Lesson Warmers

(by Craig Wealand)

Some tried and tested (sometimes successfully) ways of warming and waking up you
and your students. I’ll leave you to decide on level suitability. Many thanks to those
who have passed these ideas on to me over the years. As with bad jokes, it’s often
difficult to trace the source.

(S = student SS = students T = teacher)

1. Memory Test

Pairs. SS look very carefully at the room and the people in it for 1 minute. 1 S closes
his/her eyes. Other S asks questions.

2. How Was Your Weekend?

Boring when it’s asked every Monday, but give SS the identity of a famous person on a slip
of paper (or let them think of their own). In pairs SS ask questions and try to guess the
other’s identity based on what they did over the weekend.

Alternatively, brainstorm what they think the King of Spain did, or Madonna, Harrison Ford,
Mickey Mouse, Brad Pitt etc.

3. The Room Is The World

Tell the SS that the wall with the whiteboard on it is North. Ask them what the opposite wall
is. “South?” , fantastic, and this wall? “East”, and this? “West”. Good. So if this classroom is
the world, where is Spain? And France? What about Canada? Tell SS to stand up and go and
stand in a country they’ve always wanted to visit. Without moving they ask each other
where they are, and why they’ve always wanted to go there. They’ll have to shout across
the world at distant SS.

4. Chain of Words

T reads out a list of words, and SS can join in by supplying a word once they’ve spotted

(or think they have) the connection. Do you know?

Carpet, train, never, rubbish, heavy, yellow, weather, reason, nuisance, end, drip, pencil,
letter, respect, trip, painting, gallop, print, talking, go, operation, love, England, dark,
kitten, nurse, engineer……….

(They all begin with the last letter of the previous word)

5. Find The Pattern

The teacher’s chair is the ‘Hot Seat’. Send a S outside the class to think up questions for
his/her classmates. Give the rest of the class a pattern. They must use this pattern to
answer questions when the S outside comes back in and starts asking things while sitting in
the chair. For example:-

Answer only using three words.

Say ‘yes’ first, then say whatever you like.

Say what you like, but you must touch your nose when you answer.

Only answer using adjectives.

Repeat the question, then answer it any way you like.

Touch your ear.

Begin with ‘Erm..’

Cross your legs……etc.

Can the S guess the pattern?

Now the T leaves the class, and the SS think up a pattern for him/her to guess.

6. Don’t Say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’

Put a S in the aforementioned hot seat. The rest of the class (including the T) fire questions
at the S to try and get him/her to say yes or no. A demonstration by the T may help for a
lower level class ( ‘I don’t think so’, ‘that’s true’, ‘that’s not quite right’, ‘ ‘ah huh’,
‘sometimes’, ‘I do’ etc.)

7. Three Wishes

SS write down three wishes. SS get up and mingle until they find someone with a matching
(or similar) wish. Then they sit down in pairs and talk about it .

Variation: Two bad experiences. The last seven things you did before leaving your flat this
morning. Places you’d visit if you won three plane tickets.

8. Body Spelling

Groups of three, four or five .

SS think of a word then pretend they are the letters of the word.

SS stand up in front of the class and mime the word. The rest of the class has to guess
which word is being spelt.

Caution! Know your students. Not good on the first day with a class of Japanese beginners.

9. Hidden Topic

Write a list of different subjects on small cards or slips of paper (e.g. Tennis, computers,
shopping for food, traffic, beer, suits and ties, cycling, babies). Show a subject card to one
S and start an informal chat with the S without naming the subject on the card
(circumlocution). Other SS write down the subject on paper (without the other SS seeing)
when they think they know what it is. If they’re correct, they can join in the chat.

10. Class Reaction

A S is in the ‘Hot Seat’ and talking about his/her favourite subject, hobby, last weekend or
what they did during the holiday. S has his/her back to the board and must not turn around.
T writes a word on the board and the rest of the class reacts to it, eg. Happy; sad; bored;
interested; energetic; emotional; Italian; Japanese, English etc.
The speaker, of course, has to guess the word from the class reaction to it.

11. Spelling Dictations

Dictate whole sentences letter by letter. SS divide up into words and punctuate. (Good for
revising/introducing phrases and course book texts.

