Unjumble the quote

Present the following quotation to students and ask them to put the words in the right order:

can / with / friend / the / Anyone / sufferings / sympathise / with / of / a
BUT
sympathise / a / it / nature / fine / requires / to / success / firend’s / very / with / a

Key: Anyone can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend’s success. (Oscar Wilde)

After getting the sentence right, put students into pairs and ask them to discuss the quote. Do they agree or disagree? Can they relate to it with a personal story?

Change topic, change direction

For this activity, it is best if students sit in a circle. Tell them they have to brainstorm words or expressions in connection with 2 topics: friendship and football. They start with one of the two topics, but every student has the right to change the topic or the direction. Do the activity until sufficient amount of vocabulary has been generated.

What’s the link?

Now put students into pairs and ask them what the connection between the two topics can be. You might want to put some ideas on the board.

‘The Friendship Games’

Tell students they are going to watch a video about friendship and football. Ask them to write down the following sentence and while watching, finish it: The main idea of the event is…

After that, give students the following gapped text and ask them to complete it with the missing words. They can consult their neighbours if they are not sure. Check their ideas in open-class and see if there are items students are not sure about. Play the video again to check answers and clarify any problematic vocabulary.

The game of soccer is being used to f______ friendship and s____________ between children in the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It’s part of ‘The Friendship Games’ and includes cross-border events in v_________, b_________, j_____, c_____, s________, and other activities. (…) During the games, fans will be allowed to t_______ f______ between the two countries. (…) Even though Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the same island, their people are divided by language and f___________ cultural barriers. The Friendship Games help b_________ that divide.

Key: foster / sportsmanship / volleyball / basketball / judo / chess / soccer / travel / freely / formidable / bridge

Reflect and share

Put students into small groups and now give them the following 4 sentences to finish and discuss:

• The video made me realise…
• I liked / disliked the video, because…
• One thing I haven’t thought about before is…
• I’d like to learn more about…

Round off the lesson with some open-class feedback and let the individual groups share their ideas and opinions.