There are many reasons why you may need to use warm-ups and time-fillers while working as an ESL teacher:
- to focus or bring energy to each class in the first ten to fifteen minutes
- to break the ice with a new class of students
- to fill a small block of time when a lesson runs shorter than you planned
- to replace a lesson that students can't grasp or are bored with
- to have on hand for emergencies such as broken audio-visual equipment or photocopiers
- to use if you get called in last-minute to fill in for another teacher
Here you are some warm ups activities you can use in your class:
Can't Say Yes or No In this game everyone is given a certain number of coins or squares of paper (about 5min.). Everyone moves around the room starting conversations and asking each other questions. The only rule is that you cannot say the words YES or NO. If you accidentally say one of these words, you have to give a coin or square to the person who you said it too. Try to trick each other by asking questions that you would almost always answer with a yes or no. Think of other ways to trick your friends. Sometimes asking two quick questions in a row works well. (Especially tag questions: Are you new here? This is your first time in America, isn't it?). This game is a great way to practice using small talk and to add variety to your vocabulary. It also makes everyone laugh.
Chain Fairytale This is a fun writing warm-up. Everyone has a piece of paper and writes the first sentence or two to start a fairytale (not one that already exists).
Example: Once upon a time there was a frog that had no legs. He wanted to get married, but there were no female legless frogs in the land.
After one minute the leader will say 'SWITCH'. At this time the writers have to put down their pens and pass the papers. They cannot finish their sentences. Then, the next writers will continue the story. After about ten minutes you will have as many silly stories to read as you have club members. The leader should warn the writers that they will soon have to wrap-up the story during the last two minutes so that each story has a conclusion. Read all of the stories out loud for a good laugh. You can extend this activity by trying to edit each other's writing and spelling errors.
Who am I? In this game, the leader prepares cards with famous people's names on them. The leader tapes one card on the back of each member. Then everyone pretends they are at a party and asks each other questions to find out their own identities. When someone guesses their own name correctly, the name-tag gets taped to their front and they continue to chat with the party guests until everyone is wearing the nametag on the front.
Broken Telephone This is a listening and pronunciation activity that always gets people laughing. The leader first must think of a sentence or phrase and whisper it to the person beside her. That person will then whisper what she heard to the next person. Each person can only say, 'Can you please repeat that?' one time. When the message reaches the end of the chain that person must speak out loud. Oftentimes the message will be completely different when it reaches the end. Try to find out where the chain broke! In a big group you can send the message two ways and find out which team comes closest to the real message. (A famous example is the army message that started as 'Send reinforcements, we're going to advance' and ended as 'Send three and fourpence, we're going to a dance.')
Snowball Fight (any literate level, group)
Give learners a piece of white paper and ask them to write down their name, country of origin, and some trivial fact of your choice (such as a favorite fruit). Have everyone wad the pages into 'snowballs' and toss them around for a few minutes. On your signal, everyone should unwrap a snowball, find the person who wrote it, and ask 1-2 more trivial facts. Write the questions on the board so the students can refer to them. Remember that each learner will need to ask one person the questions and be asked questions by a third person, so leave enough time. Variation for small groups: learners can take turns introducing the person they interviewed
Have You Ever? Arrange group into a large circle with one person in the middle. The leader will prompt with the phrase Have you ever? The person in the middle will finish the phrase. Example: Have you ever had candy bars for breakfast? Each of the people in the circle that has done what the person in the middle has said (had candy bars for breakfast) will quickly exchange places with someone else that has also done it. Whoever is left in the middle will finish the phrase the next
time. The game has no real end so you can play 2 or 20 times, it s up to you!
Zip, Zap, Zoom 1. First you have to set up chairs in a circle. Leaving one less chair so one person will always be in the middle.(example= musical chairs)
2. The leader will start off in the circle to get the game started. Explain that 'Zap' is the person to the left of them and 'Zip' is the person to the right of them. 'Zoom' is when everyone gets up and switches chairs. (this will always leave one person in the middle) They may not sit in the chair to either side of them they have to completely change spots.
3. The person who is in the middle of the circle points to one person at a time and either says ZIP, Zap or Zoom. The person they say that too must know the person’s name on both the right and left side of them. So they will have to socialize and ask each other's name in order not to get in the middle. If they do not know the person’s name then they go in the middle. (5 sec. hesitation rule depending on population)
4. The person in the middle may also say Zoom to get out of the middle. Everyone will switch chairs and there will be a new leader in the middle.
5. Safety should be discussed first. Make sure that patients aren't hurting one another getting to a chair.
Hot Potato This activity can be used in a basic level to review vocabulary before starting the class. It can be length 5-10 minutes, and all what you need is a ball. First of all, you can either use a ball or just crumbled up pieces of paper. Arrange the students in a circle. Say a word and then throw the hot potato (ball/piece of paper), to another student. They have to say a word associated with the word you said. The student only has 3 seconds to pass the ‘hot potato’ on. For example: elephant – big – small – pea – green - grass, and so on. After that, If the student is not able to say a word within the allocated time the ‘hot potato’ is given to the teacher and they must sit down. The teacher will then start the game again. The last student standing is the winner.
Pass the Face This game is just like the game 'telephone' but instead of passing a word or phrase around you pass a facial expression. Get the group in a circle. Have everyone close their eyes except the person who wants to pass the 'face'. The passer will tap the shoulder of the person next to her, that person will open his eyes to receive the face. He will then tap the shoulder of the person next to him and pass the face along. Once you have passed the face you may keep your eyes open to watch it move around the group. At the end, the original passer receives the face from the last person in the group and then shows what the original face was! This game ALWAYS gets people laughing!
Newspaper in a Bag Bag is passed around group. They can guess what’s inside. Before its revealed they are told that they may think that its something very boring, however their challenge is to make it into something exciting. Group leader can begin. Newspaper can be crumpled, torn folded etc and transformed into something such as a hat. Participants can mime the new item and others in the group guess.
Modified Simon Says
Members sit in a circle. One member is selected to be the listener. A peer gives them instructions of something silly to do or say and the member follows the directions. Then another peer gives a direction to follow. The group member then completes the first instruction and then the second instruction. This continues until the member is unable to remember which direction is next. Then another member is selected and so on.
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If You Had a Magic Wand Magic wands open up amazingly creative possibilities. Pass a magic wand around your classroom before you begin a new topic and ask your students what they would do with a magic wand. What would they want revealed? What would they hope to make easy? Which aspect of the topic would they want to fully understand? Your topic will determine the kinds of questions you can ask to get them started.
If You Won the Lottery What would your students do to effect change in your given topic if money were no object? This warm up lends itself well to social topics, but be creative. You might be surprised by its usefulness in less tangible areas as well.
Guessing Game
This is like 'Ask the Audience' in Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, only if you have some objects you can hold them up and ask what they might be used for, or what the next course of action would be, or even where the items may belong in the process of bead making. There is nothing better than seeing the hands fly up or hearing multiple voices calling out the answers to your questions. Again, it gets students interested and lets you, the teacher know how much they know (or don't know)
