Download docx - games lets go 1

Introduction.

The "Let's Go" books are a series of six textbooks (plus a starter book) for teaching English to children. They are published by Oxford University Press. The authors are R Nakata, K Frazier and B Hoskins. Each level comes with a Students' Book, a Workbook, a Teacher's manual, Students' and Teacher's cards, and a cassette tape or CD. There is also a CD-ROM available from Dyned Inc.

These are mostly the personal notes of Reggie Thomson, who used to teach in Kobe, Japan with Nisshin Gakuin. The activities have all been tried out in classes of between four and twenty students aged around eleven (slightly too old for this series). The ideal is to create tasks that are memorable, real, challenging, stimulating and fun. Sometimes, though, the fun is more important than the "real."

The text is organised around the pages of the textbook, generally one page per section. Nearer the end of the book, there are fewer ideas, because many of the earlier ideas can be applied. Some of the activities assume that there is one set of student cards between four students at least. Each section begins with the target vocabulary or structures introduced on the pages and perhaps some extra items. Occasionally problems are highlighted. Each paragraph represents a teaching idea that can be incorporated into a lesson plan. Ideas that are explained earlier in the book are given just their name with a link back. Most of the activities are for practice after the students have been "taught" the vocabulary or conversations.

The aim is to make a good book better. Meanwhile, please enjoy teaching from Let's Go 1!

Copyright (c) Reggie Thomson, 1998 - 2005. Last updated on 11 November 2005.

Unit One

Let's TalkLet's Sing

Pages 6 & 7

Target: What's your name? My name is Andy/ Kate/ John/ Jenny/ Lisa/ Scott. Extra: Hello. I'm Andy. Scissors, paper, stone (SPS)

Hello. (Stage 1) Greet students with "Hello." When most can say "hello," greet five students (they reply with just "hello"), counting on your hand to show five. Then all the students greet five other students in the same way, and sit down when finished. (Stage 2) This time the students shake hands and say "hello" to five different partners. (Stage 3) Put your right hand under your right leg and shake hands. This is fun! Problem: 12 year old children seem to find this too childish.

Scissors, Paper, Stone (SPS). (Stage 1 - presentation) Show the action and say the words. Students should do the actions as you say, and gradually say the words, too. (Stage 2 - listening) All the students stand up and everyone does SPS together, including the teacher. Anyone who is beaten by the teacher has to sit down. Those with the same as the teacher, or who win, stay standing. Eventually there is just one winner in the room. If desired, the winner can start the next round so that the teacher can prompt all students to be saying the words. (Stage 3 - practice) Students practice

SPS with one partner. (Stage 4) SPS Three wins to finish. Students choose a partner and do SPS. The winner gets one "point." Students change partners and continue. When a student has three wins, they can sit down. Stop the activity when there are three or four students left. (Also teach "winner," "loser" and "change" to the "listen and do" level.) Problem: some students are good at SPS. Many weak students go for paper first. Good students do scissors, and so win. Excellent SPS students determine if their opponent is weak or good, and play accordingly.

SPS three wins to finish. Students form pairs and do SPS. The winner asks the question: "Hello. What's your name?" and the loser replies: "Hello, I'm Hiromi." Students then change to new partners. A student is finished and may sit down if they have won SPS three times. Also, do this with the Let's Go student names. NB stop the activity when there are two or three remaining students to avoid embarrassing them. (Often such students are weak at SPS.)

Timed conversation chain. Students are in a line. On the command, "Are you ready? Go!" the teacher starts the stopwatch and the first student asks the second, "What's your name?" The second responds then turns to the third, and so on. For the second round, try varying the order of the students. Raced conversation chain. With teams of equal numbers, students can race to see who can say the conversation first.

Let's Go student names. (Stage 1 - presentation). Make large teacher's cards of the six students (Kate, Andy, Jenny, Lisa, Scott, John). Ask a student, "What's your name?" The student replies: "My name's Miho," and then asks you: "What's your name?" Put a card in front of your face and reply in a funny voice: "My name's John." Place the card on the blackboard and continue. Review previous names after introducing new ones ("What's his/her name?"). (Stage 2 - drill). Challenge the students to see who can say all the names first. Choose students by picking out their name-cards at random. Give passport points to the student who is first. (Stage 3 - speaking) Say all six with dice. Copy page 7 of the student's book, cut out the song and number the students 1 (Kate) to 6 (John). Put a box beside each number. Also (for stage 5) draw six lines where the song was and number them 1 to 6. Put students in groups of up to 6, and give each group a die. Students throw the dice one each, in turn. They read the number, say the name and tick the box ("Four. Lisa" or "Four. She's Lisa.") If the number is already ticked, the student simply passes the die to the next person. When one student has said all six names, the whole class stops. That student gets 6 game points, and all the others get points according to the number of ticked boxes. (Stage 4 - conversation) SPS Three wins to finish. Give the students a Let's Go student name-card (photocopied picture or just the written name or download from here (pdf

