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The World We Live In
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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People and places
This activity is designed to be taught with Exercise 3, "Grammar Focus: Passive; prepositions of cause."
Time: 10–15 minutes. This activity gives practice in using passive structures to describe environmental situations.
- Explain the activity: Students will choose a location (e.g., in forests), and they must make as many statements as they can about it while using passive sentences.
- Model the task by giving this example: In forests. Ask students to think of things that are being done or have been done in forests anywhere in the world. Remind them to use the passive. Write their suggestions on the board:
In forests
Trees are being cut down.
Not enough new trees have been planted.
Many animals' homes have been destroyed.
- Now write the following locations on the board:
in large cities
on farms |
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in mountain resorts
in coastal towns |
- Students work in pairs or groups. Tell them to choose two locations to discuss and to write down their sentences for each one. Set a time limit of seven minutes. Go around and give help as needed.
- Call on students to read aloud some of the sentences they wrote. Which pair or group wrote the most (and the best) sentences?
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Game – Twenty questions
This activity is designed to be taught with Exercise 10, "Writing."
Time: 10–15 minutes. This popular game has students practice using yes/no questions in order to guess something (e.g., a person, place, topic, problem) that someone is thinking about. (Note: This game could be adapted for use with any unit's topic.)
- Explain the game: Students form groups. Each group must think of some environmental or other modern-day problems that were discussed in this unit. Then they choose just one of the problems to use as their "secret" during this activity. Tell students to discuss their choices quietly so that other groups do not overhear what their final decision is.
- To play the game: Groups take turns sitting at the front of the classroom. Explain that the rest of the class gets to ask each group a total of twenty yes/no questions to find out which problem the group is thinking of. Make sure that students ask only questions that can be answered with "Yes" or "No." For example:
Is the problem about pollution?
Are you thinking about how to stop acid rain?
Does this problem exist in . . . (country)?
- After all groups have had a turn being "It," ask "Which group stumped the class the longest (i.e., was asked the most yes/no questions)?" Then declare that group the winners.
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It's getting better!
This activity is designed to be taught with Exercise 11, "Reading: The threat to Kiribati."
Time: 15–20 minutes. This activity practices describing changes that have helped solve environmental and social problems in a city. It reviews the present continuous and present perfect passive as well as prepositions of cause.
- Have students form groups and then appoint a group secretary. Explain the first part of the activity: Group members choose a city that they all know well (probably the one where they live and/or study). Then they brainstorm on some present and recent changes that have helped to improve the city's environmental and social problems. Write these questions on the board for groups to use while brainstorming:
What is being done right now to improve the city's environmental and social problems?
What positive changes or improvements have been made in the last five years?
(Note: If there isn't enough to say about positive changes or improvements, students' sentences can describe negative situations.)
- Set a time limit of five minutes. Remind group secretaries to write down each idea in note form.
- Now give students about five more minutes to choose the five most important changes or improvements that they discussed. Tell them to write a sentence about each change by using the passive and a preposition of cause. For example:
Right now, the homeless are being helped by the local churches and their neighborhood programs.
During the last five years, our drinking water has been improved due to less industrial waste in the river.
- As a follow-up, ask group secretaries to take turns reading their sentences aloud to the class. Does everyone agree with their statements? Why or why not?
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Words, words, words!
This activity is designed to be taught with Exercise 11, "Reading: The threat to Kiribati."
Time: 15–20 minutes. This is a vocabulary-building activity that can be used in any unit.
Preparation: Select five lengthy words (e.g., Unit 7: educational, contaminated, pollution, overcrowding, corruption).
- Divide the class into pairs. Explain that students will try to make as many new words as they can from the letters of a given word.
- Now write the word educational on the board and ask students to make as many new words from it as they can in three minutes.
- Find out which pair made the most new words and ask them to read their list aloud. Then continue in the same way until all five of your words have been used, or until time is up. Who made the most words?
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