Minimal preparation, maximum effectiveness activities

At the end of a lesson - "What word/sentence am I thinking of from the lesson". Do either from memory or with support. All can participate. Write the one you are thinking of on a piece of paper in case they accuse you of cheating! Then involve the kids up front. A sweet for the winner is a great addition to this game... A mid-lesson game or plenary: Pair noughts and crosses. They each draw a nine box grid with an English word/picture/first initial of each word in a sentence e.g. jml = je me leve if doing daily routine. Then working in pairs they have to say a word/sentence in TL to get their nought/cross in the box. They only let them have it if they are happy with pronunciation! Each pair has two games to play as every one prepared a grid. Or get them to use a pencil and they can use the same grid twice! Listening bingo - use any tape extract. Tell students the topic then they think of 10 words to do with that topic and write them down. They then listen to the tape and every time they hear the words they tick them as a tally chart of the frequency of the words. Winner is the one with most ticks - a chewit sweet for the winner. Brill for predicting what will come up. You can also use this with pupils preparing mini speaking presentations. Pupils read them out (with/without support)and the others have chosen 5 words they think will come up and do the same tally idea. A-Z on a topic - word and picture for each letter of the alphabet. Prizes for winners. Create a puzzle page for revision of a topic - swap over and do each others' puzzles... Slightly better than do a word search then swap!! Heads down thumbs up. This is the basic version.4 volunteers on floor . rest of class put heads down on desk. arms crossed under their heads [wish I could draw on this!] hands making fists with thumbs sticking up and eyes closed . No peeking. Volunteers creep round room and each pushes down the thumbs of one person. No-one opens eyes till volunteers return to front [with any luck rest have fallen asleep by this point] Four whose thumbs were touched stand up and in turn say who they think touched them. [ No-one to say yes or no till all have said] If they are correct they come out and take place of first four, If not the original person stays on floor. Difficult to tie in with languages but if the four on the floor each have a flashcard the victims could name the object instead of the persons name. I use heads down thumbs up to build sentences. The 4 pupils at the front are vocab eg une chambre, un salon, une salle manger and une cuisine. The pupils who are touched on the thumbs guess who has touched them by saying dans ma maison il y a une cuisine. You could combine two, or three rooms by having a series of pictures on flashcards and hanging them around pupils necks with string. Does this make sense?

Also a game with post it notes. Write different jobs on them and stick them to pupils foreheads without them seeing. Pupils ask partner questions eg je porte un uniforme? Partner can only respond with oui or non. Pupil has to work out what job is. Its probably easier to have pre prepared questions for the pupils to use. Good for GCSE jobs. Strip bingo pupils split a piece of paper into 9 sections and write a different phrase/word in each section. Teacher repeats words/phrases several times pupils can only tear off the strip if the word/phrase is at either end of the paper. Winner is pupil with one strip left. Advantage over normal bingo is that the teacher repeats the words/phrases. Use a stopwatch to time pupils matching the vocab on linguascope on IWB - fastest wins a sticker or merit. Pairs on linguascope on IWB. First one to get three pairs wins. Winner stays on. When you've introduced vocab play word tennis. Eg Partner A .Dans mon sac il y a une trousse Partner B adds one then volleys it back eg dans mon sac il y a une trousse et un cahier. Partner A adds another etc. Pupils score when partner pauses, hesitates repeats word, or can't remember order. Score as tennis if they know how. Mallets mallet. Buy an inflatable hammer, or real one for difficult groups. Choose topic eg colours. Get two pupils to face each other and pretend you are timmy mallet. Pink glasses and bermuda shorts are a must. Hit pupil on the head with the appropriate force, if they pause, hesitate, repeat word or stray from topic area completely. the word tennis game also works for questions and answers and gives them the opportunity to practice making questions up...... If you have a PALE system [don't know if this has different names but it is those fixed to the wall tape recorders round the classroom] pupils make their own "speaking clock" recordings which they then hand to another pupil to listen to and write answers when you have marked one pupils' work hand over the red pen and send him/ her to mark the next . cascading round the class....... Buy a shoe bag and call it sac magique. Get pupils to close eyes and hide things in it. Classroom objects, flashcards etc. Pupils guess what is in your sac magique and have to make sentence up with word. Dictionary Race: 5 / 10 minutes to find as many words relating to the current topic - prize for the person with the most - then brainstorm them all onto a flipchart/the board so everyone has a wider vocab list! Stand up Bingo. Get pupils to write down 3 words from the vocabulary that you have been teaching that lesson. They then stand up ready and sit down as soon as any one of the words on their list has been called out by you. The aim is to not have any of their words read out thereby being the last one standing. It's a great plenary. Odd one out. Easy for you to put together, good to give to pupils to make up to reinforce vocab, excellent starter or plenary.

