THE INSTRUCTIONS OF TESOL ACTIVITIES

1. LINE UP

Instructions

Step 1:

Give the group the task to line-up in order of height (tallest-shortest) without talking.

Step 2:

Repeat the challenge two or three times with progressively more challenging tasks,
such as:

 Line up by hair color or eye color (lightest-darkest)

 Line up by date of birth (youngest to oldest)
 Line up by where you were born (farthest-closest)

A highly challenging alternative is to do any of the above with all participants

blindfolded. In this case, the group needs to use physical touch and or clapping to
solve the task. This alternative takes much more time and should involve a reflection
at the end.

2. Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger Hunts can be played anytime, anywhere by children of all ages.
Scavenger hunts can be played inside, outside or both. Parks, beaches or your
backyard are all great outdoor locations for a scavenger hunt. Children can play this
game in teams, pairs or on their own.
You will need:
 paper
 pens

How to play:
1. Create a list of things to find, hear or do. Use pictures, numbers and words to
create your list.
2. Create a time limit (optional).
3. Give children the list and let them scavenge around and find, smell or do all of
the things on their list.
4. The player or team who ticks everything off on their list first, or ticks off the
most items before the time is up, wins.

Scavenger hunts don't need to be a competition or have a time limit, they are a great
adventure and provide lots of opportunities to learn.
Ideas for your scavenger hunt list:
 something blue
 something shiny
 a feather
 a pink shell
 a butterfly
 smell a flower
 pat your cat/dog
 do a forward roll
 something in the shape of a triangle.

3. Find Someone Who

This fun activity is a good one to use at the beginning of a course. It's a quick way for
students to connect with one another and overcome shyness.

This is a good activity to do with students at the beginning of a course. It provides a

quick way for students to connect with one another and helps them overcome initial
shyness in a new situation.

Introduction
Tell students that they are going to play a game to find out things they might not
know about each other. They will have a few minutes to fill out a survey sheet. When
they hear a signal from you, they will "freeze" in their places.

 Distribute the Find Someone Who survey sheets (below). Explain that students
are to walk around the room and find people who have the characteristics
described on the sheet. When they find someone, they write the name in the
blank provided. Ask them to find as many different people as possible, using
each person's name only once.
 Begin the game. Continue until several students complete the worksheet. This
will probably take about five minutes.
 Ask students to return to their seats. Ask a student who completed the entire
survey to go down the list, saying who s/he found for each item and
acknowledging that person. Where appropriate, ask for more details. (For
example, if Yvette has a pet, ask what pet she has.)

Discuss

 What did you notice about yourself and others during this game?
 Did you learn anything new about someone?
 If you were making up questions for this worksheet, what are some things you'd
like to ask?

FIND SOMEONE WHO

Find someone who:

Name: ___________________________ ...is wearing the same color as you.

Name: ___________________________...has an older brother or sister at home.

Name: ___________________________...is wearing jewelry.

Name: ___________________________...has visited another state.

Name: ___________________________...has a pet.

Name: ___________________________...has a birthday the same month as you.

Name: ___________________________...is the oldest in his or her family.

Name: ___________________________...saw the same movie as you recently.

Name: ___________________________...has read a Harry Potter book.

Name: ___________________________...plays a musical instrument.

Name: ___________________________ ...has lived outside NYC for a year or more.

Name: ___________________________...speaks a language other than English.

Name: ___________________________...cooked a meal recently.

4. DAILY MINGLE

Mingle activity is started by asking different students with the same question and
different responses learn through talk, activities are conducted by moving and
walking, use card as students media, use peer and small group of students, based
students centre, and teacher is part of students.

Four Corners

Students worked hard all week? Do they deserve a special reward for a job well
done? This activity will offer students a nice break from structured learning.
Adapt it to fit your needs. Have some Friday Fun!

DESCRIPTION

The "Four Corners" game is popular with teachers and students. It's simple to play,
and it offers an opportunity for students to burn off some excess energy on a Friday
afternoon. It's a fun activity to offer as a reward at the end of a week of hard work and
excellent effort.