12. The Teacher Can’t Read

T reads aloud and makes mistakes. SS correct. (see ‘cheating dictation’)

13. Running Dictations

SS in pairs. One sitting with pen and paper, while the other runs to the opposite wall, reads
a few words, and runs back to dictate (and spell) to his/her partner. Which pair can finish
first with least mistakes? (T can obstruct and hold fast SS to prolong the activity!)

14. Cross Purpose

SS in pairs. Hand out topic cards, one to each S (‘fruit’, ‘getting up in the morning’, ‘discos’,
‘the beach’, ‘petrol’). SS start speaking and have to guide the conversation back to their
topic. After a couple of minutes stop the activity to see if they’ve guess each other’s topic.
Change topic cards.

15. Getting Your Line In

Give SS slips of paper with conversation gambits written on them. Here is an example list,
but we’re really looking for conversational expressions which wouldn’t normally be found in
course books:-

Absolutely, I couldn’t agree with you more.

You must be joking!

How can you say that?

To be honest ,I can’t see that myself

I really think you’re missing the point completely.

But then again, there’s another side to it.

Of course, another way of looking at it is……

It seems to me you’re rather biased in your opinions.

Bollocks!

That might be true elsewhere, but not in this country.

I really don’t think you understand the complexities of the situation.

So what you’re saying is…

I’d never have thought that you know.

I think that’s a fair point.

Can I come in here for a second?

It’s funny you should say that……………..etc.

SS speak on a given subject for a few minutes , e.g. fashion; German cars; George W.
Bush: The Middle East conflict; seafood; ‘House’ music; smoking etc., and try to slip their
line in without the other S noticing. Ask at the end what their partner’s line was.

The lines can and should be carefully selected for level and register, but not pre-taught. At
least not in the same lesson.

16. Five Things Beginning With ‘F’

Each S writes five things beginning with ‘F’

SS are put in pairs to define their words as quickly as possible.

First pair to finish wins. Give them another letter.

17. Spelling Race

Two teams. One S from each team stands at the board with a board pen. T holds up a piece
of paper with a word on, so that the two SS at the board can’t see it. The teams shout the
spelling to their team mate at the board. The first S to correctly spell the word scores a
point. Rotate SS.

18. How Are You Feeling?

SS are given a long, thin strip of paper, and write a sentence (12 to 16 words?) describing
how they feel at the moment. Give out scissors so that they cut up the strips into individual
words. SS shuffle the words and leave them in a pile on their chair. They change places and
re-arrange someone else’s sentence. Early finishers can change again or write the sentence
in L1 to sensitise to word order.

19. Favourites

Divide the board into four. In one section draw a picture of your favourite food (or just write
it!), in another your favourite country, in the third your favourite book, and the last your
favourite person (famous or otherwise).

Elicit questions from SS as to why you’ve drawn these on the board. When you arrive at
‘favourites’, maybe SS have some questions for you. SS choose their own favourites and
discuss in pairs.

20. What’s My line?

Give SS a profession on a slip of paper (or get them to think of one). Either in the Hot Seat
(open class), or in pairs, SS try to guess the profession without asking more than twenty
questions. SS must ask yes/no questions e.g:-

Do you wear a uniform?

Do you work at night?

Do you use a gun?

Do you wear a hat?

Are you a soldier?

Etc.

SS only answer correctly formed questions. A small bell may help here for re-phrasing and
soul-searching.

21. Class Story

T starts by feeding in one line, e.g. ‘Mary was walking home late last night….’

SS continue to add to the story one by one around the class.

22. Complete The Dialogue

SS complete a dialogue in pairs using their imagination. Then they act it out in front of the
class. Which dialogue was the best? (vote)

E.g.1)

Ann

Ben My God!

Ann

Ben

Ann A big red one

E.g.2)

George

Sharon

George In the car park, I think.

Sharon

George

Sharon Thirty-seven pounds fifty!

23. Guessing From Context

SS guess a nonsense word by using the context of the sentence.

Can you turn the zong on, it’s cold in here?

This food can’t be re-zonged?

My wibble’s not working, so I had to take the bus.

24. Half Dictation

T dictates half a sentence, SS complete by themselves and read out at the end.

As soon as she walked into the room…..

I’m having a lot of trouble deciding….

One Saturday morning in late summer….

If you want to lose all of your friends….

All through history, people have…..

