Cognates Worksheet

This worksheet is half-sized. Students must put the words into the correct sentences, but all the words are similar to, or the same as, their Bulgarian translations. (Like “doctor” or “marker.”) Good for more beginning classes.
cognates
-Abeth S.

People to People

Materials: none
Description: This is a good game to review body parts. You need lots of room for the students to walk around and mingle, without desks in the way. To play the game, everyone stands up and walks around the area. The teacher then yells “People to People,” and everyone partners up with the person [...]

Learning Numbers Using Cards

Materials: one deck of cards for each group
Description: This works best in small groups, no more than 3. Aces count as 1 and all face cards start out as 10. You can change this when practicing bigger numbers. When learning numbers 1-10, students place deck of cards in the middle. One student flips the top [...]

Spelling Race with Cards

Materials: a set of alphabet flash cards for each team playing (either cards sent from the states, or you can make them here)
Description: Break the class into teams. Word to the wise: you might want to spread the teams out as far as possible to avoid accusations of cheating. Each team is given a set [...]

Battleship

Materials: white board and white board markers, or paper and regular markers
Description: This is a good game for young beginners, because it doesn’t use a lot of English, and they have a lot of fun trying to figure out where the ships are. It can also be used as a reward game. To set up [...]

Telephone Numbers

Materials: Small scraps of paper, pens
Description: To begin, you need a lot of phone numbers. If your students have their own numbers that they’d like to learn in English, you can use those. Otherwise, make up a bunch of phone numbers. Whether you’re using real or fake numbers, you need to write each number twice [...]

Matching Cards

Materials: premade cards on slips of paper or index card halves (see below for ideas)
Description: This is an easy way to work on almost any concept, and the cards can be easily stored for future classes and years. All you need to do is make sets of cards that illustrate the concept you’re trying to [...]

Outdoor Basketball Counting

Materials: a basketball and hoop
Note: This is great for summer camps when you want to teach some basic English, and are outside playing with some kids. This could be adapted for the indoor classroom if you think creatively.
Description: During the summer I would meet with some kids in the park on different days and we [...]

Disappearing Vocabulary

Materials: White board and markers/blackboard and chalk
Description: I read this activity in a book, and didn’t believe it would work until I actually tried it! Write new vocabulary words on the board – no more than about ten at a time. Go down the list, pointing to each word as the students repeat it after [...]

Team Scattegories

<!– @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } –>
Materials: None

Description: Yes, it’s Scattegories, the party game that we all remember! If you have a smaller group of students, adapting this game to the classroom is easy. A round of Scattegories works like this: You have the students take out a sheet of [...]

Dinosaurs and Humans

Materials: a white/black board, four or five pictures of people (like stick people), three or four pictures of dinosaurs, tape, dice
Descriptions: To set up, draw a grid on the board – the smaller the grid, the quicker the game, but shoot for about 6×6 or 7×7. Attach tape to the backs of the people and [...]

Simon Says

Materials: none
Description: Tell all students to stand up. One person (usually the teacher) is Simon, and the rest of the class has to do what he/she says. Simon begins all instructions with the words “Simon Says,” and then gives a command, like “touch your head.” The class must do as Simon says to, and touch [...]

Hide the Keys

Materials: a set of keys (or any other small object recognizable by touch), a scarf or blindfold
Description: One at a time, students are blindfolded, while the teacher places the set of keys somewhere in the room. I usually write the key vocabulary on the board (turn left, go straight, turn right) and the rest of [...]

Word Association

Materials: none
Description: Start with a theme, for example: winter, and begin a word association game with that theme. The next student must say one word they think of with “winter,” and the following person must say a word associated with whatever the previous student said. For example: Person #1- “snow” Person #2- “snowman” Person #3- [...]