Objective – Depending on the level: Vocab. Building (Demographic Country Terms)

Describing a Country

Basic question formation

Procedure – Begin the class by drawing a big map of your country on the board.  Put some cities in, roads, mountains, etc (This should take less than a minute).  Ask the class what the country is called and what the thing you drew is (a map).  Write Country Name and Map at the top right corner of your board.  Now draw a really bad outline of your students’ country.  They should laugh.  Make a 2nd attempt.  It can be better, but should still be very flawed.  If a student hasn’t already taken the marker from you, give it to a student and have them draw the outline.

Now the lesson begins.  You want to elicit the words Capital City, Population, Language, Religion, Geography, and Climate.  Do this by giving examples.  For example, in America we have Washingting D.C.; in Turkey it’s Ankara.  What is this?  İn America we speak English, in Turkey you speak Turkish.  This is the…?  It should take less than 5 minutes to elicit all the words.  If you have a higher level class you can include things like Type of Government, Major Industries, etc.

Now tell the class that they are going to create their own country.  Demo this on the board.  I usually draw a big beer bottle and then label it Beeristan.  My capital city is Barsville.  My language is Beerish.  The religion is Alcoholism.  It’s a magical country where beer rains from the sky every weekend.  You get the point.

Put the students in groups of two and have each make their own country.  As an initial task give them 2 minutes to write a name and draw a map then stop.  This allows you to check for certain that they understand.  You wouldn’t believe how many students, especially at lower levels, even after the demo and CCQ’s will still start to draw their own country.  You can ensure they are making a new country.

After about 8 minutes come back together as a class.  With lower levels you will have to elicit the questions as a class and put the structures on the board.  With higher levels you can dive right in.  Have each group show their country and have the other groups ask questions about it.  With lower levels this will be rather formulaic although you should encourage extra questions.  With higher levels they will often run with it.  If they don’t, ask a few questions as examples such as, Where do alcoholics go to pray?  How do people get to work if everyone’s drunk all the time?  Is there a lot of tourism to Beeristan? Etc.

If this somehow doesn’t last an hour you can make some groups tourists and they have to go from group to group to hear about each country’s virtues and then decide on which one to go to for vacation.

You can also follow this up with a lesson on modals of permission and obligation by having them create the laws for their country.

- stolen lesson from Steal This Lesson post. Read about it HERE.

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

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.

Get the students to challenge each other by moulding something while the others guess what it is! Or, create combination things to practice compound words “dog chair”  or a Bat plane”  Enjoy these delicious “real recipes”!

Magic Clay

2 2/3 C. Water
1 C. cornstarch
1/2 C. cold water

Heat the 1st measure of water over low heat until bubbly. Remove from heat and stir in the cornstarch that you have dissolved in the 1/2/ C. cold water. Stir quickly. Mix with hands if needed. Mold into desired shapes. Dry for 36 hours and paint.

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Sand Sculpture

2 C. fine white sand
1 C cornstarch
1 C. water

Mix ingredients together in old saucepan over low heat stirring constantly until mixture thickens. Let mixture cool. Store in airtight container. Mold as wanted and let air dry 2-3 days. Paint as desired.

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Playdough

2 C. flour
1 C salt
4 tbs. creme of tartar
2 tbs. oil
2 C. water
2 pkgs. of unsweetened koolaid (for color and smell)
Cook above ingredients over medium heat mixing thoroughly and stirring constantly until dough pulls aways from the edge of the saucepan. Turn onto counter and knead warm dough until smooth. When cool, store in an airtight container.

This post was submitted by david.

1.  Hand out the worksheet for each student. Put them in groups of 3/4.Name one scorekeeper for each group.

2.  Show a Top 5 category. Here is a basic game, get more on EFL Classroom for higher levels.  Students individually select the top 5 for the category while the thinking song plays. Give them either 1, 2 or 3 songs to complete.

3. Show the answers and students total their scores. See the scoring in the game but students get 2 points for any matching answer. More points if it is in the right / matching position (10, 7, 5, 3, 2).  The scorekeep totals the group’s total score and tells the teacher. Keep track of group totals on the board.

4. Play as many rounds as you have groups. Winner is both the individual with the highest score and the group with the highest score.

That’s it, get playing Top 5! Easy and a great way to review vocabulary/brainstorm vocabulary. You can also play without the worksheet. Students take turns guessing as the teacher reveals answers (right click on the slide and select “notes” , the answers will show up for the teacher!).

This post was submitted by david.

I am a BIG fan of not only teaching English but teaching thinking skills. We have to do both (and always spice with happiness!).

This game really gets students thinking and you’ll be amazed at their creative minds and answers!

1.  Practice the song above, “One of these things is not like the others” , a Sesame Street classic. It will get students engaged and ready for the game. Maybe just the chorus or get the ppt with the song/video and lyrics on EFL Classroom (also the game with lots of “not like the other thing” challenges).

2. Take 4 objects from the classroom. Write on the board,

“The ……. is not like the other things because …..”

Get students to first write down as many answers as possible.

3. Time’s up! Ask students to state their answers. The class will decide if it is a valid answer. Give a point for each unique answer as you go around the groups. No repeating of a previous answer allowed. When all answers are exhausted, start a new round with 4 new objects.

Use the ppt located above and also a worksheet for writing answers which is provided. As I stated, you’ll be amazed at the answers they come up with!

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

Pop up cars are great for talking about colors and car vocabulary. Get the children coloring their cars and then cut them out, fold and show and tell to the whole class! They will love their cars!

Get the pop up cars on EFL Classroom 2.0 , here. The old pop up cars website seems to have disappeared!  Here’s a direct link I found online to a van.

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

Select 4-5 students and give them a flashcard/picture.

All other students put their heads down and one thumb up. The other students go around the classroom and gently squeeze one student’s thumb. They return to the front of the class.

The student’s whose thumbs were squeezed stand up and guess who did it by stating the vocabulary on the flashcard “Did a “bear” squeeze me?”.  If they guess correctly, they get a flashcard and can go to the front.

A fun game!

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

Students spell words on the back of their partner who must guess what they wrote! 

Also, do the same thing but this time, they write on the palm of their partner (who has their eyes closed).

Also try Skywriting.  The teacher writes in the sky and students try to guess the word/sentence. Then, the students can try in pairs..

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

Write a word on a slip of paper and show it to a student. This student must whisper it to the second student. Then the second student must draw a picture of what he or she heard, and show it to the third student. The third student, then, writes the word that represents the picture and shows it to the fourth student. Then the fourth student whispers it to the fifth student…. and so on.

This continues until you get to the last student, who must say the word to the class. Each line/group that is correct gets a point. Play to 5 points.

This post was submitted by Bridgette.