Category: English games

The usage of Some and Any in English is quite simple. Some is used in positive statements, requests or offers and ANY is used in questions and negative sentences. However, many textbooks confuse students by mixing this simple concept with the concept of countability.

In this post I will try to keep the explanation as simple as possible. There is an infographic, an online quiz and two games in this post.

Print or display the following infographic and ask your students to explain it to you. I am sure that there will be at least one student who will understand the infographic and will be able to pass the knowledge. If there is none, you should explain that SOME is used for positive statements, requests and offers while ANY is used in negative statements and questions.
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The first game is called Penalty Shootout. In this game you should choose the option and then try to score a goal. Good luck.
As the game is in Flash, it will only play on desktop computers.

Some or Any – Penalty

The second game is in Flash and will play only on desktop computers. It is called On Target, and your task is to choose the correct option and then shoot all the bad cows and ducks. You can shoot one of the bottles on the wall to get a bonus. Enjoy.

Some or Any – On target game

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[showmyads] The following quiz can help your students practise Some or Any either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should complete the sentences with Some or Any. In the second part, students have to match the beginnings and ends of the sentences. The students will be rewarded with a game if they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Some or Any – quiz You can find some interesting materials on Some or Any at the British Council site.

And on Youtube you can see the following great video with the explanation of Some and Any.

All the pedagogy books tell you that pictures are much more memorable than words. There is even this saying “A picture is worth thousand words”. So why don’t we use this fact and use pictures for teaching for example irregular verbs?

Unfortunately, things are not that easy. In fact, the research shows that it is more difficult to learn from a pictionary than from a simple word list. However, the research as well showed that pictures can help you remember the words if they are used as a support.

In this post I come up with an original way of presenting irregular verbs in English using pictures. It is not a pictionary, but the pictures just serve as a way of supporting your memory in remembering the past tense and the past participle. Moreover, there are two games, a worksheet and an online quiz to practise what the students learn.

Print the following infographic and explain that students should have a look at the pictures and find words for the pictures which rhyme with the form of the irregular verb above it. For example: sent – ant, paid – eight, went – vent etc.
Put simply, the pictures do not represent the irregular verbs, they rhyme with them.
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Check the rhymes with the students and ask them to memorise them for two minutes. Then hand out the second page from the file and ask them to complete the tables with past tense and past participle of the verbs.

Irregular verbs in pictures – pdf file

The last page of the hand out contains two simple exercises: In the first one students should complete the table and in the second, they use the past tenses of the verbs from the table and complete the sentences.

The first game is called Penalty Shootout. In this game you should choose the correct past tense and past participle of each verb and then try to score a goal. Good luck.
As the game is in Flash, it will only play on desktop computers.

Irregular verbs in pictures – Penalty

The second game is in Flash and will play only on desktop computers. It is called On Target, and your task is to choose the correct option and then shoot all the bad cows and ducks. You can shoot one of the bottles on the wall to get a bonus. Enjoy.

Irregular verbs in pictures – On Target

The following quiz can help your students practise the irregular verbs either at school or at home. In the quiz you have to choose the correct verb for each sentence. The students will be rewarded with a game if they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.
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Print the pdf file.

Hand out the first page.

Students find the rhymes.

Check the answers.

Hand out page two.

Students complete the tables.

Play the game Penalty.

Play the game On Target.

Hand out page three.

Students complete exercise 1.

They check their answers on page one.

Students complete exercise 2.

Check their answers.

You can find some interesting materials to teach irregular verbs at British Council site.

Here is a great video on irregular verbs by my friend Fluency MC.

Once elementary students master forming questions in the present simple tense, their communicative ability grows by hundreds of percent. Students then can ask nearly about anything, and all of a sudden they can communicate meaningfully. However, for many teachers the questions are a nightmare because only a few students do really learn to form the questions.

To help you and your students I will share a set of activities I have used and which worked really well in my classes. In this post you can find an infographic, a video drill, a speaking activity, two games and an online quiz.

Start the lesson by explaining the grammar. I use the following infographic to explain the way in which questions are formed.
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[showmyads] Remind your students that the word order in English is given (SVOMPT) and that they have to follow it. To form a question they need to add the words DO or DOES at the beginning and a question mark at the end.