 Number the corners of the classroom from 1 to 4.

 Select one student to be It. That person closes his or her eyes while the rest of the
students go to one of the four corners in the classroom.
 When all students are settled in a corner, It calls out a number. All the kids who
chose that corner are out of the game and must sit down.
 It closes his or her eyes again, calls out a number, and more students sit down.
 When the game gets down to four people or fewer, each must choose a different
corner. If It calls out a corner where nobody is standing, It must choose again.
 The game continues until only one student is left. That student becomes It.
5. GREAT WIND BLOWS FOR WHOM

All the children sit down. An adult stands outside the circle and calls out "A great
wind blows for everyone who....", fills in the blank with a statement that will affect
some of the group (see ideas below). Anyone who is affected must stand up and find
another chair which is at least 2 chairs away from their own.

he game is simple to play; one person in the middle starts by saying “Great wind
blows for everyone who…” and then says any characteristic that is true for that
person. For example, if the person has been to Canada before, he or she can say,
“Great wind blows for everyone who has been to Canada.” All players who have
been to Canada before must stand and quickly find a new seat that is more than 2
chairs away from them. If the player is not able to find a vacant seat, he or she is the
new person who is in the middle.

 Great wind blows for everyone who has been to more than 3 countries before.
 Great wind blows for everyone who hates chocolate.
 Great wind blows for everyone who loves to wear boxers.
 Great wind blows for everyone who has gone more than 2 days without showering.
 Great wind blows for everyone who is addicted to video games.
 Great wind blows for everyone who loves sushi.

Be creative and have fun! Teachers, youth group leaders and camp counselors love
this game because it gets people moving, helping to break the ice at the beginning of
class or youth group, or at the start of camp. It’s also a fun way to get to know
interesting things about each other.

6. I MUSTACHE You a Question

Classroom Activity Grades 5-9
Focus:
Speaking and listening
This activity delightfully called, “I MUSTACHE you a question,” focuses on
practicing listening comprehension and asking/responding to questions. This
gameplay is simple and effective at preparing your students for a variety of social
interactions and presentation speaking. There is an added benefit of using this as a
creative ice breaker during the beginning of the school year or be used to practice
vocabulary words in a question-and-answer format.
Teacher Instructions to give to students:

1. Divide the class into groups of 2-6 students and hand a mustache to each group.
2. Instruct that whoever is holding the mustache under their nose/or in their hand
gets to ask the class a question to the group.
3. After the “mustache” asks the question each member of the group can respond.
4. The mustache then gets passed to the group member to the right.
5. This continues till each member of the group has asked at least one question.
Depending on the group size you may want to set a requirement for minimum
questions asked.
6. If you would like to use this for practicing vocabulary and sentence structure,
provide your students with a list of words (and definitions) to be used in each
question or answer. You can have them check off when they use the word
correctly. Once they complete the list time is up.

Materials

For Teachers:
 Paper & scissors to make mustache
For Students:
 Good attitude and potentially paper and pen
Mustache Template
7. Hot seat

This is a good activity for getting your students going in the morning. It is also
excellent for revising vocabulary.
Procedure

 First, split your class into different teams (two is best, but if you have a large
class, any number could be used).
 Sit the students facing the board.
 Then take an empty chair - one for each team - and put it at the front of the
class, facing the team members. These chairs are the 'hot seats'.
 Then get one member from each team to come up and sit in that chair, so they
are facing their team-mates and have their back to the board.
 As the teacher, have a list of vocabulary items that you want to use in this
game.
 Take the first word from that list and write it clearly on the board.
 The aim of the game is for the students in the teams to describe that word, using
synonyms, antonyms, definitions etc. to their team mate who is in the hot seat -
that person can't see the word!
 The student in the hot seat listens to their team mates and tries to guess the
word.
 The first hot seat student to say the word wins a point for their team.
 Then change the students over, with a new member of each team taking their
place in their team's hot seat.
 Then write the next word…

This is a very lively activity and can be adapted to different class sizes. If you have
too many teams, perhaps some teams will have to wait to play. Or if the team sizes are
large, you can restrict how many team members do the describing. Have fun!

