Introductions and Ice Breakers

Name Game
Aim of the activity To enable the class to learn everybodys name. Preparation Bring in an object to throw around the classroom (something soft!!) e.g. a ball, a soft toy Procedure Get the students to stand in a circle (or 2 or 3, depending on class size). Say your name, followed by something that you like/dont like. Encourage your students to choose something that starts with the same phoneme as their name. E.g. My names Jane and I like jazz, or My names Anna and I dont like apples. When you have introduced yourself, throw the object to another student. They must repeat what you said, then introduce themselves. The game continues like this, so the last person in the group may need some help to remember all the names and likes/dislikes! The alliteration often helps people to remember everybodys names.

Spot the false information

Aim of the activity To introduce yourself to a new class. Preparation Write three pieces of information about yourself on the board, only one of which is true. Procedure Tell the students that they should ask you questions in order to find out which information is true. When they have asked some questions, ask them to say which one they think is the true piece of information and then tell them whether they were right.

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Names and numbers

Aim of the activity To introduce yourself to a new class. To encourage the exchange of personal information in English. Procedure Write in random order on the board a selection of names and numbers which mean something to you personally. For example, the number of your house, the name of your dog, the number of children you've got, the number of times you've been married etc. Ask the students to guess the significance of the names and numbers you have written. Confirm their guesses or correct them. Now ask them to work in pairs and to write names and numbers for their partner to look at and guess their significance. Alternatively, ask students to write three numbers, or three names on a post-it and to stick in on their front. They should then circulate and ask and answer questions with as many partners as possible about the numbers or names on their post-its.

Stand in line
Aim of the activity To get the students up and moving and finding out information. Preparation Depends on the line-up you decide to do. Procedure Ask the students to stand in line according to one of the following criteria: the first letter of their first name their date of birth 1 the time they went to bed or got up this morning Hand out one picture card to each student and ask them to line up according to the first letter of the word it represents by saying their word out aloud. Hand out a clock face with a different time on it to each student in the class and ask them to line up in chronological order by saying the time on their clock out aloud. Divide the class into groups, mix up the letters of a word and give one letter to each student in the group. Call out the complete word and ask them to get into the correct order to spell the word. 2 @Lake School Email:enquiries@englishinoxford.com

Mix up the words of a sentence and give one word to each student in the group. Ask them to arrange themselves in the correct order to make a sentence by saying their word out aloud. Mix up the lines of a poem, a limerick or a song and give one line to each student in the group. Ask them to arrange themselves in the correct order of the poem or song by saying their line out aloud.

Answers to questions
Aim of the activity To introduce yourself to a new class. Procedure Think of the sort of questions you need to ask to find out personal information and write only the answers to these questions on the board. Make the answers as obvious or as ambiguous as you like depending on the level of the class. For example, Mary (What's your name?) I'm a teacher (What do you do?) Interior designer (What would you like to be if you weren't a teacher?) etc Once you have written up the answers to the questions, elicit the questions from the students.

True or false?
Aim of activity Getting to know each other. Practising a range of tense forms. Procedure Ask students to write some statements about themselves. Some of them should be false. Ask students to work in pairs and guess which of their partners statements are true and which are false. Alternatively, make a worksheet with sentence beginnings for the students to complete. This will ensure that the students practise a range of tenses.
From Inside Out Intermediate Resource Pack 8A

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The Hot Seat

Aim of the activity Getting to know one another. To ask and answer questions. Preparation Prepare a list of questions appropriate to the students' level and leave a space for the students to write a name next to each question. Procedure Give each student a copy of the list of questions. Ask them to read the questions and to think about how they would answer them without writing anything yet. Now ask them to decide to whom they would like to ask each question and to write the name of one of the other students in the class next to each question in the space provided. They should try to put a different name next to each question. Now ask them to go round the class, finding the students whose names they have written, asking and answering questions. Alternative Fold a piece of paper into three columns. The first column has the beginning of a question, the middle column has a space for names and the third column has the end of each question. Fold the piece of paper so that only the column with the blanks for names is visible. Ask the students to write the names of the students in the class in the spaces in random order, repeating some names if necessary. When they have done that, ask them to unfold their pieces of paper to reveal a list of questions with the names of the students in the class in them.

For example Whats When did How often does

Aleks Maria Saro

favourite possession? last have a haircut? speak English outside class?

Students go round asking and answering the questions. If you like, you can ask students to guess the answers first.