To form the short answers students have to start with YES or NO, the pronoun representing the subject from the question and DO, DOES, DON’T or DOESN’T. You can tell your students that the word which was at the beginning of the question appears at the end of the answer.

You can see my explanation of the process in the following video:

The following quiz can help your students practise the short answers either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the questions and answers. In the second part, students have to write the short answers. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Short answers quiz In the following activity students should work in pairs or in small groups of three or four. Print the worksheet once for each pair or group.
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[showmyads] One of the students chooses a picture and the others form questions about the pictures. Their task is to ask YES/NO questions in such a way to find out which picture their partner is thinking about.

Speaking activity worksheet Before you move to questions starting with the question words, it is a must that students know, and are able to produce, the question words.

Start with the following drill. On the first slide students listen and repeat the words. From the second slide on, they have to produce the question words before the native speaker says them. Play the video at least twice.

Now, hand out the following worksheet and ask the students to complete the first exercise with the question words

Present simple worksheet Now explain that WH questions are formed by adding the WH words at the beginning of the question. You can explain it using the infographic below:

Use the following games to practise the grammar your students learnt.
The first game is called Penalty Shootout. In this game you should choose the correct question and then try to score a goal. Good luck.
As the game is in Flash, it will only play on desktop computers.

Present simple questions – Penalty Shoot out

The second game is in Flash too, and it will play only on desktop computers. It is called En Garde, and your task is to choose the correct option and then stop the circle as close to the centre of the target as possible. Enjoy.

Present simple questions – En Garde

Halloween is coming, and it would be nice if we had a set of fresh activities for this occasion. Children remember everything, and it is pretty embarrassing when you recycle something and the children shout out- “I know this!!! We’ve already done it.” Or, “My sister told me that you did this last year with her.” To help you out a bit, here is a set of new activities for Halloween.
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In this post you can find a colouring activity for young learners, a new song with lyrics and a Halloween board game. I hope your Halloween lesson goes well.

You can do several things with this song. First, you can ask the students to watch the video and sing along.
Second, you can print the following worksheet and ask the students to listen and complete the lyrics. Play the recording at least twice.
Third, especially with young learners, ask the students to do some physical activity whenever they hear the word “Halloween”.

You can download the lyrics worksheet here:
Halloween song – worksheet

Lyrics:
Halloween Halloween
Spooky kooky Halloween
Halloween Halloween
Creepy freaky Halloween

Witches’ broomsticks fill the sky
While zombies rise from graveyards
Such a gruesome sight on Halloween night
Better hope you don’t die of fright!

Chorus

Moans and groans to chill your bones
A werewolf howls at the full moon
Banshees add to the hullabaloo
You know there’s room in my coffin for two!

Chorus

All alone
The room goes cold
Something slithers in the shadows
Better shut your eyes
You’re in for a surprise
Soon you won’t fear a thing

Chorus

My friend Jason -better known as Fluency MC– has created the following rap song.

I like it and that is why I created the following activities:

First students listen and complete the following worksheet with the lyrics.

Halloween rap – lyrics

Then ask the students to complete the following mind map with the words from the lyrics. If you teach a group of advanced students you can skip the first step and ask them to listen and complete the mind map:

At the end of the activity you can display the following questions and ask your students to work in pairs and ask and answer the questions.

• What are you going to do on Halloween night?
• What are you going to be?
• Where are you going to go?
• What are you going to wear?

The lyrics above contain a lot of words connected with Halloween. It might be a good idea to exploit them.

Print the following mind map and ask the students to complete it with the words from the song.

You can find the mind map in the following pdf file:
Halloween vocabulary – mind map pdf

Here is a speaking activity for elementary students. Print the worksheet and hand out the tables.

Students work in pairs or in groups of three. If they work in pairs cut the first page and give each student one of the tables.

If they work in groups of three print page two and cut the paper in three and hand them out.

Students must not look into their partner’s worksheet. They ask questions in present simple and complete their tables.

They must speak English all the time.

Halloween – pair speaking

Young learners of English like to colour. However, every colouring activity should be educational. In the following activity students will practise colours and parts of body.

First, print the worksheet. There are two pages. Students should work in pairs, and within each pair the students should have different worksheets.
Check that the children remember the colours and parts of the body, and ask them to colour the pictures according to the instructions.

