Warm-up activities for your lessons

Warm-up activities for your lessons

• an English language teacher with 7+ years of experience
• an IELTS teacher
• a former translator at major publishing houses (one of them is Eksmo)
• an author of fictional books in Russian and in English

http://ludmilamironova.tilda.ws/

This is my photo

Imagine that you are the photographer / you are the person in the photo. Tell the story behind the photo.

Ask the author

Imagine that you are the author of the book. Say what it is about, what inspired you to write it, who should read it and why.

Old gadget new function

I show you a photo an ordinary gadget like a printer. Think creatively and add new functions to it. For example, it can translate texts into different languages.

to attach to measure to connect to reduce to filter...

Definitions

Do you remember a famous bubble gum "Love is...?"

Creativity is an ability to produce unusual ideas. Creativity is a unique characteristic of humans. Creativity is the highest form of intelligence.

Need your advice

There are many websites offering advice columns. Find a letter from someone seeking advice. Practice giving advice using an advice column format. https://slate.com/human-interest/dear-prudence https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ask-amy/ https://www.askamanager.org/ https://www.doctornerdlove.com/ https://captainawkward.com/

I'd advise you... I'd recommend... I'd suggest...

Controversial statements

OPTION 1: Discuss OPTION 2: Think of 2 arguments FOR the statement and 2 arguments AGAINST it

Habits

The concept of habits, good and bad, is explored in various books and articles. You've definately seen loud titles like: "The habits of the rich" or " The 7 habits of highly effective people". Let's guess what the habits are.

Ambiguous sentences

These sentences are a great example of ambiguity in sentences. What are possible interpretation of each sentence? 1. I invited the person with the microphone. (I used the microphone to invite the person OR The person, whom I invited, was holding a microphone.) 2. There is a bird in a cage that can talk. (Who can talk: the bird or the cage?) 3. The turkey is ready to eat. (The turkey is going to eat OR We are going to eat the turkey.)

Finish the phrase

You watch a video. When I pause it, you need to complete the speaker's phrase.

Breaking news generator

Fake news is a common phenomenon nowadays. Why not to generate misinformation to encourage speaking?

Emotional speech

Helps to memorize a particular phrase or collocation. A great task to tackle speech monotony! Choose an emotion and a phrase. Create a short narration incorporating the phrase 3 times with the selected emotional tone.

mixed messages

go for a run

don't see eye to eye on the issue

Draw and guess

A describe/draw a literal interpretation of an idiom, and you have to guess the idiom/its meaning.

Someone is standing near a bush and repeatedly hitting the ground around it.

Build a sentence (or two)

Make sentences using pictures and given words. You can arrange them in any order.

Bonny N was so envious of Adele's song “Easy on me” that, to everyone’s surprise, she broke off all relations with her.

B2-C1

A1-B2

Find connections between two images

Create a story behind two images.

This woman was overweight. One day she decided to change her lifestyle and eating habits. She moved to the country and started eating more fresh fruit and vegetables.

Quotes

Complete quotes where some words are missing.

"To be, or not to be, that is ...."

It means to me a lot

I show you an object and you have to tell why it is precious to you.

This is my granddad’s plate. It was always with him when he was travelling around the world.

Make me buy it

I show you an object. What you need to do is to convince me to buy it.

The Wolf of Wall Street

What’s going on there?

You see a person and their thoughts in the speech bubble. Guess why the person is thinking this.

According to my experience:

Activities where you edit your students' photos in a creative way (add speech bubbles, use Photoshop or Fotor, and so on) are a perfect way to encourage interaction.

Thank you!