© Macmillan Polska 2013 www.macmillan.pl P H O T O C O P I A B L E

Teacher’s NotesThe Ask & Answer Boardgame

Type of activity: boardgameAim: getting to know each other, bonding, revising grammar and vocabulary, forming questionsFocus: talking about likes, dislikes, preferences, experiencesLevel: pre-intermediate and higherTime: about 45 min

Materials needed:– for each group of four or five students:

• one copy of the board• one set of the Ask cards• one set of the Answer cards• a die and a set of counters

1. Elicit the word “boardgame” from the students. Tell them that they are going to play a boardgame where they will have to ask and answer questions.

2. Elicit or pre-teach some or all of the following words and phrases, depending on the level of your group: a season (e.g. winter, summer), a snack, a TV series, a desert island, an aspect of personality, an item of clothing, to laugh, to eat out, to do housework, money is not an issue. Also, as the students will have to create a number of questions throughout the game, do a short revision of question forms with the verb “to be” and in basic tenses if you feel that your group may need it.

3. Put the students into groups of four or five and give out the boards, dice and counters (the students may use small objects of their own as counters as well) and the two sets of cards to each group, making sure that the students know which pile of cards is ‘ask this question’ and which is ‘answer this question’. The piles should be placed face down next to the boards.

4. The students place their counters on the “start” square and take turns to roll the dice and move around the board. If a player lands on a square with a speech bubble, they have to take a card from the “answers” pile and read out and answer the question. If they land on a question mark, they have to take a card from the “ask” pile and ask the appropriate question to any other person in their group, who then has to answer.

5. The game continues until one person (or the entire group) has reached the “finish” square. Monitor and write down good examples of the students’ output as well as their mistakes throughout the game. After the students have finished, hold a feedback session, praising and eliciting corrections.

© Macmillan Polska 2013 www.macmillan.pl P H O T O C O P I A B L E

Teacher’s NotesBattleships revision

Type of activity: sentence-making gameAim: to revise grammar and vocabularyFocus: grammar structures and vocabulary items of your choiceLevel: pre-intermediate and higherTime: about 45 min

Materials needed:– one Battleships Revision Worksheet per student

(blank or completed by the teacher – see below)

The Battleships Game is a customisable revision activity where the students have to make sentences including certain grammar structures and vocabulary items. Before the class, decide if you wish to choose the target language yourself or assign this task to your students.

I want to choose the target language myselfPrint out one copy of the Battleships Revision Worksheet. Complete the empty spaces next to the numbers 1–10 with the names of the grammar items that you want the students to revise (e.g. Present Simple, Present Continuous, Past Simple, comparative adjectives, be going to, like + ing, etc.). Then, complete the spaces under the letters A-K with the vocabulary items to be revised (e.g. grapes, cycling, to borrow money from, to be keen on, etc.). Copy the completed worksheet for the students.

I want my students to choose the target languageBefore class, print out and / or copy one blank Battleships Revision Worksheet for each student. In class, hand out the worksheets and draw the students’ attention to the blank spaces next to the numbers and the letters on the grid. Draw a similar grid on the board and tell the students that you need to complete the spaces together with examples of grammar structures and vocabulary that the students have already learned. Elicit examples of grammar structures (e.g. Present Simple, Present Continuous, Past Simple, comparative adjectives, be going to, like + ing, etc.) and complete the spaces next to the numbers

1–10 with them – the students copy this onto their worksheets. Use this opportunity to conduct a short revision session on the form and use of the grammar structures if necessary. Then do the same with vocabulary items and the spaces under the letters A–K, making sure to elicit items from the students from a wide range of topics (e.g. grapes, cycling, to borrow money from, to be keen on, etc.).

The rules of the game

1. The students work in pairs and are not allowed to show their worksheets to their partners at any stage of the game. On the board, draw the “fleet”: one ship consisting of four squares, two ships consisting of three squares, three ships consisting of two squares and four one-square ships. The students arrange the “fleet” on their big grids – at this stage, make sure to establish whether “bending” the bigger ships is allowed or if they should always take the form of a straight line.