format)). (Stage 5 - writing) SPS Talk to all. Students in pairs do SPS. The winner asks the loser, "Hello. What's your name?" The loser replies, "My name's Jenny." The winner can write the name "Jenny" on line 3. When one student has spoken to all six LG students, everyone stops. That student gets 6 game points, and all the others get points according to the number of LG students they have spoken to. Alternatively, continue until most students have finished.

SPS Find your partner. Students each have one of the Let's Go student's pictures. They have to find another person with the same name.

Find the person. Give each student a Let's Go name-card. One student then comes to the front returns their card, and chooses another name-card (for example, Kate) from the six. This student has to find Kate by asking the other students, "What's your name?" They start with six points, and for each student they ask, they lose a point. Find the person race.For larger classes, students from two teams can race to see who finds their name-card first. The winning team gets a point.

Unit One

Let's Learn

Pages 8 & 9

Target: What's this? It's a cat/ book/ desk/ chair/ ruler/ pencil/ bag/ pen/ eraser. Extra: What's this in English? What's this in Japanese?

Three card shuffle. Students in pairs have three cards. Student A puts the cards face up on the table. Student B tries to remember the order. Then the cards are turned face down, and student A can make three changes to their positions by changing two cards at a time, slowly. Student A then asks, "What's this?" pointing to one card. Student B tries to remember: "It's a pen."

SPS Three cards. Each student starts with three cards. Students pair up and do SPS. The loser has to select one of their cards. Then they show it to the winner and ask, "What's this?" If the winner can supply the correct answer, they take the card from the loser. Then they change to work with other partners. The aim is to get the most cards and not lose any. When several students have lost all their cards, stop the game.

What's missing? Students in pairs have all eight cards. Student A takes one of the cards and gives the other seven to Student B. Then Student A asks: "What's this?"

Bring me game. Students are in teams. The teacher calls out: "Bring me a ruler." or just "A ruler, please." The first team to bring one to the teacher gets a point.

Blind questions. Student A closes their eyes and holds onto the corner of page 9 with one hand for reference. Student B takes the other hand and puts

Student A's finger onto one of the pictures in the book. Then Student B asks: "What's this?" Student A guesses. Students can take turns and count the number of correct guesses.

Reveal slowly. Hide a card behind another, and show only a tiny corner of the object. The students have to think or guess what it is.

Eight cards in a row. Start with all the cards face up in a row. Teams of students say their eight cards. Then they turn over the first card and say all eight again. They proceed to turn over one card at a time until they can correctly say all eight cards face down in order.

Unit One

Let's LearnSome More

Pages 10 & 11

Target: Is this a book? Yes, it is. No, it isn't. Extra: Is it a book? Is this your book?

SPS Three cards. Students have three cards each. They pair up and do SPS. The loser has to select one of their cards, but shows only the back of the card to the winner. The loser asks: "Is this a ruler?" The winner has to guess, "Yes, it is," or "No, it isn't." If the winner guesses correctly, they take the card. Students then change partners. The aim is to get the most cards and not lose any. When several students have lost all their cards, stop the game.

Brief view only. Show the card but only for a second or two, moving it around quickly. Then ask, "Is this a book?" Students can respond by writing "Yes" or "No" on a whiteboard, or by moving to one half of the room...

Blind quiz. Students are in pairs. They do SPS and the loser closes their eyes. The winner chooses something to give to the loser and asks, "Is this an eraser?" The loser feels it and answers, yes or no.