Nobody knows who really….

If you climb to the top of a high mountain…..

I believe that everybody should….

They all started laughing because….

SS check spelling with each other, then with T.

You could also stick the sentence halves on SS backs, get them to mingle and copy them
down. That should wake them up!

25. Dad’s Visit

Tell the SS that your Dad’s come to the school, and he’s going to answer questions for ten
minutes. Get them to write down any questions they’d like too ask him about you. T checks
question forms then tells the SS that he’s/she’s going outside to send Dad in. T then comes
back in as his/her Dad (a disguise would help- old jacket, pipe, hat etc.). SS ask questions
about T. (They’ll probably laugh at first, but it’s surprising how quickly they’ll imagine it’s
your Dad they’re talking to.

If you’ve found this list useful, please send us your classroom ideas. If they’re any
good, we’ll put them on the web page and share them with the world!

Craig Wealand

Warmers
Below is a list of warmer/cooler/filler/game activities in no particular order. If you have any
warmers you'd like to add to the list then please send them to via the Contact page

Aims:
- to introduce a theme
- to relax stds after a hard day's work
- to wake stds up after a hard night
- to wait for late arrivals
- to provide a break in the lesson
- to provide humour
- to provide oral fluency practice
- to finish the lesson on a light note

1. Persuade each other that their favourite colour, animal, film, etc. is more important, better, etc

2.Spot the difference. 2 pictures - the same but with a few differences. Without looking at each
other's, describe and find the differences.

3 Find someone who.

4.Word association. Go round the class, each student giving a different word connected with
previous one given.

5.Word disassociation. Same as previous idea but with no connection between the words - can be
tricky. Students challenge each other.

6.Mini-role plays.

7.Correct the mistakes. List of sentences and students correct the wrong ones.

8. Write message on partner's back with finger.

9.Collocations. Sort out which are right/wrong e.g. high person, tall building, Happy Birthday.

10.Cut up story/conversation - put in order.

11.Match headlines and articles.

12.Find connections between words e.g. television, lake and pen.

13.Call my bluff - give three definitions of a word & guess which is right.

14.Brainstorm all words connected with area.

15.20 questions - give whether it is animal, vegetable or mineral & stds guess what it is in only
twenty questions.

16.What's my line -guess the job & can only answer Yes or No.

17.Train compartment. Each student has sentence. Must use it naturally in conversation without
others noticing.
18.Weekend. 5 words from each student to describe weekend. A different student tells class what
other did. Original student verifies.

19.Interpretation of pictures, doodles.

20.Mime what they had for dinner last night.

21.Mime a complaint, as a guest, in a hotel ('Hotel Receptionist'). Rest of the class are the
receptionist. e.g.The sheets are dirty and you've found four cockroaches.

22.What's the situation. Students discuss where they might hear the sentence e.g. 'A pint, please.'

23.Brainstorm all words that melt, are green, etc....

24.Put words into lexical groups.

25.Odd man out. Give group of words and decide which is different e.g. hat, tie, bus, trousers.

26.Famous personality party. Students have names on backs and by talking with others guess
who they are.

27.Different uses. Students think of as many different uses for different objects e.g. a brick.

28.Charades - mime a film, book or play with a time limit & teams guess.

29.Test each other on vocab. from previous class/week. Could mime them.

30.Guess the word with yes/no questions.

31.Picture dictation. One describes a pic & the other draws.

32.Desert island. 5 things you would take.

33.Mime an idiom. e.g. 'to pull somebody's leg'

34.Logic problems. (See 'Challenge to Think' - Frank et al (OUP) for a list of these.)

35.Clothes touch. Students walk round room and have to touch somebody else's clothing when
told. e.g. Touch a white shoe.

36.Anagrams.

37.Functions. Match sentence with functional description.

38.Chain story - A begins, B continues with a sentence, C then adds another sentence etc.

39.Exercises. If they're in need of livening up. Students follow instructions. e.g. Touch your toes.
Run on the spot.

40.Blind men directions. One student with eyes closed follows directions of other student.
41. Mime story. The teacher/a student tells a story. Class mimes it walking around the storyteller
in a circle.

42.Describing the object. 'A' is taken, with eyes shut, to object 'B' puts As hand on it and A has to
describe it and give it a name.

