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Let's Celebrate!
The activities below provide fun exercises for the entire class when you have extra time. They are designed to be taught with specific exercises in this unit. Click on an activity in the list below or scroll down the page.
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One word a minute
This activity is designed to be taught with Exercise 2, "Word Power: Celebrations."
Time: 10–15 minutes. This activity reviews any unit's vocabulary and practices making sentences with pre-selected words. It could be used at any time for a quick warm-up activity or just a fun way to review vocabulary.
Preparation: Make a list of ten words from this unit or any previous unit or units. (Note: See the Key Vocabulary in the Unit Summaries, located at the back of the Student's Book.)
- Students form groups. Name each group with a letter or number (e.g., Group A or Group 1) and write the groups' names on the board for keeping score.
- Explain the activity: You will read a word aloud to the class. Within the next minute, groups compete with one another trying to think of as many sentences as possible using the word. Each time a group (or individual students within a group) comes up with a sentence, one of the students in that group raises his or her hand; then he or she says it to the rest of the class when called upon by you. If the sentence is correct, that group gets one point.
- Give the class this example of how to play:
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Flower. F-L-O-W-E-R. |
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"A rose is a flower." |
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"Flowers smell sweet." |
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"What's your favorite flower?" |
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"Where can you buy flowers around here?" |
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"Who do you sometimes give flowers to?" |
- Start the activity by reading aloud the first word on your list. A student from any group can raise his or her hand to make a sentence using that word. Continue for one minute, keeping score on the board. Then read the next word from your list. After ten minutes or ten words – whichever comes first – the group with the most points is the winner.
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Once in a lifetime
This activity is designed to be taught with Exercise 6, "Once a Year."
Time: 20 minutes. This activity provides a fun way of reviewing the present perfect. Here, students work in groups and prepare a questionnaire focused on unusual activities. Then students independently interview classmates from other groups to find out who has done any of the activities.
- Divide the class into groups. Tell the groups to make up a questionnaire that contains ten questions about unusual activities. Each student writes down the group's questions on a piece of paper (i.e., each member of the group should have his or her own copy of the questionnaire) to use later in the activity. In this practice, tell students to use the present perfect – for example:
Have you ever had a pet snake?
Have you ever seen a TV personality on the street or in a restaurant?
Have you ever gone skydiving?
- Students get up and move around the class, asking the questions from their group's questionnaire. If anyone answers "Yes" to a question, students should write down that person's name and ask a few follow-up questions to get some more details.
- Stop the activity after about ten minutes. Ask students to tell the class who answered "Yes" to any of their questions and to report what the person said. Encourage the rest of the class to ask both the interviewer and the interviewee additional questions.
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Spelling contest
This activity is designed to be taught with Exercise 12, "Reading: Unusual customs."
Time: 10–15 minutes. This activity provides an opportunity to check students' spelling and to review vocabulary from this and earlier units. It can be done at any time during the course. (Note: This game is similar to the Verb contest on page 131.)
Preparation: Choose a list of words for the contest. For this activity, students work in groups; between eight and ten words are needed for each group.
- Divide the class into groups of four or five and assign each group a letter (i.e., Group A, Group B, and so on).
- Choose a word from your list and present it like this: (1) Read the word aloud. (2) Use it in a short, simple sentence. (3) Then repeat the word by asking a group "How do you spell . . . ?" Give the group a few seconds to confer quietly on how the word might be spelled. Then one student from the group spells out the word. (Note: Students should take turns spelling the words aloud.)
- If the spelling is correct, that groups gets a point; if it's wrong, ask the next group (e.g., Group B) to spell it. If no group can spell the word correctly, spell it for the class, write it on the board, and then go on to the next one.
- Continue in this way, giving each group an equal number of opportunities to spell words. The group that has the most points is the winner.
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How much did you find out?
This activity is designed to be taught with Exercise 12, "Reading: Unusual customs."
Time: about 20 minutes of class time. This activity reviews asking questions and describing customary events. It gives students the opportunity to find out more about the customs in an English-speaking country and to compare them with similar customs in their own countries.
- Either choose one special holiday, festival, event, or custom (e.g., Christmas) for this activity or ask students to suggest one.
- Write a set of questions about the event or custom on the board. Students should copy these questions and include additional questions of their own. For example, here are some questions about Christmas:
Do you celebrate Christmas?
How do you celebrate it? What do you do?
Do you give presents to people at Christmas?
Do you have a special dinner on Christmas Day?
Do you have Christmas parties?
Is Christmas a legal holiday in your country?
Is it your favorite holiday? Why or why not?
- Now students should try to find a native English speaker and interview him or her by asking the questions prepared. Encourage students to say something like the following when they approach possible interviewees:
"Excuse me. Where are you from? Do you have a few minutes to help me with a short questionnaire on the topic of Christmas?"
- Alternatively, students could go to the library and get the information from a book, a magazine, or an encyclopedia. Also, students who have access to the Internet and the World Wide Web could get information from a "chat room" or from on-line services and web sites.
- In class, students take turns sharing their information with the class. How much information did they find out? Who found out the most? Who actually interviewed someone in English? Encourage students to ask follow-up questions to find out about one another's research experiences during this task.
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