Next, ask the students to tell their partners what colours they used. The other student listens and colours the pumpkin in their worksheet. When they finish, they swap roles.
Halloween colouring activity

In the following game students should practise their speaking and Halloween vocabulary. The rules are simple.

1. Students should play in groups of three or four.
2. Students place their tokens wherever they like in the haunted house. They throw the dice and move in one direction. They can change direction only at a crossroads or at the end of a corridor.
3. The aim of the game is to collect as many ghosts as possible.
4. If they land on a ghost, they get a card with a ghost.
5. If they land on a TREAT or TRICK, they draw a card.
6. TREAT cards contain a task the students have to do (usually telling a story.) At the end of each TREAT card there is a REWARD section which states the maximum number of ghosts the student can get. The other students listen and then decide how many ghosts the student deserves.
7. A TRICK card just says whether the student receives or loses some number of ghosts.
8. Set a time limit (15 minutes should be fine), and finish the game.

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The picture of the time was purchased at DREAMSTIME.com

Mistakes that students make should serve as an opportunity to learn. But more often than not students just look at or listen to your correction and pass the opportunity. And that is a pity. As I do not want my students to miss this precious opportunity any more I have come up with a lesson plan which does not allow the students just to pass the common mistakes they make in English, but gives them a fair chance to learn from them.
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In this post you will find an infographic, a game and a worksheet with the most common mistakes my students made in their essays.

Print the following worksheet and give a copy either to each student or ask the students to work in small groups and give a copy to each group. Ask the students to look at the first exercise. That the sentences come from the essays written by other students and that they should correct the red places.

Common Mistakes in English – worksheet

First elicit the mistakes students have found and corrected.

Then display the following infographic and explain the mistakes and the corrections.

You can hand out the infographic if you think your students might profit from it. Once you have explained everything (as we always do), it is time to give your students a chance to use the knowledge. Now they have to do the exercise 2 and complete the sentences with the words from the infographic.

At the end check their answers – be open to more than one correct answer.

The second game is in Flash and will play only on desktop computers. It is called On Target, and your task is to choose the correct option and then shoot all the bad cows and ducks. You can shoot one of the bottles on the wall to get a bonus. Enjoy.

Common Mistakes – On target game

I have already published several speaking activities. There is Summer Holiday Speaking activity or School Subjects Speaking Activity. However, this post is different as the speaking activity here is a sample FCE exam speaking test.

The FCE speaking exam consists of four parts. In this post you can find an example of each part and there are instructions how to use them in a class.

There are always two students examined at the same time (if there is an odd number of students there are three students.) There are two examiners. One of them speaks and the other does not. She only takes notes of what is said. The examiners are always very friendly.

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In the first part the interlocutor (the examiner who asks the questions) asks some general questions to get to know the students. Here are some examples of the questions:

Hello, what is your name?
Where do you live?
What do you think of the area where you live?
What kind of music do you listen to?
Has your taste in music changed in the past?
Where do you like listening to music?

In this part each student gets two pictures and they have to compare them for one minute. Then they have to listen to their partner and react to what they say. They have about 20 seconds for their reaction.

Examiner: In this part of the test, I´m going to give each of you two photographs. I´d like you to talk about your photograpraphs on your own for about a minute, and also to answer a short question about your partner´s photographs. Candidate A, it´s your turn first. Here are your photographs. They show different activities people do alone. I´d like you to compare the photographs, and say why the people want to be alone. All right?

Then the examiner says: Thank you. Candidate B, what do you like doing alone?
Thank you.
Now, Candidate B, here are your two photographs. They show people being together in groups. I´d like you to compare the photographs, and say why you think people are together in these situations. All right?

Thank you.
Candidate A, what do you think of formal meetings?
Thank you.

The third part is a cooperative task. In this task the students have to take turns and agree on the answer together. This part lasts about 4 minutes.

The examiner says: Now, I´d like you to talk about something together for about three minutes. There is a youth club in your town and you would like to offer to teenagers some activities they would like. You have to choose form the activities in the pictures. First, talk to each other about why you think people would like these activities and then decide which two activities you would offer to people and why. All right?

In this part the examiner asks the students several questions connected with the topic in part three. This part takes between three and four minutes.