Numbered list (Problem: Assumes that students can recognise the numbers 1 to 8.) Use the pictures on page 11 of the textbook. Each picture is given a number. Initially, this is in a straightforward order - the top four are one to four and the bottom four are five to eight. Do not allow the students to write the numbers in their books, but instead write the numbers on the board. Then ask questions such as: "Is number one a pencil?" (Variation 1) You can also make this a speaking activity for practising the numbers: "What number is the eraser?" or the vocabulary: (Variation 2) "What is number three." Initially the items can be numbered in simply linear fashion, but later this can be varied. (Variation 3) Also, the items can be labelled with some of the letters of the alphabet. (Variation 4) This can become a writing exercise. Each team send one member to the blackboard. When they hear the item, they shout out the answer to their colleague, who writes the letter on the

board. (Variation 5) Students listen and write the answers on their individual white boards.

Memory Quiz. (Problem: Assumes that students can recognise the numbers 1 to 8.) Number the items on page 11 (see also. Everyone looks at the page for a short while. Then they all close their books. The teacher asks, "Is number 3 a book?" Students respond - verbally, physically (moving to the "yes" or "no" parts of the room) or by writing.

Guess the card. Students are in groups, with two sets of the cards. The cards are shuffled and placed face down. The first student takes the top card and looks at it. The next student asks, "Is it a pencil?" If it is not, the third student asks, and so on until the card is correctly guessed. The student who correctly guesses the card takes it, and then takes the next card off the pack. The next student in the circle guesses first.

Telepathic student. Tell one student the telepathic secret before the class (or take the student outside briefly and explain it just before the activity.) The secret is that when you point to the top of the card, the student should reply "No, it isn't," but when you point to the bottom of the card the reply is "Yes, it is." Put all the cards on the board. The student goes out of the door and the class chooses one card. The telepathic student is brought back in. Points to one card (top for no, bottom for yes) and the whole class asks the question - "Is it the book?" The student says yes at the appropriate card (pointed to at the bottom) and then goes out for another card. (Problem: of course, this activity can be used only once in a course. However, you can vary the rule to use it a second time.)

Return to the owner. Give students some "This is my ..." cards and ask them to draw some personal items - their bag, text book, eraser, pencil case, ruler, etc., and write the word on the card. Also make your own set. (For the following week:) Photocopy each student's set, and give them their copy. Cut up the cards and give each child one card at random. Take a card yourself, and ask one student, "Is this your (bag)?" If they say no, continue until you find the owner. When you find the owner, give them their card. Students have to return the card to its owner. Then they come to you to get another card. For each card they return to its owner, they get 2 points. They must first ask you, "Is this your (book)?" Students must hide their own photocopied set. At the end, most students should have their own cards. You may need to put aside some cards if a student says they have asked everyone and no one said yes (and they don't get any points for that card.) Students get one point for each of their own cards they have collected.

Unit One

Let's Move

Page 12

Target: Stand up. Sit down. Open/close your book. Point to the teacher. Touch the desk. Please be quiet. Listen carefully.

Eyes closed TPR. Do the commands with eyes closed (teach "Close/Open your eyes") Teacher tells those who are wrong to open their eyes and sit down.

Simon says. Or, modify for Please or Don't.

Unit One

Let's Listen

Page 13

Four skills test. Make into a four skills test and record the points for each section in the progress columns of the student's passport. I can hear, I can say, I can read and I can write.

Listening: Instead of using the pictures in the book, ask the students to write the meaning of about 20 items in their native language. Explain that you are testing their progress, and also your own teaching. Or: use the book for a choice of two, or make a new sheet with a choice of three pictures.

Speaking: The teacher holds up one card and asks a question: "What's this?" or "Is this a book?" The students have a few seconds to give the correct response. "It's a book." = 2 points; "Book" = 1 point; "Yes, it is." = 2 points; "Yes" = 1 point.

Reading: Make a simple multiple choice test based on what the students have been taught so far - probably some simple words only. Or, write a letter of the alphabet on the board, and the students have just a few seconds to say it aloud.

Writing: Perhaps an alphabet test. Each correct letter (upper or lower case) is 1 point. If the student can write the word, each word is two points.

Unit Two


Pages 14 & 15

Target: Hi. How are you? I'm fine, thank you

SPS three wins to finish. Students form pairs and do SPS. The winner starts the conversation as per p14. When they have finished, they go to other students. A student is finished and may sit down if they have won SPS three times or they have to finish by doing the conversation with you before they can sit down.

Talk to the others. Students each get a Let's Go name-card. (Andy, Kate, etc.) and have to do the conversation with the other five LG students.

