Animal Mimes (Primary)

• The activity booklet contains seven exercises for each of the following student age groups: primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary.

Animal mimes (Primary)

• Students mime animals, and others guess.
• Optional materials include Pre A1 Starters Flashcards showing animals.
• Aims to engage students physically and review animal vocabulary.
• Duration is 10–20 minutes.
• Model the activity by miming an animal and its sound, allowing students to guess.
• After a correct guess, that student chooses and mimes an animal for the class.
• Students divide into groups of 4–8 and take turns miming to their group.
• Confident students can mime for the entire class.
• For added challenge, students give extra clues about the animal, such as "Four legs" or "It eats fish".
• For extra support, animal flashcards can be displayed to aid with vocabulary.
• Students can be given a specific animal to mime if needed.
• Alternative options include using other lexical sets that can be mimed like jobs, sports, adjectives, or hobbies.

Teacher says (Primary)

• Students follow the teacher’s instructions, requiring careful listening (similar to Simon Says).
• Requires 10–15 minutes and no materials.
• Aims to engage physically and review body parts and action verbs.
• Model the activity with simple instructions and movements.
• Begin by saying, "Listen. Do what I say," and give instructions that don't match the action
• Repeat until everyone performs the action correctly.
• Encourage careful listening by varying the action and instructions.
• Instructions should use familiar vocabulary, such as pointing to body parts or holding up fingers.
• Add difficulty with complex instructions or vocabulary.
• Older children can lead the activity in smaller groups.
• Review body parts and actions before the game for support.
• Simplify it by playing "Teacher says", where students only copy actions preceded by "Teacher says".
• Alternatives include using colors ("Point to something blue") or prepositions ("Point up/down").

Draw it (Primary)

• Students draw pictures for others to guess the words.
• Requires 10-20 minutes, notebooks, felt tips or marker pens, mini whiteboards, and scrap paper.
• Aims to engage students in a fun group activity while reviewing vocabulary.
• Divide students into groups of 4–8.
• Demonstrate the activity by drawing a simple picture on the board for children to guess.
• In each group, a volunteer is chosen, shown a word that is easily drawn without the other students seeing, then draws the picture.
• It is drawn on on their notebook/mini whiteboard/scrap paper, and shown to teammates to guess.
• The group that guesses correctly first wins a point, and a new volunteer is chosen.
• This can be used to review food, classroom objects, furniture, or other easy-to-draw words.
• Increase the difficulty with more complex words or phrases, or allow students to choose their own words.
• For support, tell students the topic and write four or five words on the board for children to choose from.

Quiz: How many? (Primary)

• Students answer counting questions.
• Requires 10-20 minutes, plus optional number flashcards and writing materials.
• Aims to engage students collaboratively and review numbers.
• Ask simple "How many" questions to the whole class first.
• Divide students into pairs or small groups, ensuring they have writing materials.
• Display "How many" questions one at a time, allowing time for discussion and answering.
• Count down and have students show their answers.
• Choose questions based on student level.
• Easier questions include counting group members or items on the table.
• More challenging questions involve legs of animals or total eyes/noses in the group.
• For added challenge, students create their own "How many" questions, including higher numbers.
• For supporting younger levels, review number flashcards and model counting.

Anagrams (Primary)

• The activity requires students to unscramble letters to make words.
• It takes 10-15 minutes and uses notebooks, pens, mini whiteboards and scrap paper.
• The activity is designed to engage students with a word game and review vocabulary and spelling.
• Choose a word that students know, write the letters scrambled on the board, and ask: "What's the word?"
• For example, the letters "ball" can be made from the letters "a, b, l, l".
• Write other words one at a time on the board for students to guess.
• A time limit can be set.
• Add challenges by using longer words.
• Students can create their own anagrams.
• Tell them to write big letters so that their group can see them.
• For support, use 3 or 4 letter words, give the first letter of the word, and tell them the topic.
• In one variation, children can write answers on scrap paper or mini whiteboards.
• It can also be a group activity, with 1 writer per group.

Kim's game (Primary)

• An activity where students try to remember and identify missing objects.
• The activity takes 10-20 minutes and uses flashcards of Pre A1 Starters Flashcards, A1 Movers Flashcards, A2 Flyers Flashcards, or real objects, a tray, and a cloth.
• This activity aims to engage students with a memory game and review common objects.
• Display 10 objects or flashcards and give students one minute to view and remember them.
• Then, hide the objects and secretly removes one object.
• After taking one away, show the rest of the objects again and ask the kids: "What's missing?".
• They have to guess which item disappeared.
• Repeat the hiding and removing and guessing procedure.
• Add challenges by displaying more items, rearranging items, and asking for more information about the objects.
• For support, elicit object names the first time by reducing the number of items and giving students thinking time before answering.
• Give students 1 minute to view, then cover and work together to make a list of items they remember.
• You can use different lexical sets (hobbies, jobs, etc.).

