Materials: paper and pen, one role for each student

Description: Type or write out a role in a wedding for each person in the classroom. Of course you will have the obvious characters- priest, bride, groom, etc. but make sure to write out a specific role for each person in the wedding party as well; some that I used that were popular were- drunk uncle, ex-boyfriend of the bride, depressed grandmother, cousin that recently escaped from prison- get creative! Put all the roles in a bag and have each student choose one. No matter what this is their role, this makes it more fun because you get a male bride, a female groomsmen, whatever. Give the students a few minutes to decide how their character will say and act. Let them act it out! Usually the kids get really into it and it can get really loud and hilarious. If you have more quiet kids you may have to prompt them by yelling out some stuff yourself, that usually gets them talking.

In order to stretch this into a whole 40 minutes you can start the class out by asking questions about why people get married, what is true love, do they believe in love at first sight, what the differences are between Bulgarian and American weddings, etc. It’s also really fun to do on a holiday or special occasion because you can bring in cake or other goodies and have a “reception” afterward, in which all the kids are still in character (I had kids kyucheking around the classroom to music from their cell-phones).

-Lauren S.

Materials: set of picture cards with objects,animals etc., these can be printed off a computer or drawn by hand

Description: For this you need a set of picture cards with objects,animals etc. Tell the class that you are going to auction these objects, and that each student has $100 to spend. Auction the items and keep a note of who bought what, giving the card to the buyer. After a few items have been sold, tell the students what they have really bought, eg, ‘ you bought a nice house for $90, but I’m afraid you’ll never be able to use it, it is on the edge of a volcano.’ ‘you thought you bought a butterfly for $20, but it really is a miniature robot worth thousands of dollars.’

Put students in groups and give them some picture cards (I had 4 groups and gave each group 4 cards). Tell them to think of a surprise like this for each picture, and write them down if need be. Then one person (an auctioneer) from each group gets in front of the class with the cards and auctions them to members of the other groups. (Teach some useful phrases, eg Do I hear 10? Who’ll give me 20? etc.) When the auctioneer has sold all the cards he/she tells the story behind each object.

-Lauren S. (adapted from Dave’s ESL Cafe)

Materials: Small pieces of paper, pens, white/chalk board and markers/chalk

Description: Cut up small pieces of paper into about one inch squares. Write one letter and its point value on each paper. In regular Scrabble there are 100 letter tiles, in the following distribution:

2 blank tiles (scoring 0 points)
1 point: E ×12, A ×9, I ×9, O ×8, R ×6, N ×6, T ×6, L ×4, S ×4 U ×4
2 points: D ×4, G ×3
3 points: B ×2, C ×2, M ×2, P ×2
4 points: F ×2, H ×2, V ×2, W ×2, Y ×2
5 points: K ×1
8 points: J ×1, X ×1
10 points: Q ×1, Z ×1

Put your students in 2-4 groups, depending on how many kids you have. Have each team take 7 letters. Pick a team to go first, or have them rock-paper-scissor it out. Write down the word in the middle of the board and tally up their points. Write out the words on the board as if it were a Scrabble board; as a warning, it might get kind of complicated and messy.  Keep it going until all the letters are used, class ends, or no more words can be made. The team with the most points at the end wins.

-Lauren S.

This worksheet is full-sized, and is meant to help students write their own limericks in English. Besides giving examples at the top, the bottom half of the worksheet gives lists of rhyming words for students to use in their own poems. Students do not actually write on this worksheet, and two to three students can share each sheet.

limerick

-Abeth S.

This worksheet is triple-sized (three per sheet), and is meant to be copied into the students’ notebooks. There are a total of 28 grammatical mistakes in the 15 sentences, but not the same ammount in each sentence. Students should copy the sentences correctly into their notebooks.

corrections

-Abeth S.

This worksheet is double-sided, and meant to be folded into a booklet. Students choose one of the 50 American states to research, and then use the Internet or school library to find the information within the booklet. There are twenty questions inside, and on the back of the booklet students must draw a map of their state, as well as its state flag.

state-report

-Abeth S.

This worksheet is half-sized, as well as double-sided. On the front side, students put the slang words into the given sentences. On the back, they sort the slang words into the correct parts of speech (noun, adjective, etc.). Lots of fun for high school students!

slang

-Abeth S.

This worksheet is half-sheet sized, and gives students the opportunity to try their hand at matching two halves of famous food proverbs. Sometimes, the incorrect answers are just as interesting as the right ones!

food-proverbs

-Abeth S.

Materials: whiteboard and markers, pictures

Description: Create or find pictures to use. This game is best if there are several things in each picture. As an example, I’ll use teaching prepositions of place. The pictures can be unrealistic and fun, as long as the students know all the words. In one picture, show a big elephant behind a small house, 3 little birds on a rock, two big mountains behind the elephant and a girl above the mountains in a helicopter.

Explain the instructions very clearly. This is important! Divide the students into 4 groups and divide the board into 4 sections. Have each team stand in front of their section. Each group should elect one person to draw. The drawer may not turn around; he/she must be facing the board at all times. Hand the picture to the students who are not drawing. They must hold the picture so the drawer is unable to see it. Very important: all students may only speak in English. Any Bulgarian is grounds for disqualification.

The students with the picture must describe the picture to the drawer, exactly as it appears. This means that the elephant must be big and the house small, and there must be 3 birds. The first drawer to accurately draw the picture gets a point. Another option: the first team gets 4 points, the 2nd team 3, etc. Each team needs a new person to draw, and hand out a new picture.

-Chantelle K.

Materials: an egg timer/stopwatch/clock, paper and pens

Description: This is based on the idea suggested by research which states that the number of words a student can write in 5 minutes is an indication of fluency and ability in a foreign language. The generally accepted number is 100 words in 5 minutes.

At the beginning of the year, give students 10 minutes to write a story or essay. Lower level students, particularly at the beginning, might benefit from being given a specific topic to write about, or a certain character. At the end of the time limit, have students count the number of English words they have written in their story. When 80-90% of your students have written 100 words or more, cut down the time, usually by 15-45 seconds. If a student has more than 75 words in English, that’s pretty good. 50? Halfway there! When 100% of your students can write a 100-word story in 5 minutes or less, treat them to something special!

Suggestions:
1. Tell your students that if they don’t know a word in English, it’s okay to write that one word in Bulgarian and the rest of the words in the sentence in English.
2. Spelling and grammar don’t count. You’re measuring fluency with this exercise, not accuracy. Knowing this will help alleviate some student stress.
3. Remind students that writing 1 word one hundred times doesn’t count.
4. I allow students to count names and other proper nouns, because they are part of natural language use, as long as they are written in English.
5. It’s interesting to hang on to these for the year to look at how students have progressed. If you work closely with the teacher who teaches the next level/grade, pass them along so he or she has an idea of your students’ ability. If you do this, make sure the students write the time limit at the top in addition to the number of words they have written.

-Chantelle K.