1 no-prep warm up activities

11 no preparation warm up activities to keep your students occupied while you do some last minute photocopying, grab a much needed coffee, etc. (For more stimulating warm up ideas check out Penny Urs’ Five Minute Activities.)

Due to popular demand here are 10 more no-prep warmers and fillers.

1. Make the most words

Write a topical vocabulary item on the board. In twos or threes students make as many new words from it as they can. Possible seed words: apologise, dictionary, september Score a point per word and a bonus point for the longest

2. Make the longest words

Write a target word vertically down the board, for example. winter. In twos or threes students attempt 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. W aterfall I ndustrious N ausea T errified E mpty R etail

3. What does your name mean?

Using whatever resources they have at hand, students find and write down an appropriate adjective that begins with each letter of their first name. For example: Flirtatious, Relaxed, Extrovert, Desirable

4. Mixed up sentence

Write a sentence on the board but mix up the word order then challenge students to reconstruct the original sentence. For example: morning hadn’t eaten wish that döner kebab I at this 5am .

5. 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?

6. What do you know about bananas?

In groups students think of and write down as many facts as they can about bananas (or cats, Belgium, David Beckham, etc.). One point is given for each true sentence.

7. How many sounds can you hear?

Students sit in silence for two minutes and write down every sound that they hear. Let them compare their lists with their neighbours before seeing who has the longest list?

8. Round the board

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. See also A to Z race.

9. Things to do with a potato

(one of many brilliantly simple ideas from this great book) Produce a potato (if that’s not possible, the concept of a potato). Ask students to list as many unconventional uses for it as they can. For example: paperweight, weapon, pen holder, iPhone dock. The longest list wins the potato.

10. Odd one out

Give the students a couple of examples to guess (there are no right or wrong answers), then get students to think up their own ideas. Some examples:

apple, peach, banana, tomato (a banana doesn’t have seeds)

strawberry, branch, anvil, boat, iceberg (anvils don’t float)

window, river, envelope, client, oregano (client doesn’t begin and end with the same letter)

11. Name ten

Get students to think of ten items that fit a certain criteria. For example, name ten:

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)

Another way to never struggle for warm-up / filler activities is to have a copy of 50 Conversation Classes on hand. The book contains easy to copy and cut out conversation questions and further exercises on over 50 topics. Hand a pile of cards to students at the beginning of the class and they will produce all kinds of ideas, vocabulary and hopefully, interesting questions too.

Share th1. Mastermind (AKA Bulls & Cows, Jotto)

Based on the popular-in-the-1970s code-breaking board game where players had to discover which coloured pegs the other player had hidden behind a shield.

Think of a four letter word and write XXXX on the board. Each X represents one of the letters in the word. Invite students to guess which four letter word you have chosen. Compare XXXX with the word on the board and start a new line underneath. If the first letter in the student’s word is the same as the first letter in your word put a ✓ in the first position. If the first letter is not the same as the first letter in your word but is contained somewhere else in the word put a half tick /. If the first letter of the student’s word is not contained at all in your word put an X. In the following example, the word the teacher chooses is FIRE. The students’ guesses are written next to the code so they can keep track of what letters are right and wrong.

XXXX

XXXX – COAT

X/XX – BEST

X✓X✓ – HIKE

/✓X✓ – RIDE

✓✓✓✓ – FIRE

A word of warning. It’s probably best to stick to four or five letter words. It gets much more difficult to guess longer words and it can also be tricky trying to keep on top of marking each guess. When students are familiar with the game you can get them to come and put their own words on the board.

2. I’m going on a picnic and I’m taking a …

This is a guess the rule type game. Think of a rule which governs which items can be taken to the picnic, for example, it must be six letters long or it must start with a vowel. In this example the rule is that the word must be an uncountable noun.

Teacher: I’m going on a picnic and I’m taking milk.

Student A: I’m going on a picnic and I’m taking eggs.

Teacher: No, you can’t take eggs.

Student B: Can I take orange juice?

Teacher: Yes, you can take orange juice.

Etc.

Continue until students guess the rule, if they’re not making any progress, continue to add further items you would take e.g. love, information, air (the choices don’t have to make sense within the picnic scenario). Invite the students alone or in pairs to come up with their own rules and let them run the game.

3. Word Association

Sometimes the simplest ideas turn out to be surprisingly effective and word games don’t get any simpler than word association. Say a word e.g. banana and each student takes it in turns to say a word which they associate with the previous word. If the connection isn’t obvious, challenge the student to justify their choice.

E.g. banana – monkey – zoo – tourists – hotel – bible – …

4. 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.

5. Just a Minute Tic Tac Toe

Based on the BBC Radio 4 panel show. Draw a Tic Tac Toe grid on the board and in each space write a topic that you think some of your students might be interested in or have some knowledge of. Play the game with two teams, for each team to claim their X or O they must volunteer someone who can talk about the topic in the chosen square for 45 -60 seconds (depending on their level) without pausing or repetition.

