When the semi-Beginners show up on Intermediate night...

Wednesday is usually Intermediate English Club night...this week, however, it apparently became high-Beginner night. Needless to say, the lesson plan that I had carefully crafted immediately became null and void. Thankfully, I had my Mary Poppins bag of supplies and my trusty Ira (now, unfortunately, most of you do not have a trusty Ukrainian friend at-the-ready...which is why I'll share her ideas here.).

I had some word searches in my bag. There are about a bazillion free websites where you can create your own word searches and crossword puzzles. I make fairly liberal use of those sites, and students really seem to enjoy the puzzles. The puzzle we used last night was an "Activities and Sports" puzzle. After giving them several minutes to go through and find as many as they could, we went around the table and defined/ described the activities listed. They did a really good job trying to describe how to play different sports, etc. At that point, Ira suggested that we do an activity that she does with her students (she's an English teacher in a public middle school). We taught these phrases:

1. I enjoy...

2. I am interested in...

3. I don't mind...

4. I can't stand...(if I were going to do it again, I'd probably change this one to "I don't like...")

5. I hate...

We gave each student a slip of paper. They wrote the sentences and filled in the blanks with activities. We told them not to write their names on them, had them fold up the papers, and we each drew someone else's. After reading through the list, everyone guessed whose paper they had. It went really well and opened up opportunities to correct word order or tense.

After we officially ended English club, we ended up sitting around for a while and just talking about things we like or don't like. It was really fun.

ALSO: I just added a new link to the sidebar. It's a site full of ESL games, contributed to by ESL teachers around the world. Some are not so exciting and some are SUPER! I'll list my top favorites in another post, but go ahead and have a look. Maybe you'll find some inspiration!