Language Level
Primary level 3

8. Running dictation

This is a lively activity that practises speaking, listening, writing, walking and
remembering!
Choose a short passage or dialogue and make several copies. Put the copies up around
the walls of the classroom (or even the school building).

Put the students in pairs or small groups. The aim is for one of the students in each
pair to walk (or run!) to read the passage on the wall. They remember some of the
passage and walk (or run!) back to their partner. They quietly dictate what they
remembered to their partner, who writes it down. They then swap roles. Over several
turns they will build the whole passage. This means they really do have to run back
and forth because students will only remember three or four words at a time.

The winning pair is the team that finishes first – although you need to check for
mistakes. If there are mistakes, they must keep walking to check!

A good idea is to teach them punctuation vocabulary beforehand if you want them to
use the correct punctuation in English. It's a good way to check spelling and fabulous
for pronunciation – and great memory training!

Language Level
Pre-intermediate: A2
9. Dictogloss

Dictogloss is a type of supported dictation. The teacher reads a short, curriculum-

related text several times and the learners try to produce their own version as close to
the original as possible. The ideal dictogloss text is at a language level slightly above
that of the learners, but with familiar subject content. It may introduce some new
vocabulary or sentence structures.

This is the process:

1. The teacher reads a short text on a familiar topic at normal speed

2. The learners listen and take notes
3. The teacher repeats the reading
4. The learners form pairs and share their notes
5. The teacher reads the text a final time at normal speed
6. The learner pairs form fours to produce a final written version of text. The aim is to
get as close to the original as possible.

Examples of activities

Dictogloss can be used in all curriculum areas and at all levels of proficiency in
English from New to English to Fluent. It is suitable for use with learners aged eight
and above.

1. Exam practice:
Dictogloss can be useful to provide EAL learners with model answers to exam
questions that require a more extended response, for example describing a graph in
science or economics. Prepare the lesson by writing or sourcing a model answer. Give
the students a GCSE question which involves describing what is shown by a graph
and display the graph. Then use the model answer as a dictogloss text as described
above.

2. Introducing a genre:

It is also a useful way to model how to write in a particular genre. E.g. An Inspector
Calls JB Priestley dictogloss models biographical writing. Going through the final
written version at the end gives an opportunity to point out key features of the text
and frequent phrases used in that genre.

3. Academic language:

Dictogloss is perfect for encouraging learners to use academic language by

introducing more advanced language patterns that they may not yet comfortably use
in their own writing. For example, use dictogloss to provide a model introduction to a
literature essay – a form of academic writing that many learners find challenging.

WHO AM I?
Who Am I? is a simple icebreaker useful for classrooms.

 Materials Required: Post-it notes or small sheets of paper, pens.

 Number of Players Recommended: 5-30.
 Time Required: 15 minutes

How Do You Play Who Am I?

Setup
Ask everyone to form a circle. Hand a post-it note and a pen to each player. Tell each
player to write a famous person on the post-it note.
Playing the Who Am I? Game
Have each player stick a post-it note on a nearby person, with the name of the person
showing. Go around the room and have a player ask the “yes/no” question to the
group. The goal is for each player to successfully guess the person written on their
forehead. If the player does not guess correctly, the next person gets to ask a
question. Continue play until everyone successfully guesses their name, or until time
runs out.
A Web of Ideas
10.A WEB OF IDEAS

students have a meaningful conversation about an important topic. The teacher graphs
the flow of the talk to assess the quality and equity of the discourse, as well as the
quality of the content that students present. Ideally, students are seated in a circle
(Figure 1), and as each student participates in the conversation, the teacher draws a
line from one speaker to the next on a diagram of the students’ seats, creating what
looks like a spider web (Figure 2, p. 50). The teacher also makes notations on the web
about the quality of the talk.