Examiner:Which of these activities do you enjoy doing?
Which activities do you hate doing?
Are there enough activities for teenagers in the area where you live?
What are the problems teenagers in your area have?
What should be done, so that teenagers would cause no problems?
Are there any activities which aren´t suitable for teenagers?
(The examiner will add these as he/she thinks appropriate:
What do you think?
Do you agree?
And you?)

You can either ask your students to work in pairs or in groups of three. If they work in pairs, one of them asks and the other answers. They swap roles after the given time. If they work in groups of three, one of them is the interlocutor and he/she reads the instructions and times the parts.

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The teacher should monitor and note the mistakes students make to deal with them later in the lesson.

You can download the full worksheet here:

FCE Speaking Exam – pdf worksheet

Youtube is one of the most popular websites on the internet. 4 billion videos are watched every day there. Therefore we should not ignore it and try to use it to teach English. In this post I take one of the Youtube videos and I build the whole lesson around it. It is the video of Susan Boyle´s first performance and it not only gives you a chance to improve your students´ knowldedge of English, it also allows you to discuss some serious questions like ageism.

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In this post you can find the Youtube video and a worksheet with a set of questions.

Print the following worksheet (one copy for each student).

Susan Boyle video worksheet

First, ask the students to work in pairs and discuss the questions from activity 1. Give them about three minutes to do this. When they finish ask several students the questions and listen to their answers.

Then play the video and the students have to complete the exercises 2-4.

Here is the key to exercise 2: dream, love, young, song, tigers, hopes, dream, dream, weather, life, different, dream.

Play the video twice to give the students a chance to absorb the video while doing the tasks which are not that easy.

Once they finish, ask the students to choose three questions from exercise 5 and ask you. Answer the questions and well as you can. Thus you will demonstrate the way your students should speak and at the same time you will tell your students something about you. In this way you might get closer to them and they will get some time to think about their own answers. Be honest in your answers, students, especially teenagers, hate insencere teachers.

After the three questions, ask the students to work in pairs and discuss the questions. Then elicit the most interesting answers.

You can find one more video activity here. There is another video, this time with a short poem. Enjoy
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Please, could you answer the following poll.

There are some grammar points which I have been struggling with for years. Not that I would not understand them or use them incorrectly, but I always fail when I try to pass my knowledge to my students. And the usage of present continuous for future arrangements was one of the grammar points that I could not explain clearly no matter how tallented my students were.

Till this day!!

Today I feel that I broke the curse and I created a set of materials that help me explain the grammar clearly and correctly. And here I would like to share them with you.
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You can find here an infographic, a game and an interactive quiz.

In my opinion this infographic has it all. It explains the difference between an arrangement and a plan and states which tense should be used. At the same time it acknowledges that native speakers often do not feel any difference between the two tenses.

In the lesson my students were really excited about the game below. It is called On Target, and your task is to choose the correct option and then shoot all the bad frogs and ducks. You can shoot one of the bottles on the wall to get a bonus. The only problem with this game is the fact it is in Flash and will play only on desktop computers. Enjoy.

Future arrangements – On target game

The following quiz can help your students practise the difference between present continuous and BE GOING TO. In the quiz, students should complete the text using either present continuous tense or BE GOING TO form. The students will be rewarded with a game if they pass the quiz. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Future arrangements – quiz

Have a look at the following poll and tell us how you feel about this grammar.

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Irregular verbs are an evergreen in TEFL. There are a lot of them and students have to memorise them. There seems to be no way around it. However, I still try to come up with something that will make this hard work easier for my students. And this time I try to teach 31 irregular verbs in two lessons using simple rhymes.
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In this post you can find a worksheet with the short rhymes, an interactive quiz where students can practise their knowledge of irregular verbs, an interactive game and a worksheet with two exercises. I hope you find the activities interesting, useful and effective.

Start the lesson with the following rhymes. The verbs are organised into rhyming sets and a simple short story is added. This should help the students remember the irregular verbs.

In the lesson, ask the students to read the rhymes aloud. Then translate the stories and tell them to memorise 4 of them. In the following lesson check that they have learnt the rhymes and ask them to memorise the rest of the rhymes.