Get them to scramble up 5 new words they've learnt from the lesson for a partner to unscramble. Fruit Salad (takes about 25 mins) - play with 4 different phrases or 4 questions/answers. Can do knock out round. Chef d'orchestre (chanting and class changes line upon a previously agreed on signal from one child; 2 'detectives' who had been outside when the signal and person was decided upon have to work out who is changing the line...) When you have lost your starter (like I did today) do a quick test of vocab / sentences from last lesson. You say the English/French and they write the French/English. Then go through on board together - points for each correct word in a sentence makes them not as scared to write the TL from memory. Write a blank for each word in a sentence. Give the last word and work backwards - pupils guess what the word is. Makes them really think about word order especially for past tense and any opinion sentence. Rowdy class... dictation. Queen Victoria: One pupil at front with back to class. Teacher indicates one of class to say " Je m'appelle la reine Victoria" in a disguised voice ... object is to guess speaker t=retain place on floor [ more linguistic value if teacher hands over cue card to be read aloud - but defeats purpose of this thread ..... and sometimes we just need a bit of fun]

Language Brain Trust : 4 pupils on floor . rest of class must ask each in turn a language or cultural question. If correct person stays on floor , if not questioner takes place[limit number of questions on football] 4 still on floor at exact moment bell rings gain points, sweets etc. Statues : useful for verbs Teacher calls out an action Pupils must get into statue pose of that action and hold it without moving, giggling etc till next action is called or sit down What's missing : read out a list of days of the week, animals, colours. Reread list omitting one Zoo :If you have a big room and pupils can sit in a circle sit them with one fewer chairs than pupils . One pupil in centre calls out "Je porte des chaussettes blanches" "J'ai trois freres" etc All those with white socks/three brothers must swap seats while one from centre tries to get one of their chairs. If they call zoo everyone changes seats. Put flashcards on floor. Send a pupil outside. Agree a flashcard with class. Invite pupil in. Class whisper in unison the word then get slowly louder till pupil picks up right card. Can time each pupil an quickest is winner.

Moving Dictation You dictate a text, they write a sentence and then pass their exercise book to another pupil who then continues to write the next sentence... After as many sentences as you want, show them the text on OHP, IWB, using Data Projector or direct them to the page in their textbooks. They then have to correct the mistakes. Great for German - capitals for nouns. They are also more willing to mark other people's work.

Tongue Twister Write a tongue twister on the board, ask them to work out what it means using dictionaries, and then ask for 2/3 repetitions. Normally has plenty of volunteers. Word Recall Not very exciting, but useful - give the pupils the topic or idea (price, size..), and they have to think of as many words as they can, which you then go through with them on the board after. Can turn it into a competition. Word categories Give pupils A4 paper/card, ask them to fold it into 9. Write the topic in each box, and then when you call out a word in TL, they have to write it in the correct box. Same as above - but a game: write the topics on the board, name the two pupils playing each other and say the TL word. First pupil to name the topic that that belongs to wins a point for their team. Could be combined with the above exercise. Aural Dominoes See Resource Bank (made by someone else. Can also be handwritten onto card - only takes 5/10 minutes to prepare. A great way of introducing new vocab or practicing old vocab. Headlines Have pictures on the board (from internet on IWB or projector) and they have to write a headline for it. Write the names of the people involved in recent news and the headlines in TL next to it but muddled up - they have to match them. blockbusters - create a grid with lots of hexagons. Copy to OHT. Write numbers on with an OHT pen. Then use as and when necessary to reinforce vocab/fill time etc. The students choose a number and you give them a question based on the topic you have done. First across the board (or down) is the winner. Snowball. thirty secs to write as many topic words down by themselves. 1 min to work with a partner, two mins to work with their table. Then go round the class, table by table. Write the words on the board. Any words written down by more than one table do not count. Any unique words get a point. Table with the most points win.

