GONNA BEAT YOU :)

   
       It's a different type of "rock,paper,scissors" game. Instead of using their hands, pupils are expected to use their whole body in this activity.

• The instructor should determine a body position for rock, paper and scissors shapes.
• The pupils are divided into groups of three.
• They are informed by the teacher about the positions.
• Each group stands in line and when the instructor gives the start, they shape their body as a rock, a paper or scissors.
• The rock beats scissors, the scissors beat paper and the paper beats rock.
• At each turn, the losers are eliminated one by one and the winner keeps until s/he loses.
• At the end, the group which has the most members wins the game.

       This could be a great energizing warm up idea. I hope you're gonna enjoy it, too.

       Take it easy. See you soon...  McD

COME TO MY VOICE MATE!!!

      Looking for multifunctionality? Here is the perfect fit ;) From team building or icebreaker to warm up, you can use this great activity for many purposes.

• Determine a specific lexical area to use as group names like colours, animals...etc.
• Give each student a group name in private, so noone will know the others' groups or group mates.
• Set up a safe environment. This is vitally important because all the pupils are going to do this activity with eyes closed. So, they have the possibility to harm themselves in an unsafe environment.
• Now, eyes get closed. With the instructor's countdown, they start shouting the group name they were given. The ones from the same group try to come together as soon as possible.

       I hope you like it. Have it your way :) Take it easy.
       See you soon...
                             McD

HEY BUDDY, I TRUST YOU ;)

      Do you want to teach "giving directions"? This activity is a great way to do it especially with the young learners. Your pupils are gonna give both directions and find their way to wherever you wanna take them to.
      How to do:

• You should first set up a safe environment (preferably garden or xystus with no dangerous or harmful objects around). This is really important because (if not) the students may have some undesired accidents and injure themselves.
• Now you can set your race circuit one by one from the start to the finish. (You'd better number the obstacles to make them easier to follow.) The ones I used are below:

• Giving instructions is the next step. The students are gonna work in pairs (One is the navigator:D who is going to give the directions like "turn left, turn right, go straight ahead, stop, walk... etc."; the other one is the blindfolded who is going to make the trust walk and follow the instructions, get to the end.
• Most of the pairs can complete the circuit, If you'd like to make it more challenging and determine a winner pair, you could use a stopwatch.

         Don't forget to reward the champions :) Take it easy. See you soon...

                                                                                                                        McD

FUNNY IDIOMS AND PHRASES - WHAT IF THEY WERE REAL?

          Here are the realistic drawings of funny English idioms and phrases... We had great time doing it :) Good idea for teaching idioms and developing creativity... It worths trying ;)

BOSSY CIRCLE

         If you want to teach "imperatives" or "action verbs", this activity is exactly what you need.

-Prepare a visually supported worksheet for the verbs you're going to use.
-Let the pupils work on it for a few minutes.
-As the instructor, get in the middle of the circle and mime all the verbs one by one and make the pupils act them, too.
-Then, start giving orders: "jump, run, point to the teacher, sleep, swim, crawl, brush your teeth, yawn...etc.". (At this step you'd better not mime, just give orders. Let the students find out what to do themselves.)
-What you do is just a warm-up :) Now, it's the real bosses' turn :) Each pupil comes up, acts like a boss and gives orders to his/her friends and they do whatever s/he wants them to do :)

         I've twenty students. So, it took us nearly an hour to get to the end. However, they never got bored or tired. (To be honest I did after a long tiring day :) )
         Teaching verbs is much more funnier in this way. I hope you're gonna like it :)

         See you soon...
         McD...

HOT OR COLD?