Here you can find the pdf file with the rhymes for easier printing:
Irregular verbs rhymes

Once your students learn the rhymes, it is time to concentrate only on the irregular verbs. Print out the following worksheet:

Irregular verbs worksheet

In the first exercise students should complete the mind map with the verbs they remember from the rhymes. They have to write the verbs only on the branches belonging to the appropriate rhyme. Check their answers.

In the second task students have to write the past tense and past participle of the verbs given.

The following quiz can help your students practise the irregular verbs either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should write the past tense and the past particples of the verbs. In the second part, students have to drag the correct verbs into the sentences. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Irregular verbs – quiz

I think that your students will love usind the following game. Their task is to click the correct past tense and past participle. While the first round is easy, the others are very difficult indeed.
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Irregular verbs – games

You can find a list and several interactive activities at British Council site.

In my opinion the modal verb CAN is one of the easiest grammar points in English to teach. That is why I have not produced a post on this topic yet. However, this is going to change, as I am in need of one and I am going to share it here with you.

In this post you can find a simple mind map explaining the usage of the modal verb CAN. Then there are two speaking activities and an interactive quiz to give your students a chance to practise the grammar.

Having taught the modal verb CAN yesterday I added these two songs. Both of them are from British Council pages and they serve as a great introduction of the affirmative sentences and questions.

Here is the song I can run.

And here you can find a great song to introduce questions with CAN which is called Can a Flea Climb a Tree.

In the last week I created two mind maps about the verb CAN. However, I felt that the first one was unnecessary complicated and therefore I decided to replace it with this one.
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If you are interested in the first version of the infographic, you can download it here:
Modal verb Can explanation

In this part I would like to share two speaking activities. For the first one you need to download and print the following worksheet.
Can pdf speaking
Now you can choose what you will do with it. You can either cut the worksheet and give each student just one picture and ask them to write the questions with can below the picture. Then check their questions. Next, ask the students to stand up and mingle and ask their classmates whether they can do the activity.

If you do not like mingling activity you can print one worksheet for everyone and ask them to write the questions. Then check their questions and ask students to work in pairs and ask and answer the questions in pairs.
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The second speaking activity is called LIAR. Prepare 4 sentences with the modal verb CAN and say them aloud. Now tell your students that one of them is a lie and your students have to guess which one. Now, ask your students to write 4 sentences with the verb CAN and one of them must be a lie. Let the students work in groups of 4. One student reads all 4 sentences and the others write down which sentence they believe to be a lie. Then another student reads and so on. At the end all the students say which sentence was a lie and they see who guessed it.

The following quiz can help your students practise the modal verb CAN either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the pictures and the sentences. In the second part, students have to complete the sentences with the missing words. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Modal verb CAN – quiz

Sometimes easy does it. Two days ago I was assigned to teach a short dialogue to a group of students with learning disabilities and problems. I created a set of three activities and I did not held any high expectations. However, it turned out that the students liked the activities and many of them actually learned to give simple directions. Therefore, I decided to share the activities here.

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In this post you will find an unusual, although very effective, drill which I call vanishing drill. Then there is a worksheet with a gapfill exercise and a speaking exercise in which the students consolidate their knowledge. This time there are no interactive exercises, but I hope you will like it anyway.

The following video contains the vanishing drill. Play the video and ask the students to read the text. After 11 seconds one or two words vanish and the students read the text aloud again. At the end of the three minutes you can be pretty sure that they will know the dialogue.

After going through the drill it might be a good idea to revise the prepositions of place too. You can do this here, or you can use any other materials you like.

Seat the students into pairs and print the following worksheet and hand it to students so that each student in the pair has a different copy. Ask the students not to show the worksheet to their partner. Tell them to use the phrases from the drill to find out where the places listed below the map are. They should write the words into the worksheets.

Giving simple directions – worksheet

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Once they finish they should show their map to their partner and check their answers.

Then the students complete the exercise 2 so that the dialogues are in accordance with the map.

I have always believed that questions are one of the most important things in a language. That is why I devote quite a lot of my teaching time to teaching questions. I have already written several posts on teaching questions:

• Forming questions in Past tense
• Questions with like

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• Questions with WAS and WERE
• Basic Questions
• Questions with HOW

And this time I would like to share with you several activities and worksheets on how to teach questions with THERE IS and THERE ARE. I have used all these activities with my students and they worked.