Virtual ball games (Primary)

• This is a speaking game where students pretend to throw a ball.
• It takes 10-15 minutes and requires no materials.
• It aims to engage students with a physical activity while reviewing vocabulary and grammar.
• Start by asking students questions about the invisible ball and mime holding it.
• Have students stand up and mime throwing the ball to each other.
• Add a language element by saying a word from a selected topic and throwing the ball to someone who says another word within the topic.
• For more of a challenge, throw multiple invisible balls.
• To support the students, write the sentence starter on the board.
• For older students, a question is asked with the ball, and whoever catches the ball, has to answer.
• Students who are catching the "ball" can also be asked to repeat what the previous speaker said.

Think of five things (Lower secondary)

• Students play a competitive game where they have to write five things that fit a certain category.
• Requires 10-20 minutes and each student can use their notebook and pen.
• Aims to make vocabulary competitive.
• Students divide into 4 groups and are each assigned a category, such as things that are red, or find-able in a kitchen or bedroom.
• All students then write 5 things that fit that category.
• The other groups try to guess what they wrote.
• They can only ask a different person each time.
• The quizmasters get 1 point for each one that the classmates don’t guess.
• The team with the most points wins.
• An added challenge is to ask students to think of 10 things.
• To make the questions easier, give them 1-2 minutes to brainstorm.
• They can also select their own category from a list.

Pictograms (Lower secondary)

• Students draw pictures to represent letters, forming a word.
• Time required: 10-20 minutes.
• Materials include student notebooks, felt tips or marker pens, mini whiteboards, and scrap paper.
• Aims to make drawing activity fun, and to review vocabulary and spelling.
• Model the activity by drawing a snowman, octopus, fork and alien to the board.
• Ask questions, such as: "What’s this? What’s the first letter?"
• Help by writing and eliciting the letters of each picture to say what it is.
• Have the students get into groups of 3-4.
• The students can then create their own pictograms to make their words as big as possible.
• The group has to try to then guess what their word is via their pictograms.
• Can also take a photo of each student and display it on the board and show the whole class.
• The more the pictograms are harder to comprehend, the more challenged there will be.
• Students can be provided material if there are words or topics for students to be creating the pictograms upon.
• Get to know other names by making it pictographic.

One-word stories (Lower secondary)

• Students create a group story by contributing one word at a time.
• Requires 10-20 minutes and optional unusual pictures.
• Aims to engage students in fun story-building and activate story-telling language.
• Students form groups of 4-6 and decide their speaking order by numbering off.
• Each student contributes one word in turn to create a story.
• Encourage creativity in the story.
• An example is, "One, day, a, small, boy, flew".
• Ask each group to retell the story and vote on the most creative story.
• To add challenge, show a picture and have to incorporate it.
• Give more pictures after they have written the first.
• Provide grammar assistance and nominate a writer to record the story.

Correct me (Lower secondary)

• Students practice contrastive stress by correcting factually incorrect sentences.
• Takes 10-20 minutes with notebooks and pens.
• Aims to be a fun speaking activity that reviews listening skills and contrastive stress.
• Model the activity by reading a "wrong" sentence and asking students to identify the mistake and correct it.
• Stress the importance of using contrastive stress during corrections.
• Use provided examples or personalize sentences to the students.
• Support students by displaying the sentences as they are spoken.
• Students divide into pairs and create "wrong" sentences to share and correct.

Compare It (Lower secondary)

• The activity is where students compare the pictures.
• Requires 10-20 minutes, and the materials include any pictures of things to compare.
• Engaging students into group work.
• Practicing comparative structures.
• Model the activity by showing two pictures and writing down the adjectives (friendly) on the board.
• Divide into pairs write a sentence down to compare the two pictures.
• Students get one point for a correct sentence.
• Add challenge by making the students compare two pictures.
• If students are stuck they can use adjectives provided to make sentences of.

First letter, last letter (Lower secondary)

• Students create word chains by thinking of words starting with the last letter of the previous word.
• Requires 10-15 minutes with no materials.
• Aims to engage students collaboratively and review vocabulary.
• Work in pairs or groups, and determine a speaking order.
• The first student starts with a word, and the next must say a word starting with the previous word's last letter.
• If they can't think of a word, they can pass.
• Increase the difficulty: set a time limit or disallow repeated words.
• Assist them by writing used words on the board to avoid repeats.
• Create pairs to support each other.