Pass the parcel Pass a ball/object around the class to music when the music stops ask who is holding the object a question. Famous person Ask the students for the name of a celebrity. Write it on the board. See who can find a word in the TL for each letter - no resources allowed Word combs They write their names down then find an adjective for each letter of their name. starters: 1. GIMME 5 - say "donnez-moi 5 animaux/5 verbes irrguliers au pass compos/ 5 opinions ngatives/5 alternatifs pour 'trs' etc. etc. Works with any year group. 2. Write a word on the board from a recent topic eg croissant. pupils suggest a sentence containing the word, for which you award a score out of 10 for their impressiveness. Vary generosity of your mark scheme dep on ability of group. 3. "clear the board" - write up 20 or so words or phrases randomly all over your board. Set the clock. They then put up their hand, saying one of the words/phrases and its translation. If correct you rub it out. Penalty of 10 seconds if anyone calls out. They try to beat their own previous class record each time you play. 4. PASSEZ LA BOMBE - buy a kitchen timer. Get a small box (empty Neutradol packaging box is ideal)and paint it black and write "ATTENTION-BOMBE!!! on it. Put the timer in the box. When you play, set the timer for between 1-2 mins, put into box and say a question you've covered recently which can have many different answers. ive bomb to first pupil, who can pass it on when they've said an answer. Whoever is holding the bomb when it goes off has to do a forfeit, like saying 20-1 backwards in French. Writing 1.Write a sentence on the board such as (Yr 7) "Dans ma trousse j'ai un stylo et une gomme." Underline un stylo and une gomme. They have 2 mins to write as many sentences as they can, substituting different items. individuals read their suggestions. Anyone with same sentence crosses it out. People left with sentences no one else has win a sweet. Very simple - at the end of the lesson, get two kids up the front, you say the English, the first kid to say the foreign word wins and the loser sits down, to be replaced by another kid. The person left standing when the bell goes is officially king or queen of the class. Sometimes I let to joke run on and call kids 'prince' and 'princess' as well, I did like it the other day when they called me 'Goddess'!

Best game ever! Can be applied to all topics and levels! BEAT THE TEACHER! Example with numbers. Write down numbers on the board (I use flashcards a lot for this game) Point at a number and say what it is. Kids repeat. Then you try to trick them and you say something that is not correct. Kids have to stay completely quiet. If they were quiet: one point for them. If you managed to trick them ie they repeated robotically what you said without thinking: point for you. We go to ten but I refuse to carry on if I have five and they have not had even a point (this is to stop any of the little trouble makers to repeat the number and hijack the game! Only happened once) There are some more ideas over on the MFLE from Scottish teachers: http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/mfle/creativeteaching/gamesandwarmups/index.asp

Snooker. Two teams alternately answer a starter (red ball) question (an easy one). Then give a category (e.g. pets, shops, colours, furniture, personal pronouns, etre verbs, verbs beginning with 'p' etc), and after 5 seconds deliberation they have to decide which 'colour' (yellow = 2, black = 7 etc). They then have a set time to name that number of items. If they fail the other team has the chance to claim the points. Getting 6 on a 'black' = nul points. Also love doing vocab cards with GCSE students - they make them - a phrase in French on one side and nothing on the other. Once you have taught them about 8-10 phrases they make the mini cards and then put their initials in little letters in a corner. They then play in pairs. They scramble up the cards and hold them in their hands. They put one card down and the fastest to say it in English gets to keep the card. If they both say it at the same time then they put it to one side and the first person to win the next one gets them both. You give them about 5 minutes or so to play and then they count to see who has the more cards and they win. They then sort out the cards so they get their own back (that's why they did the initials) and find another partner. After a bit they write the English down on the other side of their cards and do it the other way round (Eng-Fr), which is obviously more difficult. They can also check they are correct with the cards if they disagree by turning them over. Very high-level of excitement always playing this game! Gunfight: All pupils stand up with their backs to a partner, side on to the teacher, hands clasped to make a 'gun'. Teachers calls out a rapid fire of words/short phrases and pupils call out translation and point their 'gun' at the teacher. They can keep a tally of correct answers on their hand. Shows you where strengths / weaknesses of vocab are. Pupils could make gunfight lists for extension homework.

