Grammar

This simple activity always gets the class deeply involved in thinking about grammar in a colloborative and enjoyable way. It is based on an idea in Grammar Games by Mario Rinvolucri and has long been one of our favourites!

In this simple activity, students write a poem using only a limited number of given words. The limited words are important - first of all, they oblige the students to use the target grammar form, and secondly, the constraint of having a limit actually helps their creativity.

1. The game is played in small groups. Each group has a board and dice and each player has a counter, which they place on the START square.

This activity is especially good for young learners, who can sing along and mime the actions in the song.

The school was big, really big

I didn’t want to go

There were lots of kids, tall kids

Kids I didn’t know

I saw some friends from primary school

But only three or four

How many kids were in this school?

A thousand, maybe more!

This song is based on a painting by Francisco de Goya in the Prado Museum in Madrid. The lyric refers to Goya as 'he', the girl in the painting as 'you' and the singer himself as 'I'. It speculates as to why the boy stands holding the parasol for the girl.

In this personality test, students choose the option which best represents their attitude in various situations. From this, they 'discover' whether they are driven more by rationality or emotion.

In this activity, students get the chance to play Sherlock Holmes! They look at the evidence in a picture and try to work out what the owner of the bag did during the last few days. It's an enjoyable way to get some elementary level practice in using the simple past tense.