Try it out!

Type of activity: small groups, matching

Function practised: comparing and contracting, discussing advantages and disantavages.

Exponent:

It would be easier to. . . . ..

The. . . .. . . . would be better/stronger

The. . .. . .. . was . . . . er/the. . . . -est because

The. . .. . . was not as. . . .. as the. . .. .

The. . . . . was too. . . .

The . . . was not. . . enough,

Lexical areas: names of tools and instruments, action verbs

Problem vocabulary: tweezers, twig, coat, hanger, wedgem unblock, squeezing, crack, floorboard, accidentally

Phrasal verbs: get out, fix onto, push into.

How to use the game: Divide the class into groups of three or four. Play the PowerPoint presentation to make sure students learn the vocabulary. Give students the worksheet with the task list. The object of the game is for each group to decide which implement would be more useful in each situation. They should compare the implement and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each. When they have finished, one person from each group go to another group to compare results and discuss advantages and disadvantages of the different methods employed.

If your students are adults, you might bring in the actual implement for each group instead of the presentation.

Optional rules: 1. Another suggestion will be to monitor, and give points to the team/students who uses the 'exponent vocabulary'. 2. Each implement is to be used only once.

 

Task list:

1. You have a bottle of wine but no corkscrew

2. The cupboard door keeps swinging open

3.This sink is blocked

4. The neighbour's dog keep squeezing through a hole in the fence

5. Your ring has dropped into a saucepan of boiling water

6. You have dropped some money through a crack in the floorboard

7. You can't get the lid off the jam pot

8. Your house is locked and you can't get in.

9. A water pipe is leaking and water is dripping onto the floor. 

Download the worksheet here  

The good old stuff from my childhood

In this lesson:

• You are going to learn how to use 'used to' to talk about old habits.
• Look the images and practise using 'used to'.
• Take pictures with your mobile devices or search for pics on Google to make sentences and present it to your class.

For Teachers: Before class: It will be a great idea to ask students to take some photos of old toys they used to play with when they were young before this class. The first activity aims to get students notice the use of 'used to' and clarify that it's used to describe past habits.

 1. Look the example and answer the questions:

  

Tom used to be a vegetarian, but he started eating meat this summer.

1. Is Tom a vegetarian now?

2. Did he eat meat in last year ?

3. Which action is in the past?

I used to watch the smurfs every Sunday morning with my sister.

1. Do I still watch smurfs on Sundays with my sister?

 

For Teachers: Give time to students to answer the questions in pairs and elicit answers. Make sure students understand when we use the 'used to'. To help them more you can present the following:

 2. Can you write down something you 'used to do' and you no longer do it?

3. Look at the pictures and key words and make sentences with 'used to'. 

 

 

3. Now it's time to write your personal examples. You can use the pictures you have already taken or search for images on 'google image'. Write about 5 toys/thing you 'used to' play with when you were younger.

Here are some examples from previous students:

My mum used to read bedtime stories to me, this is one of the books.

These are my old shoes, I used to wear them at school.

 I used to read this book every day when I was 5 years old. I loved the pictures.

Websites for teaching/learning English 
For Students and teachers:
1. British council: (teens and kids): here you'll find lots of listening activities and video content. You'll also find grammar and IELTS exam materials.  
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/

2. English club: In this website you'll find everything for students of English, from lessons to games and chat.
http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/

3. Multimedia-English: in this website you'll find many cool videos , music that will help you improve your vocabulary and listening skills.
http://www.multimedia-english.com/

4. BBC English: Again here you'll find a variety of activities for all skills. The '6 minutes English' section will help you learn something new every day. 
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/

5. LyricsTraining is an easy and fun way to learn and improve your foreign languages skills, through the music videos and the lyrics of your favourite songs.

http://lyricstraining.com/http://lyricstraining.com/

6. Ted: Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world, with subtitles in many languages. Worth your time and it's a great way to improve your listening

http://www.ted.com/

Monopoly Quiz

LOVE ENGLISH
#Magazine 2 

In this lesson:

-Discuss about board games and monopoly
-You are going to read about 'Monopoly' 
-Complete a vocabulary activity.
-Do the quiz :) 

Download the article here:
#Page 1  
#Page 2
 
Discussion:
-Do you like playing board games?
-What board games do you usually 
play?
-Have you ever played monopoly 
 before? If so, did you win or lose? 

 

Activity 1: Pre-task

Vocabulary building

Read the sentences and match the numbers 1-9 with a-i.

1. The price of property has risen enormously

2. They went bankrupt in 2009, and I had no money to buy my rent.

3. As a child he was dominated by his father.

4. Competitive games can relax the mind if approached the right way.

5. The demanded equal rights and justice.

6. Who invented the mobile phones?
 7. There are two versions of the game, a long one and a short one.

8. She was absent for nine consecutive days.

9. My favourite board game is Monopoly

1. Property	a.to control or have a lot of influence over somebody/something, especially in an unpleasant way
2. Bankrupt	b.the fair treatment of people
3. Dominate	c. to produce or design something that has not existed before
4. Competitive	d.following one after another in a series, without interruption
5. Justice	e.used to describe a situation in which people or organizations compete against each other
6. Invent	f. land and buildings
7. Version	g. any game played on a board, often using dice and small pieces that are moved around
8. Consecutive	h.without enough money to pay what you owe
9. Board game	I. a form of something that is slightly different from an earlier form or from other forms of the same thing

Read again and do the quiz. Good luck :)

Song / It's my life

It's my life – Bon Jovi 
 
 
This post is designed around the classic song 'It's my life' by Bon Jovi. It’s a great source of phrasal verbs, and fits perfectly the topic of teenagers .
Lesson plan idea:
Discussion: Write the following questions on the whiteboard, first go through the meaning of the words in bold and then ask few students to answer the questions.