Team chain. The first student in the team turns to the second and says,

"Hello, (name). How are you?" The second responds, "I'm fine, thank you." Then the second student turns to the third and asks the question. Students can sit down when their team is finished. Also, perhaps pass a "Speech box" flag down the team. Maybe the student at the far end of the team should start, with the student at the front responding last and then doing the conversation with the teacher.

Race to talk to all your team. Students are in teams of six, and each have one of the Let's Go name-cards. The teacher calls out one name (eg. Andy), and the student who is Andy has to do the conversation with the other five students in their team. The first team to win gains a point. For classes of less than 8 students, use a stopwatch to see who is the fastest.

Unit Two

Let's Learn

Pages 16 & 17

Target: What colour is this? It's red/ yellow/ blue/ white/ pink/ gray/ brown/ black/ green/ purple/ orange. Extra: What colour is your (pencil case)?

Blind questions. Students ask, "What color is this?" or "Is this yellow?"

Numbered list.

Picture drawing dictation. Students have a line drawing and a set of colouring crayons. The teacher dictates colours for each of the parts.

Questionnaires. Make a simple questionnaire sheet with spaces for five or six students' names, and two columns for bicycles and toothbrushes. Teach the vocabulary "bicycle" and "toothbrush." Students ask, "What colour is your toothbrush?" They write the other student's name, and the colour in the boxes.

Step back slam. (6th July 98) Students in groups of three or four, place a set of coloring pencils on the table. The teacher says: "Pick up a red coloring pencil." Students race to be the person to pick up the desired object first. If there is a squabble, use SPS to determine the winner. For each time that a student wins they get one point. In subsequent games, they must take the same number of steps back (away from the pencils) as they have had wins (points). So, if they have won three times, they walk back three steps. This favours the weaker students (they remain near the pencils.)

Ask and remember. (6th July 98) Students are in pairs. One student turns round and holds out their hands behind them. The other student puts 5 coloring pencils in their hands. The first student asks about each pencil in turn: "What color is this?" The second student replies. When the first student has asked about all five pencils, they then say, "This is a red pencil." and get points for each one they can correctly identify behind their

backs, without looking.

Reading. Read the Brown Bear book. Leads to: team quizzes ("What colour is the bird?"); read and pause - teams or students fill in the next animal; make your own version of Brown Bear.

Unit Two


Pages 18 & 19

Target: What colour is it? It's blue. This is a red and yellow book.

Blind robots. Students are in pairs. Student A is blind and puts one finger on the brown cat. The other student gives commands - "Touch the pink and grey eraser." "No! That's the green and white book!"

Unit Two

Let's Move

Page 20

Target: Raise your hand. Put your hand down. Take out your book. Put your book away. Pick up your pencil. Put your pencil down. Write your name. Look at the board.

Numbered list

TPR and Vocabulary. Students are in teams. Each team member is given a colour. There is one of each colour in each team. Either tell each person their colour, or give them a card with that colour. The teacher says, "If you have a red card, please stand up." Or: "If you are red, please stand up." Or: "The first red to stand up gets a point for their team." Or: "Reds, please stand up."

Blind TPR commands. Students are in pairs. One student is blind. The other gives commands: "Pick up your pen. Put your pen away."

Unit Two

Let's Listen

Page 21

Four Skills Test. Include p23 (part 5) as part of the listening test

Unit Two

Let's Review

Pages 22 & 23

Throw six to say. Page 21 (part 1). Students in groups of four or five have one die per group. They take turns to throw the die. As soon as one student gets a six, the student starts reading the words in order: "This is a book, this is a bag..." The other students continue to throw the die in order, trying to get a six before the first student has read all ten words. The next student to get a six starts reading, interrupting the first student. It may be an idea to have the student who is currently speaking hold up a "speech box" flag, or put on a hat.

Count the guesses. Page 23 (part 4) Students are in pairs. One student chooses an item but does not say which one. The other student guesses: "Is it the brown table?" For each wrong guess, the first student gets one point. This can also be done with cards.

Unit Three


Pages 24 & 25

Target: Hi, John. This is my friend, Sarah. Let's play.

SPS two wins conversation. Each student gets a LG student identity. In pairs, they SPS. The winner can ask, "What's your name?" After two wins, the student can call over their first partner and introduce him/her to the second: "John? Please come here. This is my friend, Kate."

Unit Three

Let's Learn

Pages 26 & 27

Target: What are these? They're cassettes/ crayons/ pencil cases/ tables/ markers/ notebooks

Numbered list.