Start the lesson with explaining the grammar. Do not complicate the matters. Just say that we use this phrase when we want to know whether something is somewhere. Allow your student to use the following infographic during the follow-up activities to make sure that they use the correct form.

You can download the pdf file with two infographics here:
There is there in questions

There are threes peaking activities I have created.

In the first one, print the following worksheet for every student. First, ask them to write the names of the facilities under the pictures at the top of the picture. Then think of one of the pictures and tell the students they have to ask There is/There are questions and find out which picture you are thinking of.
Then they work in pairs. One of them thinks of a picture and their partner tries to find out, using THERE IS/ THERE ARE questions. When he/she manages to guess the picture they swap their roles.

For the second activity, you need to print the worksheet twice. Cut out the towns 1-8. Hand out the pictures to your students so there are always at least two copies of the same town in the group (of course, there can be more copies if your groups are really large.) The students must not show their pictures to anyone and they have to find someone with the same picture. They have to ask THERE IS/THERE ARE questions.

There is/There are questions – Speaking worksheet

The third speaking activity is called The same or Different? Print out the following worksheet and cut it in the middle. Students work in pairs. Each has one half of the worksheet and they must not show it to their partner. They ask THERE IS/THERE ARE questions and their task is to find out whether the corresponding pictures are the same or different.

Same or different pdf worksheet
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The following quiz can help your students practise the THERE IS/THERE ARE questions either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the beginnings and ends of the questions. In the second part, students have to complete the questions and the answers. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

There is and there are questions

Giving directions in English is one of the most useful functions there is. Everyone understands that this is the function they are likely to use on the street, literally, and therefore the motivation is usually quite easy.

To be able to give directions you need to learn a set of phrases which you later combine into a conversation. To teach the phrases we offer you the following. A simple drill (teaching the basic phrases), an infographic, several worksheet activities and an interactive quiz.

First watch and repeat the phrases and then produce the phrases before the native speaker says them.
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It is always a good idea to give students a handout with all the phrases you want them to learn. Thus they can revise the vocabulary and there is higher chance that they will learn the phrases. Here is a colourful infographic with the phrases from the video.

You can download the full-size picture here:

Directions – full size picture

First of all I would love to recommend the following worksheet by Mary Glasgow plus. In this worksheet students practise their divisions and directions too. You can download extra instructions for the same worksheet here.

Directions for Maryglasgow magazine

The following worksheet gives students a chance to use the new phrases. Print the following map and give one to each student. The students draw a trail into their map (from the start to any place they like) and then they give instructions to their partners who must draw the same trail into their map. At the end they compare their maps and discuss any misunderstanding.

Giving directions – map

The following quiz can help your students practise giving directions in English. They can do it either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the phrases and the instructions. In the second part, students have to type the missing words in the phrases. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Giving directions – quiz

There are some wonderful materials on giving directions at British Council site. Check them out.

It is really important that students learn to form questions in the past simple tense. If they don’t, they won’t be able to ask about the things that happened in the past. And as most conversations deal with the things that already happened it is vital to be able to ask about the details they are interested in.

In this post I would like to help you teach your students form questions in the past simple tense using the auxiliary DID. This post will not deal with the verb TO BE in the past tense. You can find a post on the verb TO BE in questions here.
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You will find here two videos, an infographic and several interactive exercises. I hope you like it.

Before dealing with questions in the past tense, it is important to revise the question words with your students. It is shocking how many students struggle with such a simple, yet crucial, thing.
First play the video and ask the students to watch and say the question words – best before they see them on the screen.

Then, cut the following worksheet into five stripes and ask the students to write the appropriate question words there.

Wh question words worksheet

Now you can move to forming questions in the past simple tense.

Start the explanation with eliciting the affirmative sentences formation. Explain that there is one basic rule in English and it is called SVOMPT. All English sentences have to follow this rule. At the beginning there is a subject and it is followed by a verb and then there is the rest of the sentence.

If you use the following infographic ask the students to fold the paper, so they can see only the last three rectangles.

To form a question in the past tense, just add DID at the beginning of the sentence and put the verb into its basic form. If you want to get a more complex answer, put a question word at the beginning. And there you are. Now you can form questions in the past simple tense.

Here you can see a video on how to form questions in the past simple tense.

