Classes often go through stages to get students engaged and motivated. Warm ups and games are one of these phases. Some tutors might see warm ups useless and thus jump onto activities. They don’t want to run out precious minutes at the start of class. Yet, warm ups are crucial tools to set the stage for what comes next. Giving a context or writing a note might get the class thinking in English using the right language exponents. Let your students imagine scenes and predict words.
It is important that your warm ups get students both excited and engaged. Don’t ignore their expectations and let them use the target language as much as possible. In what follows some ways or tips that usually receive top marks from students.
1. Pass the Ball
Toss the ball to someone and let him or her speak or act. Mind it is safe for all the class since you, as a tutor, won’t send anybody to the hospital.
Though it is simple, this warm up gets entire classes thrilled if not into the learning process. All tutors have to do is identify the task, pick a song, for instance, that students would be familiar with, and toss the ball to a student. You are going to bring the entire class to action.
Students will quickly understand that the point is to get rid of the ball as fast as possible. At the right moment, you stop the music. The student holding the ball must answer a question. It is up to your objectives and target language. You can for example read a line from a story, and let your student answer. Repeat the process for a few minutes but no more than 15 minutes. This type of warm ups is ideal for younger learners.
This warm up is ideal for speaking activities, and thus, you might render the class too busy if not noisy. As a tutor, be ready to tolerate energetic students.
Split the class into two or three groups and designate spots on the blackboard for each team to write on. Write the numbers one to five in a list in each team’s section. Then write a topic at the top of the blackboard. The topic can be anything but be sure to make it general enough that there could be many options to choose from.
2. Category List with Stars
Choose a student from each team to come to the blackboard and act as “writers”. Place stars equal to the number of teams minus one within a fairly equal distance from each writer. When you say “GO”, the writers must write five things related to the topic on the board as fast as they can. Encourage the teams to shout answers to their writers if they’re out of words.
When the writers are finished they must grab a star. Count the number of correct answers for each team, awarding points for each one. The team who didn’t grab a star does not have their points counted. Play three or four rounds alternating writers.
3. Tell the class what you see
Describing a scene or picture can tease students’ passive vocabulary and let them voice their words. This is good for vocabulary reviewing. First, show your students a picture preferably that has lots of small details. Then, lay the picture down and tell the students to describe what they saw to their partner. Give them about 30 seconds.
Now, here’s the twist. Split the class into two teams and divide the blackboard in two. Choose three students randomly from each team to come up to the blackboard. Tell them they have to write down as many things they saw in the picture as they can in one minute.
Again, teams can shout answers to the writers. When the time is up, ask the students to sit down and reveal the picture again. Give points for everything they got right; no extra points if the team repeated a word. The team with the most right answers is the winner.
Again, this is ideal for intermediate students to strengthen their spelling, speaking and enrich their vocabulary.
4. Hot Seat
This is what plenty of ESL tutors consider to be the mother of all warm up games. It gets everybody involved I the sense it ramps up excitement levels to maximum capacity. This warm up game is great for reviewing vocabulary.
Have a list of vocabulary words prepared. Bring a chair to the front of the classroom. Split the class into two teams and have one student from the first team sit in the chair, being the “hot seat”, facing the class. Make sure that the student cannot see behind them. Start a timer, preferably one minute, and write the first word on the board.
The team must say things related to that word in order to elicit that word from their teammate sitting in the hot seat. Once the student guesses correctly, write the next word. Continue until time runs out. The team with the most correct guesses at the end is the winner.
Fun in classes can be an additional set to engage students and let them involved into the learning process. It won’t only develop plenty of skills, but it enables students think as groups, take part in teams, coordinate and act as fast as possible. These social skills are for sure helpful in the students’ profiles.