Calendar of Special Days Archive

Introduction Write on the board: Holocaust – when? who? where? what? why? how? Ask students, in small groups, to discuss the questions for 10 – 15 minutes, to see how much they know. You could allow them to use phones / tablets to access the internet if you like. Elicit answers and tell them it’s […]

Social networks and you Write the phrase ‘social network’ in the middle of the board, put some markers on a table, and ask students to think of social networking sites and things in connection with them, go up to the board, and write their ideas around the phrase. Tell them to collect as many sites and […]

Hangman S O C I A L    J U S T I C E Play a round of hangman with the phrase ‘social justice’. Then, ask your class what they think this expression includes. Four corners Before class, place the following definitions of social justice in the four corners of the classroom on the wall. Put […]

Overview of the session To elaborate on the concept of happiness To introduce World Happiness Day To practice critical thinking To develop small scale class research This session can be easily tailored to meet the demands of different classes with different levels of language proficiency. This one has been designed for a 90-minute coeducational class […]

The missing piece Write the following quote on the board (or project it) and ask students to have a think and guess the missing word in pairs. Conduct open-class feedback and confirm the right answer or give the solution (=water). “_________, thou hast no taste, no color, no odor; canst not be defined, art relished […]

I want… Put the following sentence on the board and ask students to complete it with their own names and finish it. I, _______, want… Give students a couple of minutes, let them compare their ideas in pairs, and in the end, collect some ideas by writing them on the board. After that, put the […]

Introduction Don’t tell your class the topic of the lesson. Show the 3 pictures below to your students. Ask them to work in pairs. Tell them to find a connection between the 3 pictures. a) b) c) Invite a few pairs to explain what they think the connection is and accept all answers. Say that […]

Watching the video You can present the video in as many stages as you want, but make sure you stop it at 1:35. You can use my videojemmy task if you want the video to automatically stop at certain points. Tell students they are about to see a video about the every-day moments of a […]

Getting started ask students about what is celebrated on the 1st of June and write down any words they can come up with associated to that day show them the 1st picture and ask them if that’s the image that comes to their mind when they think of children and what it is that they […]

Family profile Put the picture of Halima and her parents on the board (or project them). Put students into pairs and ask them to do a little brainstorming and try to come up with a profile of these three people. They can think of the relationship between the people, their age, the place they come […]

Learning Outcomes By the end of this 2-hour lesson, the Ss will: have practised listening to a lecture and noting down the main points made have created a Situation-Problem-Solution-Evaluation (SPSE) video presentation in a group, using a visual aid and accurate signposting language Time Stage Procedure Pre-lesson tasks ·       Topic and vocab ·       Listening and […]

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 […]

Impossible choices Tell your students that you are going to show/say 2 things to them and they need to decide which one they would choose. The item they choose, they can keep it forever. However, they will never see the other one again. Students can take notes which one they choose. (This task is based on […]

Sit down if… When the class starts, ask students not to sit down. (If your students don’t usually stand when the lesson starts, ask them to do so.) Tell them you are going to read out the statement “Sit down if…” and if the sentence is true for them, they can sit down. Sit down […]

Board race Divide students into 2 groups. Put the word “Vegetarianism” at the top of the board and make 2 columns: one that reads (A-M) and another (N-Z). Give the teams a time limit (e.g. 3 minutes) and ask them to come up with as many words related to the topic of vegetarianism as they can […]

Guess the topic! Before telling students what the topic of the lesson is, put them into 4 groups. Each group gets an envelope with 8 words and expressions related to stress: fatigue / headache / loss of concentration / nervousness / erratic sleeping patterns / irritability / excessive sweating / difficulty in making decisions Students have […]

1. Warmer a) The title of the song is “Cherry wine”. What images does it bring to your mind? What kind of song do you expect to hear? b) Show students the following screencaps from the song and play the first instrumental part of the song (00:00-00:25) and ask them to speculate further. (They might […]

The last present Don’t tell your students the topic of the lesson yet. Put them into groups of 3-4 and ask them to think about the last present they got. What was the occasion? Who did they get it from? How did they react? … Conduct open-class feedback and encourage students to share their experiences. […]

Optional introduction Provide a short description on the UN International Volunteer Day: it has been held on 5 December since 1985 to celebrate volunteerism and promote volunteers’ work. More information: http://www.un.org/en/events/volunteerday/index.shtml Key lexis Students get the task sheet with the definitions of the new words. In pairs, they discuss which definition goes to which word. […]

What do the pictures have in common? Present the following pictures to your students and ask them what they have in common. What is the main idea behind them? What are they in reference to? Key: They are all in connection with human rights and Human Rights Day. 1) Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani activist and […]