Comic Strip Challenge
T
here
are lots of simple comic strips that you can find on the internet to
use for this activity. Post it up on your powerpoint and there are 2
different things you can do:
Blank out the dialogue and have students make up their own. Put them in groups of 2-4, depending on the size of the class. Award a small prize for the most interesting one.
Leave the dialogue, and give the students a few minutes to read and try to understand what is happening. Then, take the comic off the screen and ask a few understanding questions.
Steal the Eraser
D
ivide
the students into 2 teams. Have 2 desks at the front of the class,
facing each other, with an eraser in the middle of the 2 desks. One
student from each team comes and sits in the hot seat. Rotate through
so that all the students get a chance to play. You then ask a
question of some sort. The first person that grabs the eraser can try
to answer the question. The rule is that you can take the eraser
whenever you want, but I"ll only say the question once. Count 10
seconds down on my fingers. Their team can help them with the answer,
but only in English. If correct, they get 1 point. If not, the other
team gets a chance to answer the question.
This week in class, we're studying "When I _________, I ______/ I __________when I ________.
So, I would say something like, "When I feel happy, I _________." Or "I'm late for school when __________"
To make it even more exciting or if one team is behind by a lot of points, have a "Bonus Round," where the teams pick their best 3 players and each question is worth 2 or 3 points
Famous People
P
ut
the students in groups of 2-3-4. Have them pick 4 famous people, dead
or alive that they'd like to invite to a party they are having. Then,
they have to say the reason why they're inviting them.
Example:
Person: Michael Jackson
Reason? He can play some
dance music for us. Also, I want to know why he got so much plastic
surgery.
Give them a few minutes, depending on the level.
Then, I get the student to pick 1 or 2 of the people, depending on
the size of the class and tell the rest of the class their
answer.
S-O-S
If you get three "S" in a row or three "O" in a row you draw a line through it and get a point. Draw a grid on the board, usually 6x6. Give them numbers and letters to make it easier for the students to pick what box they want. Then, divide the students up into teams of 4 or 5 and give them each a symbol (triangle, square, star, heart, etc). Then, ask review questions, going from team to team. Simple, easy questions with a definite right or wrong answer are best to keep this game moving quickly. A correct answer gets them a square on the board. Do 6 or 7 rounds, and by this time the good teams will have 2 or 3 points. The top team gets a prize, this game gets boring after 20 minutes or so, so don't plan on playing this for an entire class. It works best as a warm-up review kind of game.
The World Cup
F
irst,
write up some questions. "What time did you wake up this
morning?" or "How long did it take you to come to school
this morning?"
Then, in class count up your students and make up a "draw." You know, the round of 16, quarter-finals, semis and the final. If you have an odd number and it doesn't quite work, make up some "last-chance spots." So all the people who lost their game in the section of the draw can compete against each other for the last spot. Write up student's names in the draw, randomly. To add some more fun, and for smaller classes you can get students to pick a country. For bigger classes, wait until the semi-finals before you allow country picking.
Anyway, ask the students a question from your list and the person to answer the fastest gets to move onto the next round. That's it!