43.Which picture? 'A' has a few pictures and 'B' has one. B describes it and A identifies which
one it is of his pictures.

44.Jumbled sentences. Mix up order of words in a sentence. Students unravel and put in correct
order.

45.Guess the town, city, country. One student describes and the others guess.

46.American words. Students match up British English and American English words.

47.Prefix/suffix brainstorming. Give only the prefix or suffix e.g. dis_________ , _________ness
and students think of all words that could fit.

48.Consequences.

49.Spotting the connection between words (could be dictated and students shout out when they
think of the connection) e.g.sun, star, mirror, Telegraph

50.Picture composition cut up. Each student has one picture. Without showing each other,
discuss pics and put in order.

51.Prepositions of time. Match times with prepositions e.g. at 6 o'clock on Saturday.

52.Memory. Look at pic for 45 seconds. Turn over and describe.

53.Quotes from famous people. Match quotes and names.

54.Deduction. Students work out what pic is. e.g.the Mexican on a bicycle.

55.Match description and jobs sport, etc...

56.Ordering famous people, personal qualities, verbs using same criteria e.g. usefulness.

57.Lies. One student tells rest/partner about self but lies 3 times. At end others say what lies
were.

58.Survival games. e.g. The NASA game. Students have list of things, choose 5 things that will
be most useful for survival on the moon, in the desert, etc (See 'Discussions that Work' - Penny
Ur (CUP))

59.Write down as many things as you can think of which are .... (choose one: round/smaller than
a CD/beautiful/dangerous etc.), 2 minutes - students brainstorm alone, then words on board. Use
words to quiz each other (it's something you use to...) From Tamara

60.Here's a new warmer. I dreamed it up years ago when I was working as a tutor in a writing
center in Laguardia Community College in New York City; the majority of the students who
came for support work in English were immigrants, adult returning students, younger
disadvantaged learners (single mothers, ex-substance abusers, etc.) that is, a population of people
who had lived a lot and were not your typical middle class comfortable-life type. One day
another teacher passed around an essay one of her students had written about a typical bad day-
everything went wrong-no heat or hot water that morning in the house, bad weather, lousy public
transit, broken coffee machine at work, broken photocopy machine, etc. It was hysterically funny
and a great radical statement on urban life for the less than luxurious-living citizen.
I started by asking a group of students to make a list of all the things in their house that didn't
work - bad plumbing, broken elevator, lukewarm fridge, creaky doors and chairs, dead
mattresses, etc. We realized that the ideal pushed at us from US commercial culture had nothing
to do with the reality that most people live. You can stretch it to service that doesn't come up to
snuff, bad jobs that we ourselves do.....the possibilities are endless. And all can be done with a
sense of humor, and with an eye to social criticism - how much perfection can we expect? How
much can we give? whose fault is it? It works especially well in business classes which is what
I'm mostly doing now-the conversation frequently leads to the conflict between corporate culture
and humanism...or something
like that. From Lee Buckley

61. A friend sent this riddle recently – you could use it as a warmer. The students could ask you
Yes/No questions to help them to the answer. But do you know the answer?

What is;
- greater than God?
- more evil than the devil?
And what do;
- the poor have?
- the rich need?
And when you eat it you
die?

Answer: Nothing!

62. Give this to your advanced students to get into a sound/spelling discussion.

A NEW ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The European Commission has just announced an agreement

whereby English will be the official language of the EU
rather than German which was the other possibility. As part
of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that
English spelling had some room for improvement and has
accepted a 5 year phase-in plan that would be known as
"Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this
will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will
be dropped in favour of the"k". This should klear up
konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less letter. There will be
growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the
troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make
 words like "fotograf" 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be

ekspekted to reach the stage where more komplikated
changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the
removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent
to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of
the silent "e"s in the language is disgraseful, and they should
go away. By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps
such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v". During ze
fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords
kontaining "ou" and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to
ozer kombinations of leters.

After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be
no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi to
understand ech ozer.

63. This is a bit of fun pop psychology. Put the following symbols on the board & ask the
students to copy them down. Then tell them to draw some pictures very quickly, each one
incorporating a different symbol - so they draw 6 pictures - & put a one or two- word description
above or below the picture. The symbols are a small circle, a key, a small box, a vertical line, a
wavy line, a dot.

