Warm Up Activities

Warm Up Activities 

Thankfulness Post-its:

 Students write down what they are thankful for on a post-it. You can have a designated space for the post-it. 

 Encouragement Letters: 

Write an encouragement statement to a stranger then post it around school.  This would also be neat to see the target language all over school.

Throwback Thursday: 

Bring in a picture of yourself from when you were younger and describe it in the target language.  Students bring in photos and describe themselves as well

Make the longest words

Write a topical target word vertically down the board, for example, WINTER. Ask the students to come up with the longest word that begins with each letter. Give teams a point per word and a bonus point for the longest.

    Waterfall

   Industrious 

   Nausea

   Terrified

  Empty

   Retailer

What does your name mean?

Using a dictionary, google or any other resource, students find and write down an appropriate adjective that begins with each letter of their first name

Mixed up sentence

Write a sentence on the board but mix up the word order, then challenge students to reconstruct the original sentence. 

Mixed up sentence (anagram variation)

Write a sentence on the board but this time scramble the letters of each word. For example:

hwy ddint’ I dusty draher ta vieyunrsit?

What do you know about bananas?

Set a 5 minute time limit and in groups have students think up and write down as many facts as they can about bananas or any other topic.

How many sounds can you hear?

Students sit in silence for two minutes and write down every sound that they hear. 

A to Z race

Give students a theme, for example, jobs, things you take on holiday, food. Write the letters A to Z on the board. Students write an appropriate word beginning with each letter. 

Name ten

Have students think of 10 items that fit a certain criteria. For example:

• Jobs where you have to wear a uniform
• English football clubs
• Sports that are played with a ball
• Foods that contain egg
• Animals that lay eggs
• Three letter parts of the body – eye, arm, leg, hip, ear, toe jaw, rib, lip, gum

Three things in common

This is a great icebreaker, but you can also use it as a lead-in to a theme or to test your students’ knowledge of a grammar point. Simply ask students to work in pairs and find three things that they have in common and then report back to the class. You can narrow the topic down to areas like: three things we both did at the weekend, three foods we both like, three things we both don’t like about this city,three things neither of us have done yet but would like to, etc.

Can’t Say Yes or No

The object of this warm up is to not say “yes,” or “no.” Students ask each other questions to try to get the other members of their group to say “yes,” or “no.” The other members must answer the questions, but without saying “yes,” or “no.” It’s a fun activity that requires students to think on their feet.

For more ideas , check this website:

http://busyteacher.org/teaching_ideas_and_techniques/warmers/