Anagrams
Anagrams is a game, which is definitely one of my personal favourites. Anagrams are a really fun way to review vocabulary at the beginning / end of the lesson or the week, which doesn’t require ANY preparation. The only thing a teacher needs to do is to mix up the letters of each word they…
Predict, Read, Remember: A Simple Reading Lesson Routine
Before diving into a new article or coursebook text with a student, I like to use this quick, game-like routine. It gets learners predicting vocabulary, reading actively, and testing their memory — all before we even start discussing the content in depth. It works well with teens and adults from around B1 level up, and…
Relative clauses
Use the following board game with your students to check their understanding of Relative clauses. There are two types of exercises: fill the gaps with the correct pronoun (which, who, where, etc.) join two sentences using the correct relative clause (Some students, who love studying, do online courses). As a follow-up, you may ask your…
Who are you?
Assign each student a secret identity (or allow them to choose one). These might have to do with a particular topic, e.g. jobs, or just be famous people of their choice. One at a time, the students enter a ‘party’ and start chatting to each other (in pairs / groups). The goal is to determine…
A picture’s worth a 1000 words
photo by Arpan Banerjee Every picture tells a story — and this simple warmer gets your students telling theirs. It’s a great way to spark creativity, build vocabulary on the fly, and get even shy students talking, since there’s no “wrong” answer when you’re just imagining. Works well with all levels, from young learners to…
Unscramble
After covering a grammar topic, for instance, Present Simple, prepare some sentences (about 10), and mix the words up in them. Display these sentences using an interactive whiteboard, a projector, a flipboard or just a whiteboard. The students work individually / in pairs / in small groups to unscramble the sentences. For example: like Ben…
Survey
When studying a vocabulary topic, for instance, Sports or Food, ask students to prepare a survey table (example below) of 4-5 questions for their peers. The example below is related to the Topic of Food, and practises the question Do you like…? – Yes, I do / No, I don’t. Name / Food tomatoes chicken…