4)If he says yes or no, then he is out. I use my metal bin and a boardmarker at this point, but if you can get hold of a drum or a bell or something, that is great. I ask a student to do this and there are alwways plenty of volunteers. This is a great revision tool!

This

Little light ball Throw this to the student you want to give the answer. They return the ball as they answer. Makes for a good, fast question and answer session.

Sequencing and Practising Connectives at intermediate or advanced levels. Take a story or report and cut it into sections for the students to put in the right order. Also, take out all the time connectives and substitute then. When the students have reassembled the passage correctly, say, I am going to read it out loud. How could it be improved? Split them into pairs or groups, and see which group can substitute then with the best connectives. Give out a list of suitable connectives if you need to. Let the students read out their versions and discuss who has done the best job.

True or false ?- variation Instead of a straightforward T or F, put a mistake, or a piece of false information in each sentence which the students must find and correct. Or produce a report on something the class has studied, with mistakes in it. Very adaptable and can be used at every level.

I went to the market and I bought.... Another old favourite. Can be used as a category game, if youve been learning clothes, or foods etc. The first student starts off, then it goes round the class, with each student having to remember all the others answers. This can be varied. I went to the zoo and I saw a ... or with verbs I went on holiday and I ... played on the beach. etc

Count round The students have to count round the class in 3s, (or 4s, 5s etc). Then, start from a high number and they have to count down in threes.

I Spy with my little eye, something beginning with .... Another old favourite that is a great activity for beginners.

Vary your close exercises. Cloze exercises are a great way of testing comprehension but also, spelling. Try leaving all the vowels and y out . Students do enjoy this exercise.

Storyboard. You have been teaching, now its time for the students to show they have learned!They have to divide a sheet of plain A4 into 4 or 6 squares. They need to recount, in sequential order, with diagrams, the story you have studied, or the topic. As well as narrative, they may include speech bubbles, or fact file boxes.

Fruit bowl I call this Big Cats because I teach boys and they like that better. The students must be seated in a circle, on chairs. You need at least 12 students, I would say. Go round and allot each a cat tiger, lion, panther, etc (3, 4, or 5 cats, depending on group size.)Stand in the middle. Explain: When I say lion, all the lions have to get up and swap seats. When I say tiger all the tigers have to swap seats.Etc. When I say Big cats!, everybody has to get up and swap seats. Then, do this twice. By now, the students are wondering what the big deal is. Third time round, take away a chair! Play the game again someone is left without a seat. He must give a forfeit, or answer a question. Be careful! This can be very lively, particularly on a Big Cat round.I only play this at the end of term. The students love it.

Guess who? You need post-it notes , or pieces of paper and blutac. Put the students in pairs. Write the target words on the post-it notes. Stick one on each of the students foreheads without letting the student see what is on his forehead. The task is for each partner to guess what is on his forehead, by asking questions of his partner.. Is it an animal? Is it green? Etc. The answer can only be yes or no.

Hangman Dont forget this old favourite! It makes a great starter activity and can be used at any level e.g. for beginners classroom objects. For more advanced students, key words in any subject area. Just write on the board, with students taking a turn, or use a generator.

Odd one out can be used at any level this can actually be quite demanding conceptually.

Noughts and crosses You draw 9 boxes on the board and use some blutack to stick your flashcards/key vocabulary face down on the boxes. Split the class into two teams. They take turns to turn a card over. If its a picture and they know the word, or if its a word and they can give the definition, they get their nought or their cross. The winning team is the first to get 3 noughts or 3 crosses in a line. This can be adapted to pair work.

Bingo/Lotto a great, fun revision activity need I say more?

Describe and draw Put the students in pairs. Give each a picture. Student A describes his picture (but mustnt show it) to Student B, who then has to draw it. At the end, they compare their pictures and discuss what is different. Then they swap roles. Excellent for beginners colours, prepositions and for practising has/have got etc as well as for advanced students.

Dominoes You can do this as a whole class activity, with just one set of dominoes. Give each student one or 2. On one box, there is a question, on the other an answer. The first student reads out his question, then the studnt with the right answer puts his hand up, reads it out and then reads his question etc. This can be done in pairs.

Probability plane Strategically place your bin. Give the students a sheet of paper and ask them to make a paper plane. Then ask them to discuss the odds of them getting their plane in the bin. You can bring in lots of language. Likely No chance Impossible Certain 50-50 6:1 etc. Move the bin around as they get better at it!