Questions round the group

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Aim of the activity To write a question for each student in the group and to ask and answer the questions. Preparation Give each student in the class a blank piece of paper and ask them to write their name at the top. If you want to make the activity more controlled, write prompts in the form of the beginnings of a list of 12 questions. Procedure If there are more than 12 students in the class, divide them into groups. Give a blank sheet or one copy of the unfinished questions to each student in the class and ask them to write their own name at the top. Now ask them to give their worksheet to the person who is sitting on their left. Tell the students that they are going to think of a question they would like to ask the person whose name is at the top of the worksheet they have received. They should write their question on the worksheet or complete one of the unfinished questions. When they have written a question, they give the worksheet to the person on their left. Repeat the activity until the students receive the worksheet with their own name at the top again. Now ask the students to go round the class, find each of the students who wrote a question for them and answer it. It is probably a good idea to make sure the students know a polite way of refusing to answer questions, for example, "I'd rather not answer that", and to tell them that they have the right to remain silent!

Things in common
Aim of the activity For a new class to get to know one another or for a class who know one another to practise simple questions requiring the answer "yes" or "no" and short answers using "so" and "neither". Possible subjects: personal information, likes and dislikes, hobbies, what they did yesterday etc. Preparation One worksheet for each student in the class. The worksheet has two columns; one marked "YOU" and the other "FIND SOMEONE WITH THE SAME ANSWER". Procedure Ask students to answer the questions in the column marked YOU". When they have done that, ask them to go round the class or group and find other students with the same answers. When they find someone with the same answer, they should write their name in the space provided in the second column. Tell them that they can only write the same name twice on their worksheet - this will encourage them to change partners more often. When the first student has written names next to all the questions, stop the activity. 5 @Lake School Email:enquiries@englishinoxford.com

I think my partner
Aim of the activity Getting to know one another. To practise questions and short answers. Preparation Make one copy of the worksheet for each student in the class. The worksheet has two columns, one marked "I think my partner ..." and the other = I'm right x = I'm wrong". Procedure Ask the students to work in pairs. Ask them to guess which information in the first column is true for their partner without asking their partner yet. When they have done that, they should ask their partner questions to find out whether they guessed correctly and put a tick or a cross in the second column. Tell them to give themselves one point for each correct guess, add up their score and read their results.

Make the statements true for you

Aim of the activity To encourage students to talk about themselves. Preparation Write a list of personal statements on topics relevant to your students age and interests. Procedure Give each student a copy of the statements and ask them to tick any that are true for them, and to re-write the other statements, making the necessary changes to make them true For example, the sentence It was always my ambition to become a teacher may be rewritten in the following ways : It was never my ambition to become a teacher. It was always my ambition to be a train driver. It was always my ambition to become a teacher, but if Id known what it was going to be like, I would have changed my mind.

Post-It Note Information

Aim of the activity To find out more about your classmates and to practise vocabulary for talking about likes and dislikes 6 @Lake School Email:enquiries@englishinoxford.com

Procedure On a post-it note the teacher writes one thing they LOVE , one thing which is OK and one thing they HATE. Students then have to guess what category each thing is in using the structure: I think you absolutely adore ________ ( A sentence NOT A question) I think _______is OK for you I think you detest _______ You say whether their guesses are correct or incorrect. How many of the three did they get right?! Hand out the post it notes and students write three activities/things which fit the categories for themselves. Students then mingle using the practiced/highlighted vocabulary to find out why they wrote these things. Put this language table on the board. Positive I love______ I really love______ I adore______ I totally fancy______ I am totally crazy about______ Im fascinated by______ So/so ______is OK I dont really mind______ ______is alright I dont spend any time thinking about ______ I dont have an opinion on______ Negative I hate______ I really detest______ I cant stand______ I despise______ I loathe______ I cant bare______

Practice the structure I think you loathe hip-hop open class before mingling. After the mingling students can report back what they found out about their classmates.

This is important to me
Aim of the activity To find out what is important to each classmate and to practise question forms. Procedure 7 @Lake School Email:enquiries@englishinoxford.com

Divide the class into pairs: A and B. Give each pair a copy of their own worksheet, with 12 questions. Get the students to write their answers in the boxes on the back of the worksheet. Student B looks at student As answers (but NOT the questions!) and asks A why these things are important to them. Encourage B to ask follow-up questions to As answers. A then asks B about their answers. Get feedback from the class. A possible follow-on activity could be for each partner to write up what is important to their friend and why. This should encourage attentive listening!

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