I usually engage everyone in a friendly chat, just to get them ready for the start of the lesson, then, when I know they are concentrated on me, I walk out of the classroom.

Seconds later (after the chatter has died down a little – ‘where’s he gone?’) I knock loudly on the door, then open the door, wave to the class, walk into the classroom, take a pen out of my pocket, write my name on the board, put the pen back into my pocket, scratch my head, sit down, cross my legs, cross my arms – and then I say “What did I do?”

From then you are listening for use of the past tense, giving you an idea of how much teaching is needed.  The fact that students call out the answers will help the weaker students.  If they miss an action out of the sequence, do it again.

I usually emphasise my movements so they remember them all.  

This exercise works just as well as “What am I doing?” (call out as do the action) and “What will I do?” (call out before I do the action – can be great fun if you change your routine).

This post was submitted by Tim Musgrave.

1. Write on the board “DON’T TOUCH ME”.
2. Have the class say the phrase with you one or two times to get used to it. Some may already know it.
3. Poke a student GENTLY on the shoulder or on top of the head. The student may need to be prompted to say “Don’t touch me.” Alert students will yell it before you can get anywhere close, which tends to be funny.
4. When the student says “don’t touch me” say “ok” and move on to another student.
5. Wander through the class attempting to poke students and make them use the target language.
6. After an adequate length of time, play this video:
7. Maybe even play it twice.

This post was submitted by Wondershot.

1. Find a section of an unfamiliar song that the students have probably never heard.
2. Teach lyrics to the class using a powerpoint or handouts. Either way, lead the class through the song line by line and make sure they understand it.
3. Divide class into teams and tell them they have 10 minutes to make a song and dance using these lyrics. Tell the class they will have a blind vote at the end to see whose song and dnace were the best.
4. Have the blind vote at the end.
5. As a bonus, you can show a youtube video of the song to see what the “real” version is like.

Keep the lyrics short and simple if you’re trying this on the class for the first time. If it goes well, you can always give them more.

This post was submitted by Wondershot.

Extensive Reading: Voice Diary

This recipe works best if you combine it with Extensive Reading. It builds confidence and teaches reading, speaking, and listening
Encourage your students to make a voice diary with their cell phones. Its listed under the “Voice Memo” Feature. First you need to provide a high interest story to your students.

1.    Have them read the story once quietly
2.    Next read the story aloud and record it on their voice diary
3.    Then have them playback and listen while they read

And the best part of it is, the students can track their progress. If they keep at it for a couple weeks they can actually hear the difference. Its worked great with Tech students

Can be adapted to anything, if they see a funny or cool sign, they can read it and save.

This post was submitted by Jason K.

PASS THE CHICKEN!

The prop is the most important element to this game : ) To begin, all students sit in a circle. Select one person to be IT. That person holds the rubber chicken. The teacher or a “caller” says to the person holding the chicken, “Name five animals. Pass the chicken!” As soon as the caller says, “Pass the chicken,” the person holding the chicken passes it to the right. Students quickly pass the chicken around the circle. If it returns to the original holder before he or she can name five animals, the holder is still IT. Otherwise, the person holding the chicken when IT finishes listing five animals is the new IT.

A nice part of this game is it really doesn’t matter if the topics are easy or hard… it’s pretty random who is going to be IT next : ).

Some Easy Topics

• animals
• fruit
• famous people
• songs
• books
• clothing
• weather words
• holidays
• countries
• languages

Anything that fits your curriculum!

This post was submitted by Ellen.

1. Put on the board

my ….. – mine.

your ….. – yours.

his ….. – his.

her ….. – hers.

its …… – its.

our … – ours

your … – yours

their ….. theirs.

2. Prior to the class while students are waiting, go around an scoop up some student’s items (put them in a basket / bag).

3. Take out some items and ask students. “Is this your…..? Is this yours? Whose is it? etc…

Get students to respond and give back the items one by one.

4. Give students some small pictures of items. Tell them they got a gift and they should put a secret label on it, so they can tell if it is theirs. (I get them to sign it or put a secret sign on it. – NOT their name).You could use these pictures.

5. Collect the “gifts” and shuffle/mix. Tell the students they have lost their gifts but found some others. Go around the class asking students – “Is this your…. ? Is this yours? When a student has returned all the gifts to their proper owner, they can sit down.

6. Conclude by asking which gift they got, they like the best.

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

This post was submitted by C.J..

The teacher (or a student(s)) instructs other students to do certain actions.

Ex.  Simon says, “Touch your nose”! or Simon says, “jump up and down”.

If the caller doesn’t say “Simon says” and only, “Touch your nose” and if a student does that action – they are eliminated and must sit out.

For older students don’t use “Simon says” but use “Please” or “Could you…” or “Don’t”. This nicely teaches the imperative to students.

Even better, get students playing this game in small groups. It will go much quicker and focus more on student talk time.

Simon says, “Get playing Simon Says!”

This post was submitted by Peter.

They can be of all sorts. Just start with a piece (or pieces) of paper and get the students folding and labeling.  Like HERE.

They can be as elaborate as Accordion Books or as simple as a 4 square graphic organizer. Go here for lots of great ideas and downloads of foldables. This site, has lots of photos showing you many examples.

Graphic organizers are another sort of foldable. Get many HERE on EFL Classroom 2.0 – but even better, get your students to “fold” them and then draw in the lines! There are a million ways to use them and they can be used for almost any type of lesson – Vocabulary / Stories / Grammar etc…

I’d also recommend TALKERS or Cootie Catchers. Also, Origami. Find out more about both HERE.

This post was submitted by david .

This lesson recipe is my “go to” lesson. An idea which you can use at the last minute for almost any children’s class. Also a good lesson when unprepared or just plain tired/hungover! (it happens).

Give each student a blank A4 piece of paper. Draw a large rectangle on the board. Give the chalk to one good student (or do it yourself). Write a title – it could be anything: the beach, the mountains, a beautiful day, our school, the city etc…

Ask the students what they see. They will catch on and respond with ..”I see ….!  Draw that and label it. Continue filling up the whole page with students drawing and writing and saying more things they see. 

Get some students to present their drawings afterwards and hang them up around the classroom to inspire your students. If time permits, get the students to turn over their page and draw their own labeled picture on their own topic!

This site, Odopod, offers a nice drawing board and also a wonderful slideshow of other people’s drawings to inspire students.

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.