Two Games to Revise Vocabulary

Funny Stuff, Games, Vocabulary Games, , ,

If you’ve been reading me for some time  you know how much I love games. Unfortunately, when I was a student at the high school I don’t seem to remember games being part of the teachers’ lesson plan. Now, from the other side of the fence, I wonder why with so many different  things you can do in a language class, we never did anything funny; well, occasionally, we did some fill in the blanks exercises with songs, but that’s it! I also wonder how, being our classes so boring, I ended up being  a teacher.

If you are at all like me, you will love playing these games!!!

♥AGAINST THE CLOCK
This game requires some preparation. On slips of paper, write down the vocabulary that needs to be revised (verbs, phrasal verbs, adjectives…etc) . Students, sitting in a circle, play in groups of four or five, so there should be one set of cards for each group. Set a random amount of time, which students won’t know (this is important so that they don’t cheat). Give the pack of cards to one of the students. Set the timer. Now, he has to describe the word to the students in his group using only verbal language and, it goes without saying, without saying the word or part of it. When a student guesses the word, then the cards are passed to the next student. The person holding the cards when the alarm in the timer goes off loses. Continue playing until there is a winner.

Click to see a good selection of Classroom Timers

♥A-Z Picture Vocabulary.


This is a good activity to brainstorm new vocabulary and also to give more advanced students the opportunity to show off a bit. Students play in pairs or in threes mixing stronger and weaker students.
A picture with lots of elements is displayed on the Overhead Projector and students need to find in the picture something beginning with each of the letters of the alphabet A-Z .Set a time limit of 7-8 minutes
 

 

 

Caption Writing Contest

General, Students' Corner, Writing, , ,

Surely you have seen lots of cartoons and pictures with a caption. Wouldn’t you like to  see your words winning this Caption Writing Contest? Well, here’s your chance! I  found this funny picture via Pinterest and I am willing to give away a Free Homework Pass to the winner of this Writing Contest.What on earth could these two dogs be saying to each other? Give me  your craziest, sarcastic, most creative, thoughtful or memorable  caption to go along with this picture and enjoy !! Be original and witty!! Deadline: 15th April (example below)

Some Things to Bear in Mind when Writing your Caption

♥It can be in any form of literary expression- prose, poetry.

♥It can be one word, a sentence, a word play

♥You may enter as many captions as you like

♥Captions have to be written in English

Some Help

When writing a comic, it might be helpful to know some common English interjections. Click here to see some of the most common

How to enter a comment

Click “Comment” and write your name, email address and your caption for the contest in the comment box, in English. Don’t forget to copy the Anti-Spam Word. Click Submit Comment.

Now this is the photograph. Good Luck and Happy Captioning!

Simple Present and Present Continuous: Grammar and Exercises

Grammar and Exercises, , , , , ,

Tired of always looking for exercises for different grammar points I have started putting together everything I need, related to a certain point of grammar, on the same page.

Today I have uploaded two more: Present Simple and Present ContinuousTense. I have gathered together Grammar and Exercises .

Hope it is as helpful to you as it is to me. Now, I can safely take them to the computer room, ask them to go to this url where they’ll find everything they need to work on. Very useful too, to do as homework or revise just before exams at their own pace.

♥Click Present Simple and /or Present Continuous to start practising!!!

Acapela.tv: converting text to speech in a funny way

Audio, Create your own stuff, freeware, Funny Stuff, Games, In the Computer Room, Resources, Students' Corner, Vocabulary, , , , ,

This site is plain fun ! Acapela .tv is a new site that has a lot of potential for the language class.
Choose a real character or a cute cartoon and make him speak. Choose from a range of voices that interpret and read content with meaning and emotion. This text to speech tool is great to do dictations or revise vocabulary among other things.

HOW I’M PLANNING TO USE IT

♥I think it might be funny to divide the class into two groups -the class I have in mind, right now, is a small class of nine students; with larger classes I might need to divide it into three or four groups.

My aim with this activity will be to make sure students revise some vocabulary related to money for their next test. So, the class is divided into two groups. They need to listen to their cartoon speaking, write down the words the character asks them to revise and be able to explain them to the other group. Each character will say the same number of words and you know the rest… don’t you?? A competition, as usual, something that I, a very competitive person, just love.

TEAM A

TEAM B

♥My next step will be asking selected students from different courses to do the job. The volunteers will need to go home, register and create a character to revise vocabulary. Obviously, they’ll need to copy the link provided and send it to me so that I can display it when playing the game in class.

What do you think? Will they like it?

Blog de Cristina is also on Facebook. 

Conditional Sentences: grammar and exercises

Grammar and Exercises, , , ,

Tired of always looking for exercises for different grammar points I have started putting together everything I need, related to a certain point of grammar, on the same page.

A good example is the one you see on the left about Conditional Sentences (Basic types). I have gathered together Grammar, exercises for each type, and then exercises for all of them mixed up.

Hope it is as helpful to you as it is to me. Now, I can safely take them to the computer room, ask them to go to this url where they’ll find everything they need to work on. Very useful too, to do as homework or revise just before exams at their own pace.

♥Click here if you need to practise your Conditional Sentences

♥Same for the Simple Past, here