The first picture is sometimes a flower, the third a window of a house, the fourth a tree & the last
the top of a mountain. The interpretations are that each picture tells you how you see an aspect of
yourself. In the order of the pictures they are how you
see yourself, your friends, your family, your sex life, your job & lastly your future. In the
feedback ask what they a few of them had for each picture.

64. This is a fun warmer that Joanne Shipp did on a training course recently. You need some
cards with objects written on them - one sock, an empty CD case, a kilo of heroin, one bicycle
wheel ….. Hand one to each student & put them into groups of 3 or 4. They then have to choose
someone in their group & try to persuade them that they desperately need that thing. The student
being persuaded can resist & give arguments as to why they don't need it. The others in the group
then vote as to who should have it. And so on until everyone has had a go at trying to persuade
someone.

65. In these rather depressing times it is difficult to open a newspaper & find anything uplifting
to read about. In class you could change this around & with the front page of a newspaper in
front of the group, ask them to change it into positive news. Or without the paper, get them to
think of what has been happening in the world lately & discuss what good might have come out
of the events or change the stories around into good news.
This could be an isolated speaking activity, an activity linked in to the theme of the lesson &/or
lead on to writing practice. A positive beginning to the lesson.

66. Connected to the theme of music, a great piece of material to have at hand for your teenage
groups is the recent top 20 music singles charts. Hand out a copy to each group of three or four
stds & get them chatting at the beginning of a lesson:
- do they agree that e.g. Michael Jackson's single should be at no. 1.
- who would they vote for no. 1 - explain why - the language of comparison & persuasion.
- design their own top 5, from the top 20 they have in front of them - persuade another group that
their list makes more sense.
- describe songs to each other that not yet heard.
- discuss why certain songs have descended in the list.
- can they remember any of the words to any in the top 5?
- which artists would they actually buy concert tickets to go see?
- etc.
A local chart is better but if you need an international/US-based one the address below takes you
to Billboard's Hot 100 - should keep them chatting for a while!
http://www.billboard.com/billboard/charts/hot100.jsp

67. Some shopping roleplays

1.

Customer: You've been short-changed & you reckon

it wasn't an accident. Try to get your money back.
Shopkeeper: You just served a 'difficult' customer.
You want to get rid of him/her as soon as you can.
You think most of these 'difficult' customers invent
excuses to be difficult.

2.

Customer: You bought an iron last week & it didn't

work when you tried to use it. Talk to the
shopkeeper who sold it to you & get your money
back.
Shopkeeper: You don't accept any refunds or
exchanges four days after selling an item.

3.

Customer: You are trying to find out some more

information about a TV that you want to buy - the
different makes, sizes, functions etc. Ask the
shopkeeper.
Shopkeeper: You feel it is your job to sell electronic
goods but not inform the customers. You feel they
should decide what they are going to buy before
they come into the shop.

4.

Customer: You are looking around a clothes shop

that you come to regularly. You are actually wearing
a shirt that you bought here last week.
Shopkeeper: You work in a clothes shop & you see a
customer in one of your shirts. You think that s/he
 must have taken the shirt to the changing rooms to
try on & came out wearing it as if it were his/hers.
You think s/he is trying to steal it. Talk to him/her.

5.

Customer: You are very concerned about green

issues. You are in a shop that clearly imports goods
from developing countries that pays the workers
who make the goods a pittance. Try to convince the
manager that s/he shouldn't be selling these goods.
Shop manager: You sell a variety of goods from all
over the world & business has known better times.
You aren't particularly sympathetic towards green
issues.

68. Here's a nice puzzle to begin a lesson. Give the instructions orally or give out the text.

1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to study English. (try for
more than once but less than 10 times)
2. Multiply this number by 2.
3. Add 5.
4. Multiply it by 50 - it starts to get a bit tricky here!
5. If you have already had your birthday yet his year add 1751. If you haven't, add 1750.
6. Now subtract the four-digit year that you were born. You should now have a three digit
number.

And here comes the good part:

The first digit of this number is your original number i.e. how many times you would like to
study English each week). The next two numbers are your age.