Poker test: Pupils number 1-10 as per vocab test. Teacher calls out question. Pupils put hand up if they either know the answer or are going to pretend to know the answer and bluff. If they don't know the answer and aren't going to pretend - they put a cross next to the relevant number on their sheet. Teacher chooses pupil to answer question - if he answers correctly - everyone with their hands up gets the point (whether they knew answer or not!!). If he gets the answer wrong/didn't know it - he loses all previously accumulated points. Teacher then chooses another pupil and if he then gets it right - the rest with hands up get the point. And so it continues... So it is a gamble whether they put hand up and risk their points if they don't really know the answer!! Kids would be so rubbish at poker cos you can so tell who is bluffing!! This game has a name, but I can't remember it. You need a metre stick to act as a rifle. To start the game write a word on a piece of paper, fold it and hide it from the class. Walk around the room, point the stick at a pupil and shout. Halte qui va l? Pupil responds with Je m'appelle....... Teacher then asks for le mot de passe. If pupil doesn't say the word you have on the paper shout non BANG! If they correctly identify the password, the pupil is given the metre stick and does the same thing. Reveal the password when correct. Ask pupil to make a sentence with the word in it for extension. Obviously narrow the words down to a specific topic or you may be there a while. Les Animaux Bizarres. Pupils draw a pet with parts of different animals. Eg head of a rabbit, body of a snake and the tail of a fish. Pupils make up name for pet eg UN LAPSERROUGE. Ask pupils to describe pets when finished. Ideas for starters (All of these starters require practically no preparation.) 1. Five anagram words on the board. I.e. asc sod = sac a dos etc 2. Write the middle or end of 5 known words i.e. ayo = crayon tyl=stylo. 3. Write 5 words with a letter missing each. The missing letters could spell another word, if youre that well organised. 4. On a known theme (i.e. town) write the first letter of 5 different places. 5. 5 words each with one deliberate mistake in the spelling. 6. Odd one out i.e chien chat cheval chance 7. With times, numbers, dates or any other sequences, i.e. ma journe write 5 random on the board for them to put in the right order. 8. Mime a word they know (exaggerated lip-reading) 9. Skywrite a word they know (you must write it backwards for them) 10. Write the first two letters of five words up, and they must match the endings. 11. Text speak BB=bb, K7 cassette, LF1=elephant. G HT jai achet. 12. They have one minute to write as many clothes as possible, colours, sports,fruit,veg, countries, pets, rooms, hobbies, furniture. 13. They have one minute to write as many words as they can beginning with. 14. Writesixorsevenwordstogetherwithoutabreak. 15. Show them five flashcards, jumble them up, and they must guess which one you have in front of you.

