1oo Things that Make me Happy

This lesson plan has been moved over to my new site: 1oo Things That Make Me Happy

 

 

 

Sell This Stuff!

Here’s a creative activity that should get students of all ages thinking outside of the box.

A while ago, I posted The Balloon Chair Prompt, in which students sell an unusual product to their classmates. Today I put a similar prompt onto a handful of different images so that you can use it with groups more easily.

The new prompt reads: You work in a shop that sells unusual, expensive items. A customer walks in and asks you about the object in the photo. Sell it to him/her.

Take a look, and then scroll down to the bottom of the page for some lesson plan ideas.

 

 

 

Lesson Plan Ideas

1. Start by modeling the activity. Show one of the pictures to the class, and ask: What do you see in the picture? Why do you think this object is so expensive? What else could it be used for? (A pile of stones? This isn’t just ANY pile of stones. These stones were found inside of an ancient Egyptian tomb lying next to a mummy. They are said to bring good luck to whoever possesses them.)
2.  Divide your class into several teams. (The pencil sharpening group, the pink drink group…)
3. Tell each team to imagine that they work for a secondhand shop or a curiosity shop. Their job is to sell the precious, expensive object in their picture. Instruct the groups to work together to make a list of reasons that a customer should buy their object. Encourage them to be creative and come up with a backstory for their object, or come up with unusual uses for their products. (I would recommend making sure that all students write the list down.)
4. Now rearrange the groups. Your new groups should have at least one member from each of the previous teams. (One stone person, one pencil sharpening person, etc.) Each group member should take turns playing salesperson and customer. The salesperson should tell the customers about their product, and try to convince them to buy it.
5. *Instead of dividing the teams up again in step 4, an alternative is to have your original groups give whole-class presentations about their products. After they finish, classmates can ask questions, and then decide which one item they’d like to buy.

Like it?

Would you use it again? Do you have any other ideas on how to use these prompts? I’ll be happy if you let me know! Take a moment and leave your ideas and suggestions in the comment box below. Thanks for reading.

 

Throw a party – Create-It #4

Yay! A Party!

I like to use this speaking activity at the end of units on special occasions or holidays around the world. It’s also a good way to practice using present continuous, going to, planning to, and other future grammar structures. It’s one of those simple, fun activities that require very little prep, but really get students engaged.

Here’s what I do:

1. Display the slide above on the projector, or write the questions on the board. You might also want to use this Party Planning Worksheet to help your students organize their ideas on paper.
2. Divide the class into groups. Explain that they are going to work together to come up with an idea for a party. After they finish, they will need to present their ideas to the class,and invite their classmates. 
3. Read through the questions to make sure that everyone understands them.
4. Let your students get to work. (I suggest giving them a specific amount of time to plan).
5. Groups make their presentations.
6. (Optional) Do a class vote: Who had the most creative party idea? Whose party would you most like to attend?

I made you a worksheet! 

Here is a worksheet that you can print out to help your students organize their ideas: Party Planning Worksheet

Like It?

Please take a moment to say hi and leave comments in the box at the bottom of the page.

Flowers on the Ground – a creative picture prompt with a storytelling worksheet

Hi everyone! Lately I’ve been experimenting with new ways to use picture prompts in class and turn them into longer, full-blown lesson plans. Along with the prompt above, I’ve created a worksheet which you can download, print, and hand out to your students. (If you happen to try it out, please let me know how it goes. That would help me figure out whether to make more like it in the future.)

This creative prompt can be used to practice both speaking and writing skills, and it gives students the chance to work both on a team and individually. Your class is going to use a simple picture to build vocabulary, brainstorm ideas, create a character and finally, write a full-blown story.

As usual, my focus is on teaching ESL, but I think that English (ELA) and Creative Writing teachers might be able to use this prompt, as well.

Lesson Plan Ideas:

1. Divide your class into small groups (3 0r 4 students per group works well).
2. Display the picture on the projector, and/or hand out copies of this worksheet:
   flowers on the ground worksheet
3. Discuss the task with the students. Explain that students need to brainstorm a list of possible reasons why the flowers ended up on the ground. I would recommend giving a couple of reasons of your own as examples (A girl got angry at her boyfriend and threw his gift on the floor. / A clumsy man accidentally dropped them as he was opening a door…)
4. Give groups time to come up with a list. While students are working, you can help students with difficult vocabulary and list new words on the board.
5. Ask groups to share back two of their favorite reasons with the rest of the class.
6. Ask students to choose one of the ideas on their lists and turn it into a story. This can be done independently if you want your students to practice writing, or as a team, if you’d like to put more emphasis on speaking and teamwork. Again, you can use the worksheet to give your students some guidelines. If you don’t have access to a printer, you can write the following questions on the board:
   a- Who dropped the flowers?
   b- What happened in his/her life before he dropped the flowers?
   c- How was he/she feeling?
   d- What caused the flowers to drop?
   e- What happened after? How did his/her feelings change?
7. Students share their work. I would recommend sharing in small groups if students wrote their stories independently, and sharing as a whole class if they wrote their stories in groups. It’s fun for students to see how many possible crazy stories came out of the same simple picture.

Comments

If you liked this activity, or if you have any questions about it, please take a moment to leave your comments in the box at the bottom of the page! I’m still new to blogging, so your feedback is super-helpful to me!