Three card shuffle.

Concentration. Match the singular with the plural.

Eight cards in a row. Students work in teams. Start with all the eight cards face up in a row. The team says their eight cards in order. Then they turn over the first card and say all eight again. After this, they turn over the second card, and again say all eight. They proceed to turn over one card at a time until they can correctly say all eight cards face down, in order.

Rhyming words. What are these? They're bees. What are these? They're chairs.

Ask and remember. Students in pairs have five or six cards each. One student shuffles the cards and doesn't look at them. This student holds up

one card at a time to their partner asking, "What are these?" The other student gives the answers. When the first student has asked about all the cards, they then tell their partner what each card is, again without looking at them. ("These are pencils.") For each correctly remembered card they get one point.

Unit Three


Pages 28 & 29

Target: How many sneakers? One/ two/ three/ four/ five/ six/ seven/ eight/ nine/ ten.

SPS fingers. Instead of "Scissors, paper, stone" say: "How many fingers?" and then put out one to five fingers. The first person to shout the correct number of total fingers shown wins.

Interlocking hands. (For counting) Students sit in a circle around a table, or on the floor. They place their hands on the table in an interlocking fashion: i.e. if students are arranged A B C D E then their hands (left L, and right, R) are BR AL CR BL DR CL ER DL AR EL. One student starts, lifting and dropping one hand and saying "One." The next student in order of the hands (let's say, clockwise), slaps the table and says two. Continue to twenty or so. Anyone who makes a mistake - slaps at the wrong time or says the wrong number - is out, and removes their hand from the circle. A more complicated version allows for a change in direction by a double slap - and counting down.

Team race. (For counting) Teams stand up and race to count up to 20 and back to one. The first to finish sits down. An alternative is that students sit, and every third person doesn't say the number but stands up instead (teams of 5 or 7 students.)

Pair Quiz. Ask questions about things in each other bags or pencil cases. "How many books?" "How many red pens?"

Team Quiz. (Problem: assumes that students can recognise numbers up to 15 or 20). How many books are there on page 13 of the students' book? The teacher asks questions. For example: p6 boys (2); p7 chairs (5); girls (3); p8 rulers (2); boxes (2); p9 cats (3); pencils (2); p10 books (1); p11 red letters (9); blue letters (9); yellow letters (8); books (6); pencils (2) p12 chairs (2); teachers (3); books (2); girls (4); p13 red books (5); blue pencils (2); pink erasers (5); desks (4) p14 girls (1); boys (2) p15 hands (8); desks (4); apples (2); green bags (3) p16 green books (2); blue books (1); p17 black cats (3); red birds (4); yellow eyes (4); p18 blue books (3); p19 cats (4); books (6); apples (2); p20 yellow pencils (3); yellow books (2); green bags (2)

Surprise quiz. Review plurals such as "What are these?" "They're pencils" using the teacher's cards. When you have gone through the cards, then put

them down and ask the students in teams, "How many pencils were there?"

Bring me. Bring me three bags/ four pencil cases/ six red pens.

Brief view then quiz. Show a picture with lots of items on it for just one minute. Students look at it. Then ask the students "How many?"

Find the differences. Students in pairs have two pictures that contain different numbers of items. They have to find all the differences without looking at their partner's picture.

Unit Three

Let's Move

Page 30

Target: Make a circle (or Draw a circle). Make two lines (or Draw a line). Go to the door. Come here. Count the girls. Count the boys. Draw a picture. Give me the crayon.

Unit Three

Let's Listen

Page 31

Four Skills Test.

Unit Four


Target: Hi, Mom! I'm home. This is my mother. This is my friend, Andy. It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Hill. It's nice to meet you, too, Andy.

Say all you can from the picture Students are in teams and take turns to give words or sentences for the picture on page 32. The team gets one point for a word, and two points if they put the word in a sentence.

SPS three wins to finish. Students in pairs do SPS. The winner starts the conversation: "Hello. What's your name?" Loser: "I'm Namiko. What's your name?" Winner: "I'm Etsuko. Nice to meet you." Loser: "Nice to meet you, too." After three wins the student can sit down (or first do the

Pages 32 & 33 conversation with the teacher.)

SPS progressive conversation. On the first win, the winner asks: "What's your name?" and the loser responds. On the second win, they ask: "How are you?" and on the third win they say: "Nice to meet you."