6. One-upmanship

I discovered this great activity at BusinessEnglishResources.com. Start off by explaining the concept of one-upmanship, i.e. that some people always like to appear to be more interesting or superior to others in their company. Then tell the students a relatively mundane story about something that happened recently and invite the first student to tell a similar story but to top it in some way. Each student in turn tries to top the previous student’s tale.is:

7. Spontaneous Scatter Sheet

You may have come across Scatter Sheets elsewhere on this site. They are a great way to review vocabulary, introduce a theme and get students talking. Students brainstorm words connected to a theme, for example, the seaside, London, marketing, etc. Write these words on the board randomly, not in straight lines or columns but higgledy-piggledy and at jaunty-angles. When you have around 20 words on the board, go round the room asking each student in turn to describe one of the words, when it’s been successfully guessed, circle it and move on to the next student. Encourage students to let the describer utter at least two sentences before shouting out the answer.

8. Spin the marker

Sometimes students just want a chance to talk and express themselves in an unstructured way and it’s a good idea to encourage this. Spin the marker pen and whoever it points to can dictate the conversation, ask questions, suggest the topic, etc. Spin the marker again when you feel the conversation has run its course. I find this activity works best when students are sat in a small circle not too far apart.

9. What’s in the news?

Sometimes the simplest questions can generate the richest conversations. My all time favourite warmer question is what did you have for breakfast? However, what’s in the news? will lead to a much wider set of conversational opportunities and possible follow-up activities.

10. Fortunately / Unfortunately

English learners often have trouble remembering and correctly pronouncing these two useful words. One way to practice it is to start a story and have learners alternately advancing the story using these adverbs.

For example:

Teacher: Yesterday my car was stolen.

Student A: Fortunately, it was insured.

Student B: Unfortunately, the insurance company went bankrupt.

Student C: Fortunately, my grandfather said he would buy me a new car.

Student D: Unfortunately, he’s lost his mind and doesn’t have any money.

Etc.

Another way to never struggle for warm-up / filler activities is to have a copy of 50 Conversation Classes on hand. The book contains easy to copy and cut out conversation questions and further exercises on over 50 topics. Hand a pile of cards to students at the beginning of the class and they will produce all kinds of ideas, vocabulary and hopefully, interesting questions too.

ESL Taboo – old but gold

ESL TabooESL Taboo is a lively and popular game in the ESL classroom. It’s perfect for reviewing and reactivating vocabulary and encouraging fluency.

When to play Taboo

At the end of a unit or level or before a test. Taboo is a great way to recycle vocabulary and get students producing full sentences.

How to play

Make a list of vocabulary items you want to review, five to ten words per student depending on how long you want to play.Write each word on separate small squares of paper. Fold up each square and put them in a large easily accessible container such as a box or a hat.

Put students into groups of four or five and get them to think up team names, write them on the board.

The first group elects a team member who comes to the front of the class where the box of words is.

The player takes a word from the container and tries to describe it to their team mates without actually saying the word or using their native language. If the word is successfully guessed then students put it to one side. If not the word goes back in the hat and the player takes another.

After 90 seconds sound a buzzer, count how many words were successfully guessed and mark them up on the board under the team name.

Continue until every team member has taken a turn (or two) in the describing role.

Provide lollipops for the team with the most points.

Printable Taboo cards

pre intermediate

intermediate

upper intermediate

Halloween

his is a good getting to know each other exercise for a first class with intermediate students and above. It gets the students circulating and asking questions and there’s an opportunity at the end to discuss some of the issues raised.

Print out or write some of your own opinion cards and give each student five random cards. Give students a chance to read their cards while you help out with any questions about meaning and vocabulary.

Tell students that they should hold onto any opinions that they strongly agree with and that they must now get rid of any opinion cards they hold which they don’t agree with. They do this by mingling and asking other students if they agree with the sentiment expressed on their card. If they find someone who agrees with the opinion on their card that person takes the card and adds it to the cards they already hold.

When the activity seems to be coming to a natural end, tell students to give you any cards they haven’t managed to get rid of and tell the students to sit back in their places.

First go through the opinion cards that were unclaimed and see if anyone is willing to take any of them, then go round the class asking students to reveal which opinion cards they are holding, this should spur plenty of debate and discussion, provide plenty of opportunities for language input and help the students to get to know more about their classmates.

his is a good getting to know each other exercise for a first class with intermediate students and above. It gets the students circulating and asking questions and there’s an opportunity at the end to discuss some of the issues raised.

Print out or write some of your own opinion cards and give each student five random cards. Give students a chance to read their cards while you help out with any questions about meaning and vocabulary.

Tell students that they should hold onto any opinions that they strongly agree with and that they must now get rid of any opinion cards they hold which they don’t agree with. They do this by mingling and asking other students if they agree with the sentiment expressed on their card. If they find someone

who agrees with the opinion on their card that person takes the card and adds it to the cards they already hold.

When the activity seems to be coming to a natural end, tell students to give you any cards they haven’t managed to get rid of and tell the students to sit back in their places.

First go through the opinion cards that were unclaimed and see if anyone is willing to take any of them, then go round the class asking students to reveal which opinion cards they are holding, this should spur plenty of debate and discussion, provide plenty of opportunities for language input and help the students to get to know more about their classmates.

Printables