Session 1: Communicative exercises.

Activity 1: All levels. Using Cuisenaire Rods to build up a story.

The teacher shows us a box full of  wooden blocks of different colors and sizes and asks us what we can do with them in a language class. Each teacher gives his opinion. Without telling us what the utility will be and  purpose of these colored blocks in the activity that we are going to do, we project a video. This is the video we see without sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugi4x8kZJzk

Once we have seen the video we tell what happens in the video.

The activity will consist of recreating/building  a story that explains what happened before the scene we have seen using the pieces of wood. (You can also build the story of what will happen next). The exercise is done in a group and you have to decide what the blocks represent (trees, river, leopard, monkey, hyena, gorilla,…..) This is how the story we made turned out: We built a jungle!

On the photocopy you gave us there are a variety of activities that can be done with these blocks.

Activity 2: Level A1-A2 Mimes (Acting out!)

This activity consists of staging actions. The teacher acts out a situation and the students have to find out what she is doing. Once each of the students describes the action, they take turns to represent the actions that the teacher gives them on slips of paper. (Photocopy- Mimes)

The goal is to practice the present continuous. (teaching grammar through miming)

Session 2: Communicative exercises

Activity 1: Level A1-A2.Fun memory Game.

The objective of this activity is to practice the present continuous and the pronouns (he,she,they). The teacher gives the students (as a group) the cards face down and the students have to pick them up and make sentences with what they see on the card. The goal is to pick up two cards where the action matches. (The instructions for this activity are in the photocopy)

Activity 2: Level A1-A2.Silhouettes (Guessing game)

This is another activity to practice the present continuous. The teacher gives us a photocopy with six silhouettes and we have to find out what the silhouettes are and what they are doing. For this activity we work in pairs. Expressions of speculation are practiced. Once in pairs we reach an agreement on what the silhouette can be, the teacher shows us the drawings and we make comparisons.

Activity 3:  Level A2- B1 Dictation/Mime

The teacher dictates a series of sentences that we have to write: These are the sentences that she dictated to us.

1. I said goodbye to my mom and left the house.

2. I got on my bike and rode to the park.

3. When I arrived at the park, I got off my bike, lay my bike on the grass and waved hello to my friends.

4. My friends and I played football.

5. After a few hours of playing I looked at my watch and decided to go home.

6. I walked back to my bike, picked it up, waved goodbye to my friends and left the park.

7. On the way home I stopped to buy an ice-cream.

8. It was so hot that I sat in the shade eating my ice-cream.

9. When I finished eating my ice-cream I continued my journey home.

What had to be done then was to memorize them and stage them with mimicry.

Objective: It increases the student´s self-confidence.

Activity 4: Level B1. Gerunds and infinitives.

Laminate the photocopy and cut it to have small cards. Students take turns taking cards and have to form sentences with the verbs.

Activity 5: Level B1-B2. Future tenses: Inviting/Accepting/denying invitations. (Photocopy: Diaries)

In pairs, each student has their agenda with all the activities of the week and free time.

The objective is to practice verb tenses used to express the future and expressions to accept or reject an invitation.

The question used to do this activity is: Are you doing anything….(onThursday morning, Sunday afternoon, etc………)?

Activity 6: Level B1-B2. Spot the difference (Pictures showing changes)

Practice verb forms “used to”, Past Perfect, Present Simple. We are given two photocopies with two drawings on each. You have to say what the differences are.  This activity was done in pairs.

Activity 7: Reading an article. Give opinion about what you've read.

The teacher gave us an article on the reasons for teaching or not teaching grammar to students. We didn't read it but we were talking about the importance of grammar. The article is called “Seven bad reasons for teaching grammar… and two good ones” (Photocopy)