11.Rock Around the Clock

Introduction
(30 minutes)

 Gather the class on the carpet in a circle. Give your students analog clocks and
have them sit next to it on the floor.
 Tell the students that they will listen to a book called the The Grouchy
Ladybug by Eric Carle.
 Explain that in the book, the ladybug meets many animals. Your class will be
helping their stories come to life.
 Place the 16 animal cards in the center of the circle and have each person take
one.
 Tell the class to listen carefully as you read. As each animal is addressed in the
book, the child with that animal's card must move to the center of the circle and
act as the author describes. This acting includes movement and sound. After
their scenes, they will return to their spots in the circle. Students are also asked
to show the times on their individual clocks as the time appears during the
story.
 Model an example using an animal NOT mentioned in the story, such as a
giraffe. Demonstrate how a giraffe might move and how its neck would be
straight and upright. Students will not be shown the pictures in the book so they
will have to visualize for themselves how the scene should look.
 Read the story to the class. Pause occasionally and to ask questions that
compare times. One example: How much time has passed from when the
ladybug met the beetle, at 7:00, until she met the lobster, at 10:00?

12. 3-2-1 ACTIVITY

How to Use
1. Three. After the lesson, have each student record three things he or she learned from the lesson.
2. Two. Next, have students record two things that they found interesting and that they'd like to learn
more about.
3. One. Then, have students record one question they still have about the material.
4. Review.

SHORTLY,

 3 things they learned

 2 things that confirmed what they already knew

 1 question they still have

That's it!
13. YES,NO, STAND UP

To play, tell everyone to stand up for yes (or true), and sit down for no (or
false). You then ask closed questions or make true/false statements for the
students to respond to. You can use flashcards, picture differences, general
knowledge, or another set of information like a timetable.
14.THINK, PAIR, SHARE
How to use think-pair-share
1. T : (Think) Teachers begin by asking a specific question about the text. Students “think” about what
they know or have learned about the topic.
2. P : (Pair) Each student should be paired with another student or a small group.
3. S : (Share) Students share their thinking with their partner.

15. Apple, Orange and Banana!

Materials
 No materials needed

Instructions

1) Form a circle with people where each member must put their hands on the shoulders of the person
in front;

2) The facilitator will describe the following commands:

>> apple means everybody jumps forward at the same time (dont break the circle);

>> orange means everybody jumps backwards;

>> Banana means everybody jumps back turning 180 degree so they will put their hands over the
shoulders of the person behind. The facilitate tell them to turn left or right just to create a pattern and
people dont get confused when doing the movement.

Rounds:

Easy mode: the facilitator will be giving commands in a slow pace. ex. apple!... banana!.... apple!....
orange! with few seconds between commands;

Moderate mode: facilitator will combine 2 commands. ex: banana-apple!... orange-apple!

Insane mode: facilitator will combine three our more commands.

16. Thumbs Up! Thumb Down!

This formative assessment technique quickly allows the teacher to gauge the understanding of the
learners in his/her classroom. After presenting a lesson, or part of a lesson, the teacher asks students
to use their hand to signal their depth of understanding.
 A thumbs up means “I have a good understanding.”
 A thumb to the side means “I still have some questions.”
 A thumb down means “I don’t get it.”

The teacher can readjust the next lesson or section of the lesson as needed based on student
response. To hold students more accountable for their “truthfulness” the teacher can call on someone
who signaled a thumb up to explain the concept to the class, or partner students who understand
with those who don’t and let them teach each other for a few minutes.

17.Snowball Fight

Gather paper from your recycle bin, so long as one side is blank, then follow these
steps. Have students:

1. Write one sentence or question—the content depends upon the context—on a

piece of paper.
2. Ball up their paper.
3. Throw their "snowballs."
4. Pick up someone else's snowball and read the sentence aloud or answer the
question.

18.