Talk to all, team race One student in each team of 6 becomes Kate and another Andy (or the friend). The other four students are mom (mother), daddy (father), granny (grandmother) and grandpa (grandfather). (NB. This presumes that the children learn these words.) On "Go" Kate has to introduce her friend to all the other members of her family.

Unit Four

Let's Learn

Pages 34 & 35

Target: Who's he? Who's she? He's my brother/ father/ grandfather/ friend. She's my mother/ sister/ grandmother/ baby sister. (Problem with "my" in the sentences.)

Listen for the correct question. The teacher holds up the people cards without looking at them and asks: "Who is he?" or "Who is she?" at random. If the student replies to the wrong question, they are out.

Out if you make a mistake. Students stand up. The teacher points at random to boys or girls in the class, and all respond: "He's a boy," or "She's a girl." Any who say the wrong thing ("She's a boy.") or get the wrong sex are out and sit down.

Photograph time. Students are in teams, and each have one of the family cards. The teacher calls out the order in which the family must stand for the next photo, and the students put themselves in a line in the correct order. The first team ready gets a point.

Students stand up. Teacher says: "If you have six brothers, please sit down." Decrease the number down to "If you have no brothers, please sit down." Repeat for sisters. Then students can ask each other (eg SPS three wins to finish) "How many brothers/ sisters?"

TPR and vocabulary. Team members become family members. "Mothers, stand up."

Reading. "I love my family." by Addison Wesley Publishing CompanyTarget: He's tall/ young/ ugly/ thin. She's old/ short/ pretty/ fat.

Whiteboard drawing. Draw a thin cat, a tall dog. Let students make some suggestions.

Match and keep. Students have two piles of cards - the relatives and the adjectives. One student chooses a card from each pile. They make the

Unit Four


Pages 36 & 37

sentence: "My grandfather is NOT short." or "My grandfather is thin." If the sentence is negative, both cards are returned to their respective piles. If the sentence is positive, the student takes the two cards.

Unit Four

Let's Move

Page 38

Target: Go to sleep. Wake up. Do homework. Eat dinner. Make a mess. Clean up. Watch TV. Play the piano. Don't watch TV.

Eight cards in a row. When the card is turned over, the command becomes the negative: "Don't go to sleep." or whatever.

Timed charades. If the team can guess the command in less than 5 seconds, they get 10 points; in less than 10 seconds they get 6 points, and in under 15 seconds, they only get 3 points.

Unit Four

Let's Listen

Page 39

Four Skills Test.

Unit Four

Let's Review

Pages 40 & 41

Throw six to start.

Brief view quiz. Page 41 part 4. Students look for just 30 seconds at the page, then everyone closes their books.

Mid-term review. Unless the students can already read and write, skip this. If the students can read and copy, perhaps the teacher can write all the answers randomly on the board. When the answers are written, the teacher can then read them out in order from the board. (Variation 1) Students can look in their student books or homework books to find the answers.

Unit Five


Pages 42 & 43

Target: Happy birthday. How old are you? I'm seven years old. This is for you. Wow! A robot! Thank you.

SPS three cards. Students pair up and do SPS. The winner says: "Happy birthday. How old are you?" Loser: "I'm ten." Winner: "This is for you," (and hands over one of their cards). Loser: "Wow! A pencil! Thank you." The aim is to give away your presents.

Wrapped up presents. Students wrap one card in a piece of paper and then do the conversation in pairs. (Sorry, not an excellent idea.)

SPS find your partner. Students each have an age written on a card. They do SPS and the winner asks: "How old are you?" Loser: "I'm seven." Winner: "Oh! I'm ten." If they are different ages, they change cards. If they are the same: (winner: "Ah! Me, too!) they are finished.

Speaking when the whistle blows. Students are in groups. When the teacher says, "Go" and starts the stopwatch, the first student says: "Happy birthday. How old are you?" The second student replies: "I'm ten," then turns to the third student and initiates the conversation. At one minute, the person who is speaking has to do a forfeit - eg three press-ups, or five jumps. Then either continue with the same conversation, or change it: ("This is for you." "Wow! A pencil! Thank you!"). The losing student becomes the first to do the next conversation.