Sentence race (Lower secondary)

• The activity requires that students race to create sentences using randomly generated words.
• It takes 10-20 minutes.
• It requires either a high-tech option (random word generator) or a low-tech option (prepared list of words).
• The activity aims to review vocabulary, engage students collaboratively, and practice building sentences.
• Divide students into pairs and use the random word generator to generate two words.
• In pairs, students work to create a grammatically correct sentence that includes both words.
• Students receive a point for creating a grammatically correct sentence.
• For a low-tech version, ask students to shout 2 numbers between 1 and 20.
• Add challenge by specifying the type of sentence or giving more points for using a conjunction.
• Can give more points when sentences use the most uncommon words.
• For support, allow students to work in pairs.

Don't say it (Upper secondary)

• It is a vocabulary game where words/phrases are conveyed through mime, drawing, or description.
• Time: 10-20 minutes.
• Use a dice or online dice.
• Aim: Fun word game, vocabulary review, and developing spoken fluency.
• Method: Groups of 4-6. One student starts as conveyor. Private word show. Roll dice for explanation method: 1-2 describe; 3-4 mime; 5-6 draw.
• Words should be easy to draw or mime. Award points for accurate guesses within 1 minute.
• You can include phrases, idioms, etc and can allow learners to pick their own words.
• Offer support; brainstorm words on the board.

Yes/No game (Upper secondary)

• Students aim to avoid saying "yes" or "no" while answering questions.
• Requires 10-20 minutes and no materials.
• Aims to provide a fun speaking practice, while practicing closed questions and conversational answers.
• Start by modeling, demonstrating how to answer a "yes/no" question without saying the words.
• Each group picks one student to try to avoid saying yes or no.
• Can't repeat your answers by repeating the answers, such as repeating,"Absolutely!".
• Can have the students add more support and can put two students for answering questions instead of just one.

Alphabet stories (Upper secondary)

• It involves students brainstorming words for each letter of the alphabet and then creating a story using those words.
• It takes place in 10-20 minutes and requires no materials.
• This activity will engage students on their speaking and review some vocabulary.
• Useful when they will be getting familiarized with narratives.
• Start by pointing to each letter of the alphabet and let students say some words.
• The students might see there are different words that begin with A, B, C, and D.
• Start by telling them as a group that your stories will be a sentence that includes A, and the next one has to have the B word.
• Each of them has to connect it in a correct grammatical sense.
• Tick on each and every word as they are mentioned.
• Some things group words can also be used as writing stories to share them with one another.
• If they can't think of the next word, give it to them.
• You can always incorporate the more challenging words.

Just a minute (Upper secondary)

• The activity is where the students have to speak on a certain topic for 1 minute.
• Requires 10-20 minutes.
• Aims to engage fluency for better performance.
• Provides spoken fluency with detail.
• Provide numbers of 1-6.
• Students can suggest topics that can be mentioned about.
• Give those students numbers of 1-3, and the order to which they're speaking can be determined.
• Number one speaks for 1 minute.
• Increase the difficulty.
• You can have the people playing this game for you to also understand what the game does.

Two true, one false (Upper secondary)

• Its a activity where you tell 3 sentences with 1 of them false to the students.
• The materials used are not anything.
• Aims to engage in speaking activity and develop fluency skills.
• The activity duration runs for about 10-20 minutes.
• Split the kids into students of 3-4 and get them to have each create 3 different sentences between them and their group.
• The students will then need some minutes to ask you more personal questions.
• The other students will want you to summarize.
• You can also check out the listening skills by using websites as well to test the game.

Celebrity (Upper secondary)

• Its a activity where students have to describe famous people for the kids to then guess.
• The time it runs will be in a length of 10-20 mins.
• The materials are pictures of famous people.
• Aims - engage students in activities, and listen to find the detail.
• Start by asking the kids to think on specific and different people to write something about.
• Once they all do the people, split them into 4-6 to describe the people again.
• Have everyone see if the students will want to hear everything, and say what they are seeing. Students - Can rotate between what celebrity, singiers, anyone.
• It is alright for any type of person as long as it is someone famous. It really does add new helpful aspects.

Questions dialogues (Upper secondary)

• A pair of students can then make a conversation while only speaking questions.
• This activity is generally conducted between 10-15 mins.
• Aims ,speaking, and practicing questions.
• Start by telling all the students that they are going to perform some questions and have a demonstration for those students.
• This is to keep it running for conversations and to keep going with the students.
• You must always stay with them and have one person there in them.
• Also put questions there that can definitely be useful, for when people have issues getting around.