Chinese whispers. Two teams, each forming a circle. Whisper the key phrase into the ears of the first student in line. They then whisper to each other, round the circle. The winning team is the one whose final statement most resembles the original. Good for teaching key pieces of knowledge.

Main points After you have studied a book, make a few slides or a worksheet with just the main points. Elicit a recount by asking questions, What happened before.. Why did he go there? Who did he see? etc.

Back to the board. One student comes out and stands with his back to the board. You then get the rest of the class to check that he doesnt take a peek write a word or draw a simple diagram. The rest of the class must describe it, or give clues, but they cannot say the word. Split them into teams to make it a competion. Great for students at all levels.

Spell it out Students have their books and pens ready. Start spelling the word letter by letter. The object of this exercise is for them to guess the word before you finish spelling it. A fun way to present a spelling test!

Jumbled words and jumbled sentences. For beginners, you can give out individual packs of the alphabet. For more advance students, you can have full sentences, including adverbs and connectives.

Box of words Get a bag or a box and put lots of words on pieces of paper in it. Go round the class each student has to take a word, read it and either make a sentence out of it, or give the definition. If you like, you can write each students sentence on the board. Then, the others can correct the sentences and/or make suggestions for improvement. This can be used to practise basic English with beginners, or with key words or new vocabulary for more advanced classes. Or, if youve been studying a novel or a play, your words can be based on that.

Charades Divide the class into 2 teams. One member comes out and he takes a card off the top of the pile written on it is what you want him to act out e.g. dig the garden. He then acts it out he mustnt speak or mime. The other team has to guess the word or phrase. Put a time limit on it, then pass it over to his own team. If you want to make it easy, you can get the students to prepare the cards.

Place the nose Draw a blank face on the board. Call out one student he has to be blindfolded. He has to draw the nose in the right place and the others have to give directions. Give each student a different coloured pen and see who gets the best results. Good for practising prepositions and directions. A bit of fun!

Ice breaker or an activity you can use for a speaking lesson at any time. Bring in some photos from your personal album, or the internet. Include photos of people family, friends. Photos of places/big cities/countries you have visited/food/film trailer posters/cars etc. Tell the students These are important to me or I have plenty to say about each of these photos, but I need the right questions. Give them some time to write as many questions as they can. Or assign different photos to different students. A fun way to practise making questions.

Provide writing frames. This can be in the form of time adverbs for a sequence, First, After that, Suddenly.... Finally etc or with specific vocabulary. You can also give support for the answer e.g. Instead of Where did he go next? Say where he went next.

Post it marking When marking, instead of correcting the students mistakes in his book, write them on post it notes, Then the student has to correct his own mistakes. This way, you know the student has taken notice.

Key words chart tally Ask some students to keep a tally of how many times you say a certain word. This can be a way of allowing a beginner to participate in a more advanced lesson.

Kinaesthetic True or false Place two posters at opposite ends of the classroom - TRUE and FALSE. Read out your statements, students have to move to the position they think is correct. Students who are wrong have to sit down. Continue until there is a winner. Then, move onto the next statement. At the end of ther activity, ask students to recite, or write down as many of the true statements as they can remember.

Differentiate by half Ask your EAL students to work on half the number of paragraphs that you set the rest of the class.

Pre-highlight key words or phrases in the passage you are studying.

Timeline Draw three time zones on your line Past / Now / Future. Students take turns to come out. Read out a sentence, e.g. He saw his friend last month. The student has to position himself on the line /in the zone he thinks appropriate. This is a great kinaesthetic way to practise tenses and expressions of time.

Acrostics At the beginning or the end of a topic, write down one of the key terms e.g. E D U C A T I O N. The students have to write down as many words as they can beginning with each letter that is relevant to the topic. E.g E exam/expectations etc. D detention, discipline. Split the class into groups and the winning group is the one with the most correct words. Each groups suggestions can be written up and discussed.

Read and report back Instead of reading from a book, pin the passages up round the classroom. In pairs, one student reads the passage, then reports back to his partner, who writes it up. Then, they go up and read the passage to check . This makes reading and writing fun.

Add to the picture This is a good activity for a small beginners group. Use the whiteboard. Draw a line. Say, This is the ground. Call up a student and ask, or show them, they have to add something. They may add anything - house/flower/tree/person/animal plane/sun/birds/car etc, whatever they like. Then they have to say what it is, This is a ... Or ask the others if they can name the object. Each student gets a turn. At the end, they then each say a sentence to describe the picture. Good for practising prepositions. You can make this into a longer, writing activity by having them copy the picture and write up the sentences. You can then have a True/false session, based on the picture they have created.