Unit Five

Let's Learn

Pages 44 & 45

Target: What is it? I don't know. It's a yo-yo/ kite/ car/ ball/ doll/ puzzle/ robot/ jump rope/ bat/ bicycle

Choose a card and guess. Students are in groups of up to five. Put five cards on the table, face up, and the others in a pile face down. The first student chooses one of the cards but doesn't say which one. The next student (on the first student's left) guesses: "Is it the car?" If it is not, the next student guesses. If it is, that student takes the card and the replaces it with one from the pack. If no one guesses the card, the student keeps it and a new card replaces it. That student gets another turn at choosing. This is a variation of count the guessesbecause there are ten items.

Unit Five

Let's Learn

Target: It's little/ big/ long/ short/ round/ square. It's a long pencil

Whiteboard drawing. Draw a big car. Draw a little book...

Bring me team game. Bring me something long, short...ugly.

Pictionary. A long car. A short yo-yo...

Some More

Pages 46 & 47

Unit Five

Let's Move

Page 48

Target: Can you play with a yo-yo/ throw a ball/ catch a ball/ hit a ball/ do a puzzle/ jump rope? Yes, I can. No, I can't.

Unit Five

Let's Listen

Page 49

Four Skills Test.

Many different questions. The teacher shows a TC and elicits a question - eg "What's this?" "It's a puzzle." Then the card is given to one of the students, who is asked to repeat the question. This continues until all the students have a card and know the question they have to ask for that card. Then they pair up and ask their questions. When they have both given their answers, they swap cards and move to different partners. This can also be timed to two or three minutes and the students count how many different questions they have asked.Problem: slightly difficult.

Unit Six


Pages 50 & 51

Target: How's the weather today? It's sunny/ rainy/ windy/ snowy/ cloudy.

Extra: (maybe) Let's play baseball/ put up an umbrella/ fly a kite/ make a snowman/ study English.

SPS questionnaire. Students have a map of Japan each with six locations written on. The questionnaire has the six locations in one column, and the weather in the second column. The teacher has a master sheet with the weather for all six locations, but on each student's sheet is the weather for only ONE location. The students have to find out the weather at all the other locations. They pair with another student and do SPS. The winner then looks at his chart, chooses one location where they don't yet know the weather and asks: "How's the weather in Nagasaki?" If the loser knows, they say, and the winner writes it in their chart. But if the loser doesn't know, they say, "I don't know."

Homework. How's the weather on Monday/ Tuesday etc. Students keep a week's log.

Unit Six

Let's Learn

Pages 52 & 53

Target: How many clouds are there? There are six clouds. Oh no! There's one big cloud. Flowers/ trees/ puddles. (Problem: I think this grammar is too complicated at this stage, so I do this as a review of pages 28, 29 only.)

Surprise quiz.

Brief view. Students get maybe eight cards each, with a mixture of singular and plural, and several cards showing the same items. They look at their own cards for maybe half a minute or so. Then they have to swap the cards with their partner's. They ask questions to see who has the better memory! "How many trees?"

Make a team quiz. Students in small teams make a set of questions to ask other teams: eg. "How many cats are there on page 59?" They also write down the correct answer. When every team has at least eight questions, teams take turns to ask one question to the other teams.

Unit Six


Pages 54 & 55

Target: Where's the kite? It's in the tree. Where are the books? They're under the table. On/ by. Where are they? Where is it? Problem: the plural is perhaps too difficult at this stage and maybe the singular is sufficient.

Whiteboard drawing. Draw an elephant under a desk/ a snowman by a tree/ a bicycle in a cloud. Allow students to make suggestions.

TPR. Put your pencil on your pencil case. Put your book under your chair.

Uno for prepositions. Students have to read the cards before they put it down. Alternatively, they can put the card face down - forcing them to say it.

Bingo from Uno cards. Use the Uno cards to make a set of bingo pages.

Unit Six

Let's Move

Page 56

Target: Can he/she climb a tree/ play baseball/ read a book/ play tag/ ride a bicycle/ fly a kite? Yes, he/she can. No, he/she can't.

Human bingo. Make a sheet with the twelve "can you" cards (93-98, 111-116) and "can you write your name?" "Can you draw a picture?" "Can you do homework?" "Can you play the piano?" arranged on a 4 * 4 grid, with space to write under each one. Students then go round and ask others "Can you play the piano?" or whatever. If the answer is yes, that student signs the sheet in the appropriate square. ("Please write your name here.") Students try to get bingo, and then go for double bingos. (Idea from FLTeach mailing list)

Unit Six

Let's Listen

Page 57

Four Skills Test.