2. The students then work in pairs trying to locate and sink their partner’s ships as in a standard battleships game. In order to shoot, however, they have to make a sentence with the grammar structure and vocabulary item “responsible for” a given square. Their partner’s job is to listen to the sentence, identify the grammar structure and the vocabulary item used and obtain confirmation of the square which is being hit by using the letters A–K and the numbers 1–10. The game then proceeds in the same way as a standard battleships game, with the partner saying “miss”, “hit” or “sunk”. The students use the smaller grid to mark the hits on their partner’s battleground.

3. Before starting the game, establish with the students whether a “hit” gives the player the right to shoot again. Also, decide whether making an incorrect and / or nonsensical sentence means that the player misses the turn and does not find out if there was a hit or not. While the students are doing the activity, monitor, help and collect examples of the students’ output to be used in a delayed feedback session after the end of the game.

© Macmillan Polska 2013 www.macmillan.pl P H O T O C O P I A B L E

Type of activity: language puzzlesAim: generating interest in learning English, raising linguistic consciousnessFocus: general vocabularyLevel: pre-intermediate and higherTime: about 30 min

Materials needed:– one Student’s Worksheet per student, folded

where indicated starting from the bottom

1. Write the words “spots”, “pets” and “pan” on the board. Make sure that the students know what the words mean. Ask the students if they can see any relationship between the words. Elicit some ideas (e.g. a pet’s fur can be spotted and a pan may be used to prepare food for a pet). After you have collected a few ideas, ask the students to read the three words backwards and write down the three new words on the board. Tell the students that words of this kind are called anadromes, and write this word on the board as well.

2. Introduce the rest of the word groups using the example words from the table in the Student’s Worksheet. Tell the students that they will now have to fi nd more examples of words that belong to each group. Put the students into pairs and distribute the Student’s Worksheets. The students do Task 1 in pairs. Monitor and help as necessary.

3. While the students are still doing the task, copy the table from their worksheet onto the board. When the students have fi nished, collect feedback by putting the words in the correct columns (see key), eliciting or teaching the meanings of the words as you go and focusing on pronunciation when necessary.

4. When the table on the board has been completed, circle all of the headings except for “palindromes”. Tell the students that they will now have to make sentences using the pairs of the words in the four circled groups. Ask the students to turn over their worksheets (without unfolding them) and take a look at the examples in Task 2. Elicit one more example of a sentence from the students and write it on the board. Then, put the students into groups of three or four to continue the task. Monitor and help as necessary.

5. Collect feedback from the groups, correcting where necessary.

6. Next, copy the palindrome square from Task 3 on the Student’s Worksheet onto the board. Elicit from the students or draw their attention to the fact that the square consists of palindromes (explain the meanings of the words “wed” and “dew”) and that the words can be read vertically, horizontally and backwards. Tell the students that they will now have to make two more of the palindrome squares. Ask them to unfold their worksheets, look at Task 3 and complete two more palindrome squares using words represented by the pictures. When the students have fi nished, collect feedback on the board.

Teacher’s NotesWord play

L E G

E Y E

G E L

T E N

E Y E

N E T

Key:

HOMOPHONES HOMOGRAPHS CAPITONYMS PALINDROMES ANADROMES

sea (see)red (read)

knows (nose)

piece (peace)

ate (eight)

lettersink

park

bow

rock

may (May)earth (Earth)

polish (Polish)

march (March)

turkey (Turkey)

kayaklevel

eye

radar

noon

smart (trams)desserts (stressed)

devil (lived)

drawer (reward)

peels (sleeps)

Glossary

Homophonea word that has the same pronunciation as

another word but a different spelling

Homographa word that has the same spelling as another

word (with the same or different pronunciation)

Capitonyma word that changes its meaning when spelled

with a capital letter

Palindromea word that is the same when read backwards

Anadromea word that can be read backwards giving

a different word