Warm-Up Ideas

Why Warm-ups?  Warm-ups are a good way to get students comfortable with speaking English again after they have gone a week, or perhaps longer, without speaking it.  It is also a frivolous activity while you wait for the late students to show up.

Short Conversation Write out simple question/answers on board in one-two format 1.Hello ______. How are you? 2.Hello ______, I’m ______. 1.______, what did you do at school on Friday? 2.At school on Friday I _______. 1.Really, that’s ________! 2.Yes, I know!  Give each student a piece of paper with 1 or 2 or simply number them off, then have them stand in two lines facing each other and begin speaking.  Switch roles when all of the students have gone.

Yesterday I…  Choose one student to stand up and say a sentence about something they did yesterday.  Other students then call out questions to elicit more information about what they did.  Yesterday I went shopping  What did you buy? Who did you go shopping with? How much money did you spend? Where did you go?  Repeat with all students, calling out students to ask questions when others clam-up.

Name Scraps  Type all the student’s names on pieces of paper and put on the floor face-down.  A student selects a piece of paper and asks that student a question.  The question could be based upon what unit you are on.  Go around until all students have gone.

How Many Words Can You Make? Write a short phrase or a word or two on the board. Students will have 1-2 minutes to write as many words from those letters as they can.  Make sure they know that they cannot use the same letter twice, unless there are two of them in the model.  “English First”  Girl, Get, Sit, Fire, etc.

Letters into Words  Bring a cup full of cut up letters to class.  Make 2-3 piles of letters on the floor and assign students into groups.  Students have to make words that you call out from the book.

Ball Throw at Words on the Board  Write out some different words from your unit  Students throw the sticky-ball, or other less effective ball, at the board and make a sentence with that word, or change the form of the word.  Examples can be making regular verbs irregular, changing the tense, etc.

Fill In Words  Write a few words or a long word on the board in vertical format:  Job Interview JJJJ OOOO BBBB IIII NNNN TTTT EEEE RRRR VVVV IIII EEEE WWWW  Make words based on the two words for higher levels, any words for lower levels.  This can be done on the board or students can do it on paper in groups or individually then read.

Make Words  Write a long word on the board in horizontal format:  Interview  Students then need to think of as many words in one category and then intersect them with that word.  Category: Jobs  Points are given for each letter you have, so longer words are better.  Encourage students to put ‘s’ on as many words as they can for the plural, and an extra point  I usually start off at 1.5 minutes and lower the time for 3 rounds.

Can’t Say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’  Give each student 5-10 pieces of paper cut into squares, or coin/token print outs.  Students have to walk around the room asking and answering questions, but if they answer with “yes” or “no” they have to give one of their pieces of paper to that student.  If they lose all their paper they sit down; person with the most paper at the end of the time limit wins.  The key to the game is asking questions that almost always require a yes or no answer.  Are you a student? = I’m also a human being!

Circle Categories  Put the students in a circle, either standing or sitting, depending on the class.  Choose a category, such as fruit, and the students have to name a fruit. If they cannot think of one, or take longer than 5-10 seconds, they have to sit down.  A new category begins, such as vegetables, when someone sits down.  Good ideas: foods, school subjects, clothes, countries, animals, classmate’s names, holidays, jobs

# on the Card  Write out a question on the board.  What did you do for the holiday?  Pass out cards from a deck of playing cards, one to each student.  Students say a number of things based on the number on their card.

Anagram/Cryptogram  Go to puzzlemaker.com and you can write out a sentence or two, choose which letters to reveal, and then print.  Type up a list of letters and numbers corresponding to the puzzle.  A is 3, B is 17, T is 7  Pass out a puzzle and letter/number to each student.  Students then have ten seconds to stand up and tell other students their letter/number before sitting down and filling in their puzzle for a minute.  Repeat until the puzzle is solved, giving any extra letters out by writing them on the board between rounds.