[simplyesl]

You have two teams and play volleyball. The team that serves the ball asks the question and the team that receives it answers. You can put a time limit on how long they have to ask/answer the question. If they can't ask/answer a question in the time frame or the ball goes out of bounds, then a point is awarded to the other team.

[mesmark]

I've seen the same thing done as tennis if you have a ball lying around. Biggest problem is always who is going to answer.

[mesmark]

For big classes you can have 2-3 people do an intro every day. Limit to 5 sentences or so. It's a good way to get to know everyone a little better.

For the first day you could do yours (obviously) and then ask for volunteers. There are usually a few brave ones in the class. fter that just do it alphabetically.

[livinginkorea]

Quote mesmark

For big classes you can have 2-3 people do an intro every day. Limit to 5 sentences or so. It's a good way to get to know everyone a little better.

For the first day you could do yours (obviously) and then ask for volunteers. There are usually a few brave ones in the class. fter that just do it alphabetically.

I do that with my elementary students -
- Hello how are you today?
- What day is it today?
- What is today's date?
- What's the weather like?
- What time is it?

For kids I always give some points, which is a great motivational factor!

[simplyesl]

To get everyone involved in the Volleyball/tennis:

A team will only get a point once everyone on the team has answered (and therefore asked) a question correctly.

You could even try having a knock out competition with teams of two.

[stanley]

Karen - how about 'Where I would like to be in 10 years' time' or 'My earliest memory' - or perhaps you could write a few options on the board so that the students can choose their own title.
Thanks for the name label ideas. Funnily enough, I'd planned to do it in exactly the way you describe, also taking advantage of the colouring part to practise coulour names- they have to ask me for the colour (of pen) they want initially, then if they want other colours, they have to ask their classmates to swap. (Please may I have the red? Would you like the green?)

[simplyesl]

You could try a "true or false" game.

Get each student to write three statements about themselves. Two statements are true, while one is false.
Each student reads their three statements to the class and they (the rest of the class) guess which statement isn't true.

eg:

1. I have been to five countries.
2. I haven't driven a car.
3. I like to eat apples.

One is false.... Which one is it?

[livinginkorea]

Quote simplyesl

You could try a "true or false" game.

Get each student to write three statements about themselves. Two statements are true, while one is false.
Each student reads their three statements to the class and they (the rest of the class) guess which statement isn't true.

eg:

1. I have been to five countries.
2. I haven't driven a car.
3. I like to eat apples.

One is false.... Which one is it?

That's a good one. It could work for any age group. I'm gonna give it a try.

[simplyesl]

I just finished a one-off lesson with a student. I had a LOT of time to burn and I came up with the idea to make a cartoon. Take turns drawing and writing dialogue(Q's and A's) for a cartoon. This would only work for 1-1 or small groups, but it's quite fun and can be used in many different situations.

[musica]

Other ideas could be
My favourite memory is.
I am happy when________. I feel sad when___________

________________is a good friend because . . . . .

[musica]

What about creating a simple story using three boxes for the beginning, middle and end. If they are not advanced writers they could draw illustrations with short captions, or write more according to their ability.

[marblo]

Hi, my first time here!

One of my first day activities is to have students draw and describe themselves, then hand me their descriptions. I will read them out loud to the rest of the class, and ss have to guess who wrote each description. Then I will show the drawing.
It's fun, especially for groups with new ss since they don't know each other yet.
By the way, I liked the activity where the basics are taught through singing.
Thanks to all of you for the great teaching tips!

I am Dutch, teaching English in Mexico.

[Whistleblower]

Okay, I have 100 new students attending a "Newcomer's Night" at work and guess who the lucky fella is. Yep you guessed it, me.

So, my obvious question is what do I do. My ideas are as follows:

1. Student attends and relaxes.
2. Introduction to the school.
3. "Find someone who" activity.
4. ????
5. ????
6. Music, drink and eating time.
7. Pub and goodbyes.

What do I do during the "????" parts? The night is about 2 hours long so the "Find someone who" activity should last 20~30 minutes. What can I do to make the night span 1 hour then get the students to mingle together at the end of the night?

Any ideas would be great.

[mar espinoza]

[QUOTE]little sage[/quote]
Hi, a question here.

Does anyone know a good activity for the first day of university age, very basic level composition class? I want to get a writing sample from the students to gauge their skill, but I don't want to be too boring and obvious.

What springs immediately to mind is "Write a few sentences to introduce yourself" or the very cliche "What I did on summer vacation". Can anyone either spruce up these themes or advise me on a more exciting activity?

Thanks in advance.

Karen


* Well, besides being an Elementary school english teacher, I'm still studying the B.A in ELT.
I remember that in my methodology class, the first day our teacher asked us to take out a sheet of paper. On that piece of paper we had to write very simple things such as:
- name
- hobbies
- what would you like to have in this course that you did not have in the previous one (if any).
- what are your expectations about the course.

If they are in a very basic level, they are still capable of answering these questions; However, they might need you to help them with it. Also, you can write on the board a list of the vocabulary that may be used in order to help them a little bit more.
Hope you find this useful!

cheers!

[mar espinoza]

sorry, i don't know how to quote jijiji

[EngliPatrick]

Quote mar espinoza

sorry, i don't know how to quote jijiji

Under each person's post and to the right is a "Quote" button. Click it and your golden!

[mar espinoza]

Quote EngliPatrick

Under each person's post and to the right is a "Quote" button. Click it and your golden!

it worked!
hahaha
thanks!

[rans]

Hello Karen
What about working in pairs?..everyone of the couple try to guess some details about his partner...the more you you could guess...the cleverer you are...they read each others piece of writing after they finish...a little discussion will be nice.
Reema

[Micro67]

Learner training is important. Even though sometimes things can get a little repetative, students need to know what to expect. I have a lot of activities that I do 3 or 4 times in the course of a 6 or 8 week class. Knots and crosses seems over simplified, but if you play a a quick game of that before each break for the first few weeks, students will know to expect it. I also like games with a nerf ball. When the student catches the ball they have to come up with an anser quickly, this is good during vocab expansion - 'Name an animal that starts with a .... b ... c ...' etc. It seems simple, but they need to learn that game so that each time it comes up they know what to be thinking about.

Knowing names is hard for teachers, using this to get through the, 'My name is .... what's your name?' is good for learner training and getting me aquainted with the students.

[Vickiii_NZ]

Hey people - some great ideas. I would like to add my own which has been super successful with 12 year olds and up.

Truth or Lies (I found this on the internet and used it as an introduction game).

Split the class into 3 teams.

You start by giving the class a personal example:

Say your name.
2 statements that are true, 1 that is a lie.

The children have to figure out which statement is a lie.

Which ever team guesses correctly gets 1 point and starts the game.

Each team takes a turn with one person giving 2 true statements and 1 false. The team next to them has the first chance of guessing the lie.

If they guess correctly they get 1 point.
If they are wrong the next team gets to guess. If they are wrong the team that made up the statements gets 2 points.
Keep going round to ensure everyone gets a chance to make up 2 true and 1 untrue statement.

The kids really enjoy it and you will find that the statements get more complex as the game progresses.