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 half-sized, and includes a word search grid. Students must take the present-tense verbs at the bottom of the sheet and find their past tense counterparts within the grid. On the blank back of the worksheet, students should write a sentence with each of the past tense verbs.

irr-past-tense-word-search

-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 full-sized, and is a straight-forward reading comprehension exercise, with 10 questions at the end.

volcano-reading-comp

-Abeth S.

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.

This worksheet is half-sized, and is a good ice-breaker for early in the year. Students must (in English, of course) ask their classmates which of the squares on the sheet apply to them, and write their names. Then, as a class, you can review the “answers.”

find-someone-who

-Abeth S.