             I'm sure you all have tried this classical game many times before. I've added some rules and made it a little bit more challenging.
             We determined three objects beforehand. The one going to be the "it" chose one of these objects; but in order to be able to choose the one s/he wanted, s/he had to describe it (shape, colour, size... etc.) before it was hidden.
             At the next step, eyes got opened and the search began. As the "it" moved away from the object, the others shouted "Cold, cold, cold!" and as s/he got closer to the object, they shouted "Hot, hot, hot!". They kept on doing the same until the hidden object was found.
              Last year I tried the same game with "Physical Appearance" words. The person chosen to be hidden was described ( hair, eyes, weight, height...etc.) and the"it" got him/her.
              These are my variations of this game. I hope you like them or get your own ones.
       Good Luck :)

MI-MI-MI-MI MICROPHONE SHOW

            We have got only one basic rule for this activity: "SHOW MUST GO ON..." under all circumstances :).
             Everyone taking part in the activity should be able to memorize the lyrics of an English song and sing it from the beginning to the end... (Or you can determine the song/s to be sung)
             The instructor chooses the singer who is going to come on the stage. One by one, all the attendants sing their own song, but how?
             The audience (other pupils) take their place in front of the stage. They have the remote control of the singer. As their turn comes, they instruct the one who is singing like "volume up, volume down, fast, slow... etc". You can also use feelings and emotions. Whatever you say or write, the singer has to sing his/her song in that way, non-stop :)
           

             It's a great warm-up idea. We had great time doing it. I hope that it will work with you, too. Have it your way :) Take it easy...

CRAZY DANCE

    

        It's a pretty good and enjoyable idea for teaching feelings and emotions. We (both "me" and my pupils :) ) had a great time doing it.

        If  the pupils already have a background of these words, you can directly apply it. However if they don't, you'd better make them ready yourself. Before getting started; determine the words, prepare the worksheets and give them a couple of minutes to work on. This is the most boring part :) The rest will be so funny that you won't even remember the first step...

        How was mine?
        My worksheets were visually supported ( no translation). There were only the words and the smileys showing them and only one word with its smiley on each page.

        Now, find an energetic music (I know, I don't need to say but in English please :)). You can get started then...

        At the beginning you can use some easy instructions like "dance, jump, stop... etc. as a warm up :) Then, show the feeling or emotion you want them to act while dancing. For instance, when you show "happy", they dance happily or sadly for "sad". If you show "tired", they act like they feel tired. Bored, surprised, shocked, scared,..etc. as many as you wish... The activity goes on till you feel dead tired :D..

         Take it easy... See you soon...

SAVE YOUR SHIP

• Determine a lexical area of vocabulary. (fruits, animals, adjectives, stationery... etc.)
• Prepare a worksheet or a list of words for the students to study on. (visually supported, not in the mother tongue)
• When the pupils feel ready for the game, divide them into groups of four or five.
• Choose a captain and a shooter for each group. (the rest is the crew.)
• Let the pupils to pick a name for their ship.
• Then let the game begin :)  

 Here is how:
The ship that the instructor picks starts first. The captain says the first word (from the vocabulary list they studied beforehand), then the crew one by one till the shooter's turn comes. The shooter says his/her own word and then another ship's name. (All the pupils should say different words from the list). Now the ship chosen by the shooter has the turn and they do the same. If the captain of the ship cannot give a word in two seconds or one of the crew and shooter repeats the same word, their ship sinks and the group loses the game. It goes on until one ship is left and becomes the winner.

Did it work?
Absolutely yes! It's an enjoyable and challenging way of learning and teaching vocabulary... I'm sure you and your pupils are gonna love it!

WHAT ABOUT A MOTIVATING START??

    

     I have been dealing with drama stuff for two years at my school. There are three different age groups, so I have to do something for them all in common. AAAnd the first step was "Drama Club Dance". The song was an instructional one and named as "Dance Dance Dance". Actually, it was aimed for "Zumba" but I did it my way :)

    " Right hand in the air, left hand in the air
     Slide to the right, slide to the left.
     Dance, dance, dance, stop!"... etc. are some of these enjoyable instructions. I choreographied it by myself. I advice you to do your own one because age, level, needs.... may differ from student to student, teacher  to teacher, school to school blah blah blah..... :)

     The link of the music is below. Take it easy :) See you soon...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra1kQED6S5w