my fave plenary is the hot seat, pick a pupil they take the seat and students can ask them 5 questions related to the lesson. we usually do this in the TL. great because it's all about them! for speaking practice with year 10 and 11, play your own version of that yes/no game. pupils have to answer questions about a certain topic for 30-60 seconds without giving yes or no as an answer. (based on game show but can't remember the name)works very well for getting them to manipulate the verb and turn questions around. kind of similar idea they have to present about certain without using key basic words e.g. shopping but no mention of the supermarket or shopping centre, it gets them broadening their vocab and gives them the chance to be really creative with language. verbal pictionary: students describe item in TL and a volunteer had to draw representation on board. to consolidate gender with yr 7 I like the line game (need big room or moveable furniture for this) get students in big line (I do girls then boys and playoff after) explain one direction is masc. objects one is fem objects. then call out vocab e.g. estuche= masc so jump left etc. lose when go wrong way and then have eventual champion. My lot love pronunciation competitions- I make a big over the top fuss about mistakes (hay in Spanish pronounced as it looks etc) they love the drama and get v.competitive - is all boys though. They also love memory games- can you remember all these new vocab words (in a specific order or not) in 30 seconds for example. Word tennis is the other one- haven't actually read through the thread so apologies for any overlap- there are a few variations on this one- not exactly a new one I know. Get one of the kids to choose a theme (eg:food) and get a representative from each team (class is always split into 2 for games)to name a word from that topic in turn. If they hesitate, repeat or mess up a word they' drop' the ball and then the point goes to the other team. Has anyone mentioned the one where you write the initial letter of each word in a sentence: jsaen= je suis alle en ville jabuc = j'ai bu un coca/un cafe etc for classes who are struggling to build a paragraph, this sort of modelling works well. My idea is mini-whiteboards. Once you get the initial stuff sorted out - boards, rubbers, pens, one of each in a plastic wallet you can bring it out for a really nice active 10-15 minutes where you tell them what to write, they hold it up, and you get feedback on every single individual. Takes virtually no time to write it into a lesson plan.

Ghosts : go round class . or get them to gently throw soft ball[!] to next person . each must add one word to make a sensible sentence anyone who cannot add another word loses a life . 3 lives and you are a ghost . you can also challenge the person before if you think their answer does not make sense in that case they lose a life . but if they can justify it you do .. good for a small class or group who are reluctant to talk...... as ghost above but you add one letter at a time and the object is not to end a word....... mixed up spelling ........ teacher says letters in a word at random . class must guess word e.g. hiearc Group game : each person has 5 paperclips to start with . One person begins a presentation on self, school etc Other members of group must interrupt with relevant questions If speaker can answer straight away questioner hands over paperclip [or sweets if it is not healthy eating week] If speaker cannot answer the questioner gets paperclip from speaker. In advance prepare a coded alphabet a=1,b=2,c=3 [maybe you can hold it in your head! I can't!] Say numbers to class they have to convert into word ... without a crib ... you will be amazed at how they can do it and boys especially love the challenge eg 3,1,8,9,5,23 Ah yes - mini-whiteboards. Brill for all kinds of activities when you want all the class to join in. 10 pictures lettered a-j. T says a sentence in past/pres/future linked to one or more of pictures. P writes both correct letter and arrow to indicate tense: backwards arrow = past etc. Great for tense practice. With any text: find all the nouns (verbs, past participles, infinitives, words to do with food etc) read in pairs and peer assess accent / intonation do paired dictation - one sentence each stick it to wall and do running dictation find the vocab - you choose 10 English translations of words in the text and tell them all to find word number one (ie the word in the text for ....). In groups they find it and bring it to you whereupon you whisper the number 2. Winner is first to 10. You read the text but change words. They underline words that you changed. Challenge them to say how many you changed (make some hard). Offer a house point for those that get the right number. Translate the text out loud in pairs.

Not with a text but ace for numbers: write a list of about 15 random numbers on the board e.g. 12, 186, 98, etc. (Even works at AS if you make the numbers more challenging). In pairs / small groups time each other reading the list in TL. Find the two quickest in the class (or quickest boy and quickest girl if you want it to be really competitive) and challenge them to a play off at the front. Very similar with photocopied text and coloured pencils. Circle cognates green, positive opinion phrases blue etc. You could ask for words with acute/grave accents. The list goes on. draw a word snake on the board (or worksheet) with hidden infinitives. Pupils come to the board and circle them. You can then ask questions like ; regular/irregular, past participle, sentence in the past/present/future incorporating that verb etc. Been using the activit de glisser-dposer on linguastars to practice the crossover Foundation/Higher question. Get them to cross out the words along the top that don't fit. Ask them why they don't fit. Narrow list down and ask them to choose answer and justify reason. They will hopefully come up with things like infinitive after modal verb, plural, past participle etc. for those who don't have mini white boards: On the first day you issue new exercise books get pupils to write on the centre double pages in HUGE letters Oui/Ja etc on one page and NON/Nein on the other page. Then when you want to do a quick listening read out some true/false sentences and get them all to hold up the correct page - instant feedback on who has understood and all must listen.........