The Silent Birthday Line
In this idea, students meet silently in the room and line up in order of their birthdays, without speaking a word. They can use gestures to indicate year, month and day, but cannot speak. This works best if students do not know each other. They can also make a competition between two teams in the room.
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Play emotions with alphabet sounds
Use sounds of the alphabet that you want to stress or emphasize in your language. Select some easy ones and then go for more complicated sounds. Invite students to form pairs or groups of threes. Students use the sounds to express emotions. This works well also with numbers (or sequence of numbers) or colours or adjectives as a review. Cool emotions to play: anger, happiness, sadness, nostalgia, tiredness...You can add to that as you can think of many more. While the sound or the words are reviewed, students use their emotions to express the different situations. Lot's of fun!
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Speaking in micro-time
Select a very small timeline - like 15 minutes in intervals. Invite students to think of every single action they have completed during that timeline. Review the actions by telling them in sequence. This is harder than you think. use structures on the board or on a poster to add sequential words in the language that support what students should be saying.
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The intelligent pizza
Ask students to think of the ingredients for their best pizza. The pizza of their dreams. Use a piece of paper where the pizza can be drawn. Students can make their pizza whichever way they want. Students then describe their pizza in a circle. Pay attention to what they describe. The ingredients may indicate the type of pizza but also how they like to enjoy it. Older students may think of good pizza experiences as part of going out with friends, eating alone, after a game or a victory...invite for interpretation. Then add "atmosphere" ingredient. Also you can use the phrase: "when I think of pizza I think of...." finish the sentence. You can do this also with a heritage food or special dish.
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Geography with your body
Think of the country where your language is spoken. Or a key geographical area. then challenge your students in groups to be the key cities or provinces in that area. Students place themselves relative to each other. They have to negotiate their presence in the space through the target language. Then ask students to explain.
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Stand all of you who...
This is a great game. Similar to music chairs, people sit around in a circle with chairs. There is always one more chair than there are students. The student in the middle goes around and thinks of something that is common to everyone (or someone) sitting in the circle. For example: Stand all of you who...wear glasses! People who wear glasses have to stand and sit in someone's chair. IN the meantime, the person in the middle tries to get a chair. Play with different characteristics to call upon. Play so that nothing can be repeated. Set a number of times and last person who is up (in the middle) has to do something!
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The preposition ball
Still sitting down. Use ideas around prepositions by passing the ball amongst people sitting down. use a soft ball. Students can say things like: From Valeria to Josephine. The ball is thrown from Valeria, to Josephine. Or: From Valeria, through Greta, behind John to Josephine....and so on.
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The body-grammar rules
Use the body to explain or review a grammar rule. For example: ask students to explain the Saxon Genitive rule (the possessive "s") or the third person singular rule with their bodies. Ask students to explain their representations of the rule.
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The body words
Give first words then sentences, and ask students to write the words with their bodies.
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Post it emotions (colours and pictures)
Place coloured pieces of paper on the floor (or post it notes). Ask students to silently pick a number of them up. Then ask students in pairs to explain why they picked the colours. You can do this with images of animals or photographs of beautiful sights.
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Number sequences
Write a sequence of numbers on the board. Ask students to review the sequence and explain it. Accept open ended responses - but do try to have an explanation for your sequence. Then invite students to think up new sequences and present them to the class.
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The vocabulary of counting
Sunday + 1; Wednesday - 2...Think of sequential elements in the language (around time this works best) and ask students to answer accordingly. Add words to numbers and see what responses you get. Invite students to share their own.
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Counting emotions
Ask students to place together in an equation (like one of the operations + - / X) two or more words and see what type of answer others give.
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The "Lorenza" song
This works with a melody of a nice Italian song around teh days of the week. Use a similar melody to review repetitive elements in a calendar, a week or even parts of a story.
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The accessories date/ job interview
Ask students to give you accessories. Depending on the gender prevalence in your classroom play this as going on a date or preparing for a job interview (or making a new friend at the playground). Students give you as many accessories as they can. Then you play the story of having to go on a date, or preparing for an interview and ask students to guide you through what you should wear or not and why. Engage in a nice conversation. This is an activity that works best for more advanced levels in the language.
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The "2-thumbs" hand debate
Think of something unnatural, like having found the way to genetically device hands with 2 thumbs. Divide the class into two groups - one is for the genetic advancement and one is against. Debate.
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Dragon's Den inventions
Give students the time to find objects in the room. Do not prepare this in advance - it works best with improvised objects. Place students in pairs or groups of threes. Then ask students to come up with an invention using the objects they have at hand making new objects. Then students present and defend their inventions.
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Selective listening (interrupt,connect, keep silent, distracted)
Send groups of students out of the room. tell the remainder group to listen to what these students will say (a story for example) in different ways - being distracted, keeping silent but inexpressive, interrupting with their own story... Then students get together. Time the story telling experience. Then ask students to guess what their partners where doing and how they felt.
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The hand gestures dialogues (pairs to pairs)
Place students in pairs. One is behind the other and places their hands under the arms of the person in front of them. The partner behind uses his or her hands to make the gestures of what they hear the partner in the front saying. Their hands interpret the conversation. Students stand in pairs in front of each other and engage in conversations.