Find someone who... Use p59 (4). The first student asks: "Can you climb a tree?" The other student replies yes or no, and the first student writes the other's name in the appropriate box. They change to other partners and continue. Who can fill the most boxes (yes and no)?

Unit Six

Let's Review

Pages 58 & 59

Unit Seven


Pages 60 & 61

Target: I'm hungry. I want an apple. I'm thirsty. I want juice. Here you are. Thank you. You're welcome.

Unit Seven

Let's Learn

Target: What do you want? I want ice cream/ cake/ milk/ fish/ chicken/ pizza/ bread/ rice. I want chicken and rice.

Throw all five. Students are in groups of four to six. Each student has five cards placed face up in front of them. The leftmost card is one and the rightmost card is five. The students take turns to throw a die. If the student throws a one, they say: "I'm hungry. I want to eat bread," or whatever number one is. Then they pick up the card, pretend to eat it, and put it face down in the same position. If the student has already eaten that "number", they say: "I'm not hungry." If they throw a six, they can choose to eat any

Pages 62 & 63 one of their remaining cards. If there are not enough cards photocopy five on a sheet, and then cut slits between them so that they can be folded in two when eaten. (Idea from Setsuko Toyama, at the JALT conference October 1997)

Don't take the last card. Students in pairs have the eight food cards, plus card 131 to represent "juice" and the spider card. They arrange the cards in a pyramid with the spider at the top, and rows of two, three and four below it. The aim is not to eat the spider. Students can choose to eat one, two or three items at any one time, but the person who eats the spider - the last card, is the loser. When they take cards, they say: "I'm hungry. I want cake and bread," or whatever. (Variation 1) An alternative set of rules is that a student can take cards from only one line in any one turn, up to all the remaining cards in that line (e.g. up to four cards from the bottom line.)

Unit Seven


Pages 64 & 65

Target: Do you want chicken? Yes, I do. No, I don't. I want pizza.

Count the guesses.

(Collect a set. Students have four of one card. They go to others and ask, "Do you want chicken?" If the answer is yes, they give the other student the chicken. The other student then offers the first something. Students should always have four cards. Problem - not a particularly good activity.)

Unit Seven

Let's Move

Page 66

Target: Buy an apple. Wash it. Cut it. Eat it. Buy juice. Open it. Pour it. Drink it. Can you drink it? Can you eat it?

Three card shuffle Use four cards of one set. Students have to say the four in the correct order.

Match and keep. Students have two piles of cards - the verbs and the food. One student chooses a card from each pile. They say: "Can you wash bread?" If the answer from the other students is: "No, you can't," both cards are returned to their respective piles. If the answer is: "Yes, you can," the student takes the two cards.

Say all eight. Students get one card each. They show the card to a partner who says it, and then read the partner's card. Then they change cards and move to different partners. When they have said all eight cards, they are finished. (Problem: not a very good activity.)

Unit Seven

Let's Listen

Page 67

Four Skills Test.

Unit Eight


Pages 68 & 69

Target: What's your favorite color? Red. What about you? I like blue.

Questionnaire. What's your favorite color/ sport/ game/ animal/ TV show/ fruit/ drink?

Unit Eight

Let's Learn

Pages 70 & 71

Target: Look! There's a dog. I like dogs. What do you like? I like frogs. I like frogs, too. Birds/ dogs/ cats/ rabbits/ spiders

Unit Eight

Let's Learn

Target: Do you like rabbits? Yes, I do. No, I don't.

SPS three wins to finish. Use current pop-stars. "Do you like Namie Amuro?"

Some More

Pages 72 & 73

Unit Eight

Let's Move

Page 74

Target: Can it walk/ run/ swim/ fly/ hop/ jump? Yes, it can. No, it can't. Alternatively, change to: Can dogs run? Yes, they can.)

Match and keep. Use plural animals

Unit Eight

Let's Listen

Page 75

Four Skills Test.

Unit Eight

Let's Review

Pages 76 & 77

Board race. Make a track with about 40 squares from start to finish. In each square put a question or command: "What's this?" "What color is this?" "What are these?" "How many are there?" "Who's he/she?" "Can you...?" "Please..." "Where's the....?" "Go back three." Then make another sheet with a space for the cards for each question type (but "What's this?" and "What color is this?" can use the same pile, and same for the plurals.) Put a selection of the cards in their places. Groups have one die and every student uses a coloured paper clip to indicate their position on the board.