Project 366: The Third Week

Yes, that's right, 21 days have flown past and on the last count, 84 photos in my Project366 folder in Flickr - that's not counting those that didn't make it that far! Here's a selection from the third week.

Lesson ideas?

Divide class into seven groups, and randomly allocate 1 photo each (throw a dice, for example).  First, elicit all the words they can think of, words which, in their mind, they can associate with the image. Get them to explain later. You (and the students) may think, oh, we've got #3, the worst. What can we say?

That's where critical thinking comes into play. Water and tiles might come into mind, right? I can think of a multitude more: rain, raindrops, dew, transparent, wet, cold, lines, squares, geometry, wall, window, glass, damp, humid, blue, colourless, odourless, etc, etc... get the gist?

Then, use their image to describe a mini story either orally (can be spoken, sung, rapped...) or written (prose, poetry, lyrics...)

Review by asking a group to describe another group's contribution.

#ELTBITES Challenge: We like to move it, move it

Once in a while I read something and I find myself thinking, "Now, why didn't I think of that?". Well, Richard Gresswell had such an idea. He started a blog, called it ELTBITES, and challenged us:

"Describe an activity that requires no more than the teacher, students, and possibly making use of the board, pens, and paper. Describe the activity aims and procedure concisely in no more than 200 words."

Here is my contribution, which may not be all that original.

Image from ELTPics by @yearinthelifeof

Level: any
Time: as long as interest prevails
Material: your tongue, and students who obey instructions
Aims: vocabulary, warmer, filler, exercise, fun, ...
Procedure:

This is a simple activity to get the students moving, but, be warned, it can be addictive. I had students wanting to do it again and again, but, perhaps, it was just an excuse for them not to do any 'school work'! ;-)

Think of the language you want your students to work with. Say, you want to revise colours and clothes:

Those of you whose bedroom is white, stand up. (Notice use of relative pronoun, imperative.)

Remain standing.

What about blue?

And black? (I once had a student who has a black bedroom! Of course, we started a mini-conversation.)

Now, if you're wearing white trainers, sit down.

If you're wearing blue jeans, stand up.

You can vary the movements:

If you don't have a belt on, take one step to the left.

If you're wearing black underwear, take two steps back. (This will raise a lot of sniggers!)

Keep it dynamic. Think of unusual stuff (if you can touch your nose with your tongue...). Get them to observe each other (those who have short curly hair...). With higher levels, think of more challenging questions (those who believe in... those who would like to...).

Basically, the limit is your imagination. Hand the activity over to your students. Get them to ask the questions, and use their own commands. Encourage them to be creative.

If you do use this activity, tell us about it!

Idioms Part 14 (Colours) Interactive Game

      

Part 14 of this series on idioms. This one's based on colours. As usual, the clues may not be very precise due to space restrictions, so be sure to look up for the exact meanings.

To start the game, click on the image below. Register at Purpose Games to keep track of your scores. Match the meanings of the idioms to the dots on the right of the expression, and match the missing colours to the dots on the gap.

Be sure to check out the rest in this series:

Part 1 (Transport)
Part 2 (Animals Ants - Birds)
Part 3 (Animals Bees - Cats)
Part 4 (Animals Dogs)
Part 5 (Animals Elephant - Flea)
Part 6 (Animals Fly - Hawk)
Part 7 (Animals - Horses)
Part 8 (Animals - Horses Part 2)
Part 9 (Animals Kittens - Lions)
Part 10 (Animals Monkeys - Pigs)
Part 11 (Animals Pigeons - Rats)

Part 12 (Animals Rats - Tails)

Part 13 (Animals Turkey - Worms)