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The following quiz can help your students practise forming questions in the past tense. They can do it either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the beginnings and ends of the questions. In the second part, students have to write the questions in the past simple tense. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Questions in the past simple tense – quiz

The following post on the usage of articles with proper names is not going to be 100% grammatically correct. It’s not that I’m going to insert typos here and there. What I mean is that the rules stated here are just rules of thumb and will not work all the time. I am not a grammarian; I am a teacher. Thus my aim is to compress complex grammar into a small pill that learners can take whenever they encounter a problem. Using this pill, students will make some mistakes, but most of the time they will get the grammar correct.
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So in this post you will find a simple infographic explaining the usage of the definite article in front of proper names. There are also several games you can use to practise the most common English names. I hope you will find the explanation useful even though it will not work in all cases.

Ask your students to look at the infographic. Explain that using the definite article before names is very complicated in English and there are very few rules to guide them.
However, as they can see from the infographic, we managed to come up with a few.

Articles – full size image

Explanation: Most of the man-made structures that stand outside (where they get rained on) do not take an article. Most of the buildings where common people go inside to enjoy themselves take the article THE. Thus it is Oxford Street, but the Ritz Hotel. Notice that palaces do not take the article THE because they are not for common people. However, the Tower of London takes the because it is for the common people :-).

Now that you have explained the grammar, it is time to practise the grammar. You can use either some worksheets, or you can try our games here.

The first game is called Penalty Shootout. In this game you should choose the correct option and then try to score a goal. Good luck.
As the game is in Flash, it will only play on desktop computers.

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The second game is called Fling the Teacher. To win the game, you have to answer all the questions by choosing the correct options. If you answer all the questions correctly you will fling your teacher. (But I am sure that he/she will not mind as long as you know all the names that take articles 🙂 ). The game is in Flash and it will only play on desktop computers.

Recently Fluency MC and I worked on a post about body parts. In the post we presented about thirty parts of the body. We used a wonderful rap song by Jason Levine, an infographic and a quiz to teach these words.

Then Jules from English Through Music Madrid contacted me and informed me that he has a new song on body parts for young students of English. I immediately loved the song, and we agreed that I will create a post on it.

In this post you will find that great song, an infographic, a revision video and a quiz with two games. We hope you will find all these useful.

Here is a song by English Through Music Madrid. First watch it with your students and then ask them to point to the body parts they hear.
Next, the students can sing along.
At the end of the lesson I would recommend that they listen to the song and complete the following lyrics:
Body parts for young learners
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Here is an infographic with all the parts from the song. It is suitable for presenting the vocabulary and for practising it. After you present the parts, drill the pronunciation and then ask the students to cover the picture on the left and label the parts on the right.

Full size picture

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The following quiz can help your students practise the body parts. They can take the quiz either at school or at home. It consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the words and the pictures. In the second part, students have to write the words. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Body parts quiz

If you want to revise the vocabulary quickly in class this video is one of the best ways to do it. Ask your students to take a piece of paper and something to write with and play the video. The students have to write the name of each body part before it is displayed. They have about 12 seconds for each word.

I was looking for some short and useful activities which I could use in class. For a long time I could not find any interesting, yet extremely short texts which I could use if I had between five and ten minutes to spare. And then I encountered Pope Francis’ tweets and I tried to convert them into a teaching material.
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In this post there is a small worksheet with the quote, a vocabulary exercise, a reading comprehension and several discussion questions. Moreover, there is a short video where you can drill the quote. I hope you will find the material useful.

Watch the video and repeat the phrase. Play the video at least twice to remember the sentence.

Print the following worksheet and ask the students to complete it. First, students read the words and try to translate them. Then the students should fill the words into the crossword.
After that ask the students to answer the reading comprehension questions and discuss the questions first in pairs and then in bigger groups.

The school year is starting and the summer holiday is over. Students are returning to their classrooms and we have to teach them. And I think that many of us would like to teach better than last year. So let’s start with a great speaking activity about the summer holiday.
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The original idea comes from Larry Ferlazzo and you can find the original worksheet here. Larry was so kind to allow me to use his idea and worksheet and modify them. In this post you will find a video, a worksheet and instructions how to use them.