• 1. Can you think of a moment when you stood up for yourself?
• 2. Are you the kind of person who does things in his way?
• 3. What does rebellious stand for?

1. I’d tell that these expressions come from a song, and we’re going to discuss some phrasal verbs from the songs first.

2. Hand out the vocabulary activity and ask learners to try guess from the content the meaning of the words/phrases

Activity

Read the example sentences and match the numbers 1-6 with the letters A-E

Sentences:

1. He had an accident and passed away. The woman he left behind is broken-hearted".

2. He doesn't believe to God anymore. He's a faith departed.

3. She stood her ground, refusing to let him influence her.

4. Eventually John backed down and apologised.

5. You'd have more change of success if you'd stand tall.

6. You have to stay strong, don't let life break you.

1. Broken-hearted	A. to refuse to do what someone else wants
2. Faith-departed	To admit that you were wrong or that you have been defeated.
3. Stood your ground	C. overwhelmed by grief or disappointment.
4. Back down	D. to act in a proud, confident way
5. Don't break	E. to stay strong
6. Stand tall	F. loss of faith

3. Play the song without sound, discuss the story and the message of the video. Ask questions to encourage students to share their thoughts.



4. Now hand out the lyrics of the song , ask student to try complete the gaps without listening. Allow time for students to complete the activity.
5. Play the song (If necessary play it twice) and then elicit the answers

Lyrics:


"It's My Life"
This ain't a song for the …..............
No silent prayer for the..........................
I ain't gonna be just a face in the crowd
You're gonna hear my voice
When I shout it out loud

[Chorus:]
It's my life
It's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just want to live while I'm alive
(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said
I did it my way
I just wanna live while I'm alive
It's my life

This is for the ones who...........................
For Tommy and Gina who never …..................
Tomorrow's getting harder make no mistake
Luck ain't even lucky
Got to make your own breaks

[Chorus:]
It's my life
And it's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just want to live while I'm alive
(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said
I did it my way
I just want to live while I'm alive
'Cause it's my life

Better ….............when they're calling you out
Don't bend, …....... …..........., baby, don't …........ …...........

[Chorus:]


Download worksheet here:


Song 2: Edward Maya: This is my life.

Lyricsgaps.com - Learn English Online through music and lyrics of the song This Is My Life by Edward Maya - Mode INTERMEDIATE

Extr@ English 3

Extr@ episode 3:

A cool TV series, a funny sitcom, and an English course, all wrapped in one single package to make Extr@, the perfect way of learning natural English having fun.

 Annie and Bridget share a flat. Their next-door neighbour Nick is a disorganized, humorous macho fellow. Bridget's Argentinean penpal, Hector, comes to London to visit her. His limited command of English serves as the central dynamic for the language learning content of the series. His trying to get to grips with the daily English is highly amusing (and enlightening).


For Episode 3 click here 

Download the activities here

10 things to see in London

 

I love English

(magazine article) 

 

'I love English': magazines designed for language learners that can be used in classroom as extra activities to add colour and motivated students.

You are going to: 

- talk about London

- read about the 'top 10 things to see in London'

- complete the activities 

 

Discussion:

1. What comes to mind when you hear the word 'London'?

2. Have you ever been to London?

If the answer is yes proceed with the following questions:

3. What are your favourite images of London?

4. What things can tourist can do in London?

Reading: Scanning (tell students they have 2 minutes to  quickly scan the pages and list the 10 things to see in London)

Question: List the top 10 things to see in London?

 

 

You can download the magazine's pages here:
London 1
London 2
London 3
London 4

Reading for information ( Skimming :ask students to read again and complete the following activities. Students can then check in pairs.)

Vocabulary activities:

1. Match the word (1-9) with the definition (a-i)

1. chimed	a. to restore something that is broken, damaged or torn to good condition
2. repair something	b.goods that are bought or sold
3. boroughs	c.a town or part of a city that has its own local government
4. guards	d.a short sentence or phrase that expresses the aims and beliefs.
5. motto	e.a series of actions that are always performed in the same way, especially as part of a religious ceremony
6. merchandise	f.a person, such as a soldier, a police officer or a prison officer, who protects a place or people
7. ritual	g.very fashionable and elegant
8. extinct	h.to ring; to show the time by making a ringing sound
9. chic	I. no longer in existence

2. Answer with true or false and correct the false sentences:

1. The Big Ben chimed for the first time in 1869.

2. The red phone box is painted red because of the British flag.

3. Tourist like to take photos of themselves inside them.

4. The London eye welcomes more than 3.2 million visitors per year.

5. There are 32 capsules.

6. The crown Jewels are protected by guards called 'Beefeaters'

7. The Queen's guards are the most popular guards in the world.

8. The London underground is 100 years old

9. Harrods merchandise is quite expensive.

10. Every year, one London hotel wins the Top Afternoon Tea award.

11. The natural history museum has the largest natural history in the world.

 

3. Fill in the gaps with the words:

1. The clock bells.................. every hour.

2. My car is in the mechanics shop for..............

3. Our...................... is 'freedom, justice and love'.

4. The president has three................ standing outside his door.

5. This shop offers an astonishing range of …...................

6. Wow! This dress is so...................

or download the worksheet here:

Closing the lesson:
1. Would you like to visit London?
2. What things would you like to see?