Cool Warm-Up Activities and Sites for #ELT Classes

Beginning a lesson with a warm-up activity has many advantages. I can just list some as

• waking up tired students
• breaking the ice
• encouraging students to talk and think on the subject
• allowing students to settle down and prepare for the lesson
• previewing or revising a particular language area
• introducing the topic
• providing humour
• starting the lesson with a smile
• energising your students
• proving oral fluency practice
• and they are easy to prepare

There are many activities that can be used as warm-ups. Course books usually support the teachers with a short activity but from time to time, to surprise the students we can bring drama into the classroom. I’ll just list here a few drama activities and a few links for websites in this post.

1. Divide the class into two and tell students to stand as 2 lines. Tell them Line 1 will form a circle and that will be the inner one, line 2 will form another circle around the inner circle. Set time limits. Ask students to come face to face and talk about a) something they remember from yesterday b)what they know about the topic you are going to work on. When the time is up, tell outer circle to move until you stop them and inner circle to wait for a new partner. (You can play music while they are moving) When they stop, they can talk on the same topic with their new partners. You can finish the activity after a few rounds.
2. The teacher gives a piece of paper to the students and asks them to write at least 5 features of their character. The teacher collects the papers from the students and puts 4 chairs in a + shape. Then the teacher reads the features written on the papers and students who have those features are asked to gather around the same chair. Then the students can talk about their similarities. You can even put them in groups and ask them to create a class poster. This activity will be a great 1st week activity even with large classes.
3. Group your students and ask them to freeze frame a few scenes from the previous chapters of the book you have been reading after each scene the rest of the class try to guess which scene is in the frozen frame.
4. GoNoodle is a fun website you can find many videos and use them as warmers or energizers when you feel your students are getting bored.
5. Famous Movie Segments for Warm-ups and Follow-ups will come handy when you need something different.

Have a great term 🙂