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So That's What It Means!
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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Word associations
This activity is designed to be taught with Exercise 4, "Word Power: Emotions."
Time: 10–15 minutes. This activity extends and recycles students' vocabulary, with a focus on nouns. (Note: This activity could be adapted to any unit and the focus changed to adjectives, verbs, phrases, and so on.)
Preparation: Choose some nouns from this unit, or a previous one, with which students can readily make some associations.
- Explain the activity: You will call out a noun, and students have to quickly say words that they associate with it.
- Model the activity by seeing how many words students can think of that relate to a common topic, such as pets. For example:
Teacher: Pets.
Student 1: Dogs.
Student 2: Birds.
Student 3: Birdcages.
Student 4: Aquariums.
- Divide the class into groups. Tell each group to choose a secretary, who also gets to take turns giving word associations during the activity. Now call out one word. Each secretary writes it down and then continues to add each word that his or her group comes up with. Set a time limit of about three minutes.
- Call on groups to read out their words. The group with the greatest number of word associations is the winner.
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One word a minute
This activity is designed to be taught with Exercise 4, "Word Power: Emotions."
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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Be a mime!
This activity is designed to be taught with Exercise 7, "Proverbs."
Time: 10–15 minutes. This activity requires groups to mime or use gestures to communicate the meaning of a phrase or a sentence. Other students guess what they are trying to communicate.
- Write at least ten phrases and sentences like these on the board. (Note: Each must be easy to mime.)
Wet paint
Construction work ahead
Don't walk on the grass.
Don't pick the flowers.
Please close the window.
Can you lend me some money?
Can I borrow your newspaper?
Where's the restroom?
Where's the nearest pay phone?
My car's broken down.
I can smell something burning.
No dogs allowed here
- Students form groups of four or five. Ask each group to secretly choose one of the sentences or phrases on the board. Tell them to think about how they can work together to mime the situation or use gestures to show the action to communicate the meaning. Groups should not tell others which one they have chosen. Set a time limit of about five minutes for groups to plan their mimes.
- Now groups take turns performing their mimes while the rest of the class tries to guess which sentence or phrase is being acted out.
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News headlines
This activity is designed to be taught with Exercise 12, "Reading: Body language – What does it say?"
Time: 20 minutes. This activity practices guessing what newspaper headlines may mean.
Preparation: Look through an English-language newpaper and find five examples of interesting or unusual headlines. Alternatively, use these headlines and write them on the board:
Hit and Run Baffles Police
Cat's Cry Saves Family
Narrow Escape in Runaway Bus
Homemaker Becomes Millionaire
Aging Apes and Elderly Elephants
- To explain the task, model how to talk about the first headline on the board, like this:
Teacher: The first headline "Hit and Run Baffles Police" could mean there was a traffic accident. It may also mean that someone was hit by a car and the driver didn't stop. The word baff les means that the police are still confused about this crime. They probably haven't yet found the driver who caused the accident.
- Students form groups and try to guess what the stories behind the headlines might be. Allow them to use their dictionaries, if necessary. Set a time limit of about ten minutes. Walk around and give help as needed.
- Groups take turns reporting their suggestions to the class. After each headline is discussed by all the groups, have a class vote on which group seemed to have the most logical explanation.
- Optional: If real newspaper headlines are used, read each newspaper story aloud (or hand out photocopies for each group to read together) after groups have reported their suggestions. Then let the class decide which explanation for the headline is closest to the actual story.
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