Start with the following video. Ask the students to read, listen and repeat the sentences as instructed in the film. Play the video at least twice and do not worry if the students are not able to repeat some of the phrases in full. It is enough if they try.

You can find the original worksheet by Larry Ferlazzo here. Larry was so kind to allow me to change the worksheet and use it here.

My summer holiday worksheet

Print the worksheet so that the text is on one side and the colourful mind map is on the other.

Ask the students to complete the worksheet with their own ideas and experience. In some cases they can find several suitable expressions in the brackets but they can use their own words if they want to. There are several gaps with no help and students have to use their own words there.
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Once students complete the worksheet, they work in pairs and read their version to their partner. When they finish, ask them to have a look at the mind map on the other side of the paper. Explain that the mind map sums up the whole text. Demonstrate that you can easily retell the text using the mind map.

Ask the students to work in pairs again and retell their Summer Holiday story. Change pairs and students retell their story again. Do not prevent students from looking at the original worksheet if they feel they need to. They will copy the phrases and thus learn them.

Now it is time to play the video again and the students should be able to remember much more than the previous time. Play the video at least twice in the following lessons.

For a long time I felt that I was missing a post on this site on parts of the body. But I wasn’t inspired enough to close this gap. Fortunately, a few days ago Jason Levine from FLUENCY MC published a wonderful video dealing with the relevant vocabulary. It got me started. This post is another result of a fruitful partnership between Engames and Fluency MC.

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Engames and Fluency MC have cooperated on a number of posts in the past. Together we created four posts on irregular verbs based on Fluency MC’s popular video. We’ve also created posts on Collocations with the Verb HAVE, on the Gerund or Infinitive, and on Parts of Speech. And here comes the latest fruit of our cooperation – Parts of the Body.

In this post you will find the song, an infographic, a quiz and a game that will help you learn or teach the vocabulary.

This is the wonderful song by Fluency MC. I recommend that you listen to it, then sing and perform it together with your students.

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I was looking for a suitable picture for a long time, and I feel this one is perfect.

What to do with it? Print it and hand it out, then check that your students can pronounce the words correctly. Once you finish, ask them to cover the picture on the left and write the names of the body parts on the right. In this way they will practice all the parts.

If you want the picture in full HD you can download it below:

Parts of the body – full image

The following quiz will help your students practise the parts of the body. They can do it either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the pictures with the names of the body parts. In the second part, students have to click on the correct part of the body. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.
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To get to the second part of the quiz, you have to click on the right next to the advert at the top during the game Angry Finches!!!

Parts of the Body – quiz

This game is in Flash and will play only on desktop computers. It is called On Target. Your task is to choose the correct option and then shoot all the bad frogs and ducks. You can shoot one of the bottles on the wall to get a bonus. Enjoy.

Parts of the body – On target game

You can find nice activities to teach or learn Parts of the Body at British Council site.

Yesterday English Through Music published an awesome song called “How are you?”. As the song is easy to remember and sing, I contacted Jules and asked him for a permission to write a post around the song. He kindly agreed and here you can see the result.
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This post is mainly for beginners or very young learners of English. It contains the song, an infographic and a simple quiz with games. Moreover, there are several suggestions how to exploit this wonderful materials more.

The following song was written and published by English Through Music. You can find their website here and there are more wonderful songs at Youtube English Through Music channel.

First listen and sing along:

Other activities you could do:
a) ask the students to perform an action for each of the adjectives (happy – smile, angry – pretend to be angry, etc.)
b) ask the students to listen and draw a picture for each adjective.
c) ask the students to mingle and ask each other “How are you?” and their partner must answer.

I am sure there are many more activities you will come up with. If you do, please share them with us.

Moreover, English Through Music promises to come up with an action video for the song soon.

Here I have created a simple infographic for learners to take home with them. It presents all the vocabulary taught in the song in a simple and clear way. Pupils can use it to revise the vocabulary at home.

Another way in which students can practise what they learnt at home is the following interactive quiz. Of course you can use it at school, too.

The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all electronic devices.
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In the first part, students match the pictures and the adjectives. If they succeed they will be rewarded with the game called angry finches.
In the second part they have to write the appropriate adjective into the gap provided. If they pass this quiz too, they can play the game called Math Pop and practise their Maths.

How are you? – quiz