Night Walk – A descriptive writing lesson about sounds in your city

I thought up the idea for this lesson plan one evening after my IPod battery died in the middle of my walk. In case you’re having trouble seeing the image above, it reads:

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Night Walk

On summer nights, my neighborhood is mostly quiet. Crickets buzz, air conditioners whir, and my feet pat, pat, pat against the pavement. There is a low hum of traffic in the distance, and glass dishes clink against tabletops. It smells like dinnertime. Muffled chatter floats from inside of kitchens. A scruffy stray cat on a lawn meows softly, and a kid on a porch shrieks:
“A cockroach!”
“Kill it!”
“YOU kill it!”
“Eeee!”
But mostly it’s dark and quiet, just me and my shoes on the pavement: Pat, pat, pat, pat, pat.

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When I was in middle school, my teacher gave us a descriptive writing exercise once a week. She would announce a one-word topic, and we would have a certain amount of time to write a paragraph with as many specific sensory details as possible. Then we would all read them aloud, and “ooh” and “ahh” over each other’s use of descriptive adjectives. That’s kinda what I have in mind for this lesson, although I have some ideas on how to scaffold it for English language leaners. I haven’t tried it with my own students just yet, but here’s what I plan to do:

Step 1:

Display the passage above on the projector, and/or print out a copy of the text for students to look at. I would recommend using the PDF Worksheet which I created to go along with this lesson. Read the passage aloud to the class, and have them underline any words that are used to describe specific sounds.

Step 2:

Make a class chart of sound words from the paragraph, and sources of each sound. For example: Sound – buzz / Source – crickets.

Step 3:

Brainstorm a list of things in your current neighborhood that make sounds. You might give students a few minutes to come up with their own lists of sources in groups. After they finish, you can help them think of descriptive verbs for each source.

Step 4:

Ask students to write their own descriptive paragraph about the sounds that they hear when they walk through their neighborhood. You could either ask them to write about their current neighborhood or about their native countries. I would give them some time to begin writing independently, and then ask them to finish and self-edit it for homework.

Step 5:

Allow students to share their work with classmates. You can deicide how you’d like to do this. You might have everyone read their passages aloud to the class, or just ask a few students whose passages are the most descriptive. Sharing could also be done in small groups. Another idea is to have a writing gallery walk. Everyone can tape their passages to the wall, and then students can walk around, read each other’s writing, and leave comments on post-it notes for their peers to read.

In case you missed it above, click here to view and download my PDF worksheet for this lesson: Worksheet

Comments:

What do you think about the activity above? Do you have any ideas on how it could be improved? I may add a worksheet to this post if anyone is interested, so please let me know if that would be helpful to you.

Have you tried this, or a similar descriptive writing activity with your class? I’d really like to hear about it!

Please feel free to chime in and post your comments in the box at the bottom of the page.

Create a Trivia Quiz – Create-It Task #3

This lesson plan has moved over to my new site: ESLairplane. Please come visit. 🙂

Design Your Own Park: Create-it Task #2

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Hi there! I’ve recently started a new website called ESL Airplane, and I’m in the process of updating and moving all of my posts from In Your Country over there. Click here to see the updated version of this post, plus lots more : www.ESLairplane.com
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I sometimes have the opportunity to take a class on a field trip to a local park. As a follow-up activity, I like to ask students to get creative and come up with concepts for their own parks. They might, for example, create an aquarium-themed park, a teenager-only park a trampoline park, or a food park complete with pizza-shaped slides. The more unusual, the better!

What to do:

1. Brainstorm a list of park-related vocabulary, and create a class list of new words.
2. Divide your class into small groups.
3. Introduce the topic. Display the slide above, or create a list of questions of your own that you would like students to respond to. Give them time to discuss.
4. (Optional, but recommended) Hand out poster paper, and instruct students to draw a picture of their new park.
5. Give students time to prepare a presentation for their classmates. Tell them that they should be able to describe their picture, and explain why their idea deserves to win the new park competition.
6. (Also optional) After all groups have presented, take a class survey: Which group should win the competition, and why?

Did you like this activity?

If you like this type of activity, please let me know in the comment section below, and I’ll post more like it. And if you tried this out in your class, I’d love to know how it worked out for you.

Design Your Own Restaurant: Create-It Task #1

Create your own restaurant!

 

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Hi There! I just wanted to let you know that you can find an updated version of the Design Your Own Restaurant prompt, and lots of other new stuff right here: My New Site: ESL Airplane

Please come visit!

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Yum! Food!

Most ESL textbooks include a chapter on food, and in my experience, that chapter is usually everyone’s favorite. Students of all levels are able to talk about what they like to eat and describe the foods that they miss from back home. I usually use the following create-it task at the end of a food unit to give students a chance to practice new vocabulary or grammar structures.

I’ve used variations of this creative activity with Beginner to Intermediate level students, and they always seem to enjoy it. It can be surprisingly easy to set up, and doesn’t require tons of advance planning. If you have the technology available, you could display the slide above, or create one with your own questions. If you don’t, you can simply write your questions on the board.

What to do: 

1. Divide your students into small groups and tell them that they are business partners. They have decided to open up a little restaurant. Because they are on a budget, they have to keep the menu small. (I usually limit it to 3-5 items because I find that bigger menus can be overwhelming and take a long time to present.) You might brainstorm some possible restaurant themes as a whole class, and list them on the board.
2. In groups, have students respond to the questions on the board and prepare a presentation for the class. You might have them create a physical menu or poster to show the class, although I don’t often do that with my adult students.
3. Groups make their presentations, and everyone gets really hungry.

Variations and Follow-Up Lesson Ideas:

If your students created menus, this is the perfect time to do a lesson on how to order food. First, brainstorm useful expressions for ordering at a restaurant, and/or present a simple restaurant dialogue. Them allow them to walk around, “visit” each other’s restaurants, and practice ordering.