Teaching There is a/ There are some/ There are many/ There aren't any...
 

I found a really fun way to teach There is a .../ There are some .../ There are many .../ There aren't any ... .

The first thing i do is elicit and write on the board 20 things you can find in a country. ex. cities, buildings, roads, rivers, etc... try to stick to countables for these.

then i tell the students i have some good news. they get to make their own country. They need to write down 15 things (from the board) that are in their country. And make sure they write down if there is one river, some rivers or many rivers. so their lists will look like this:

There is a city.
There are some roads.
There are many beaches.
etc...

After the students have written down what is in their country and named their country i tell them i have some bad news. The bad news is, they are being kicked out of the country they are in now. So they need to find a new country to live in. fortunately, now there are many countries to choose from. so each student must interview 3 different countries and pick the best one for them.

First they will need some paper with a list of the 20 things in a country and 3 columns to keep track of the info they get.

So they go to the first country and ask their questions:
Are there any cities? Yes, there is one city.
Are there any beaches? Yes, there are many beaches.
Are there any mountains? No, there aren't any mountains.

The interviewer writes down on their paper one, some, many or none for each thing in each of the 3 countries.

Then to wrap it up, ask them to pick their favorite country and why?

Extension: write about the country you choose and why?

If you can't tell, this exercise takes a lot of time. If you don't have a lot of time, try eliciting fewer things and interviewing fewer countries.

Enjoy!
Eric

Re: Teaching There is a/ There are some/ There are many/ There aren't any...
 

I have done a similar activity letting younger students create their own park the perfect park. The students get to design their own park to make it the best park in the world. They then can make rules for their park about what can and can't be done there (imperative practice.)

You could do the same with your country and have them make some laws/rules.

The SIMian City Game: For adults, I have done a similar bit but had them rediscover America. They were the Pilgrams and had to establish their city. They had all the modern day resources at their disposal and unlimited funds. Then we set up a timeline and they could (a few weeks later) go back and make changes to their town 50 years later. (Practice the past tense: There was ~. Now, there is ~.) You can also have them create laws as above if you have the time.

- Mark