69. 'When my students come in at the beginning of the morning they're yawning away & in no
mood for anything. So to wake them up I get them to stand in a circle & we all do a few physical
warm-up exercises together. These are mainly stretching exercises like touching your toes five
times. It works & it's fun. We can then all get on with a productive lesson. I sometimes do this
during a lesson & I imagine the same can be done for the class that begins at the end of the day
too.'sent in by Annie Jones in the UK:

70. Word Change - this warmer really gets your students thinking about grammar. Write a
lengthy sentence on the board & volunteer a student to come out to the board with the pen/chalk.
The class & the student have to change the sentence word by word but the sentence must still
make sense. One word at a time can be changed - keep the original sentence on the board &
write the new word below the one it changes. And any word can be changed any time, even the
new ones. The key is to keeping grammatical sense.

For example, with this sentence:

I went on holiday to China during the summer and found the people very friendly.
Change 'China' for 'Norway' >> change 'friendly' for optimistic' >> change 'went' to 'came' etc
each time writing the new word below the word it changed. Works well for conditionals too.

71. Here's one of Nedra's favourite warmers, which she uses when she just can't think of
anything else to get the class started.

Each student gets a shape (square, circle, rectangle, cube, sphere, pyramid, diamond, etc.). They
have 2-3 minutes to think of as many things as possible, which are generally ONLY that shape.
Obviously some are easier than others, so having them do it in pairs is nice, too. You have to
emphasize that the things on their list should normally only take THAT shape, to avoid six
thousand things on the square and rectangle list. Also, make sure they distinguish between
squares and rectangles: books are generally rectangular, not square.

Follow up by eliciting adjectives (square, circular, rectangular...)

72. My name is Marina Cantarutti, and I am a teacher of EFL in Argentina. I would like to share
with you my favourite warmer, which serves also as an introduction game. It is based on a card
game kids play here, which is called "The Pig". Each student will be given three cards to
complete. On the first card, the student should write his name, surname and age. On the second,
four adjectives describing his physical appearance; and on the third, his favourite TV programme
and music band. All the students' cards are then shuffled and handed out to the students, who will
be seated in a circle. Each student will have three different cards, from different students. One of
the students will act as the director, and will tell the others to choose one, two or three cards to
give to the student sitting at the right or left of them. They will go on following the directions of
this student to exchange the cards until any of them gets his/her three cards. When he/she does,
he should say "Pig", and all the students should place both their hands in the middle of the circle.
The last one to do so gets a letter of the word "Pig" as penalization, while the student who got all
his/her cards, should introduce himself/herself using the information written in the card ("My
name is...". "I am...years old", "I am tall, thin.." etc.) and then stay as a spectator. The game goes
on until all the students have introduced themselves, and the one to get all the "PIG" letters
should repeat the names and features of all the other students.
Hope you will all find it both useful and entertaining!

73. Want to do a reading or listening that class and plan to pre- teach some vocab.? What I've
done is start off the class with a true or false discussion warmer. I write a series of sentences
using target vocab., some true, some false, on the board. I try to make the sentences illustrate the
meaning of the vocab., or at least lead them to an educated guess. Students discuss. You do
feedback and give correct answers. Example:
For Headway Upper-Int. unit 6, advertisement listening:
In Britain you have to buy a license to watch television. (T)
All ducks are yellow and fluffy. (F-only ducklings)
There are four branches of the military in the United States. (T - army [target word], navy, air
force, marines)
You can recycle disposable razors and blades. (my students insist T)

A couple of warmers from Trang Lee:

74. Gap filling : Ask students to work in pairs. Give Ss passages with the same context but
different blanks. Without showing his text, each student has to speak with his partner who has
got the answers to find the information to fill in the blanks.
75. Code some words using the language of the blind. Give them how the blind write the letters (
from A to Z). The first person who decode all the words and find out the theme correctly is the
winner.

A warmer from Rob Rushworth

76. A good reading warmer that can be used to recap previous work and focus students after a
weekend or short break.
1. Stand all of the students in a line in the centre of the room. Write "True" on one side of the
whiteboard, and "False" on the other.
2. Tell the students that you are going to give them some details from previously read pages in
the story. The students must decide whether given details are true or false, then quickly run/move
to the correct side of the classroom - as indicated by the "True", "False" on the whiteboard.
Boy/girl team elimination works for most levels and can be adapted to target character, setting,
story development etc.

If you've got any warmers/coolers/games to add

please send them in!