Oh!

1. Give the students a series of exclamations ('Oh!', 'Ah!', 'Great!', etc.), and ask them what they think has just ...

Proverbs

1. Prepare individual copies of a list of well-known proverbs using the present simple. 2. Read through the list of proverbs with the class,...

How often do we do it?

1. Put these lists upon the board: buy - a magazine, a book, a lipstick, a pair of shoes, hi-fi equipment; borrow – money, pens, ideas, clot...

Associations

1. Prepare a pile of smallish pictures depicting objects, animals, scenes. You can use simple drawings; but color photographs cut out of mag...

Oh!

1. Give the students a series of exclamations ('Oh!', 'Ah!', 'Great!', etc.), and ask them what they think has just ...

What am I doing?

1. Tell the students that you are going to imagine yourself being somewhere else and doing something else. 2. Students try to guess, e.g. Yo...

Guessing mimes

1. Teacher tells a student a simple instruction, for example: You are watching tennis,2. The student mimes this. The teacher then asks a ser...

Paparazzi

1. Write on the board the following: Where they were... What did they do... What happened then...2. Give each pair of students two cards. As...

Me before

1. Ask the students to write 5 things on a piece of paper that they did between the ages of 10 and 15. If you are teaching younger people ge...

I say, you said, he said

1. The students work in groups of three. One person (A) tells about an incident in his or her life (a recent event, or a particularly intere...

I have been studying here...

1. Ask each student to write in their notebook four to six (true) facts about themselves in the present progressive tense; for example: I am...

Theme music

1. Play the class a recording of classical music, chosen according to your own taste, and tell them this is the theme music of a movie. Can ...

Alibi

1. Select a scene and time for a crime say, a bank robbery, at a well-known bank in the middle of town, at 11 o'clock yesterday. 2. Two ...

Writing as another

1. Put the students into groups of 4 and then ask them to write individually a sentence about something they did in the past, for example as...

What have I been doing?

1. The teacher explains that the students have to guess what the teacher has been doing from a description of his appearance. The activity i...

Cooperative story

1. Give each student a large blank sheet of paper, and the title of a story, which should include the names of a hero and heroine - say Clif...

Draw and describe

1. Silently draw a simple picture of a small house in the centre of the blackboard. Pass the chalk to a student, and indicate that they shou...

Recall the plot

1. Tell the students about a film you have seen or a book you have read recently: recount the plot briefly, in the present simple. Get one o...

Experiences I haven't had

1. Give the students these two patterns: I've never / I haven't yet2. Head the left hand side of board: Good experience I haven'...

Detectives

1. One volunteer is the detective and goes outside. You give a coin to one of the students in the class to hide on their person - he or she ...