Purpose

Primarily, this song can be used through the semester at any level (although level 1 will need plenty of support) as a 15~20 minute activity to add variety to the class: three or four stanzas every week or two. It could also be used in the last class after feedback as a ‘fun’ activity.

• It can be used as a simple listening activity. Primarily, ~ing forms, unstressed syllables, prepositions are the focus of the listening.

• It can be used for pronunciation practice (the song has a powerful and simple rhythm).

• It can be used for performance. The song is full of actions and the people in it (four) can be played by students as the music plays (especially if you have Sobun students!).

• It can be used for comprehension practice.

• It can be a source of vocabulary (see Damian Fitzpatrick’s vocabulary self-assessment sheet) and to encourage out-of-class listening/practice.

• It can be used for anything!

filler activity pdf
Tom’s diner – mp3

This is a boardgame that I use to get the students to talk about their summer vacation and what they did.

I have found that even though it may give certain students less talk time than simple pair work it seems to work better at getting students to talk with each other than find someone who tends to.

Uni Vacation Boardgame9-26-06.pdf

The Summer Vacation Game.doc

This is a crossword to review past-tense forms.

It is a good review (warm-up) excercise to do before asking students to talk about their vacations with each other.

Winter Vacation Crossword

Winter Vacation Crossword Answers

Please check out some quizzes (including jumbled words, cloze, hangman activities and one battleship) made to test some of the vocab. that appear in the listening tasks (units 1-6).
Try them out and let me know if you find any errors. Students will also be provided links to these activities. They can either be set for self-study (homework) or be assigned to students to do as part of the course work.

UNIT 1 FAMILIES

UNIT 1 TIME FOR A CHANGE

UNIT 2 LEARNING STYLES

UNIT 2 WHAT THEY LEARNT IN SCHOOL

UNIT 3 WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT THE CITY?

UNIT 3 WHAT’S THE CITY LIKE?

UNIT 4 I HAD THE WILDEST DREAM

UNIT 4 MANAGING STRESS

UNIT 5 DIFFERENCES & SIMILARITIES

UNIT 5 PROBLEM SOLVING

UNIT 6 SMALL TALK

UNIT 6 TELL ME ABOUT IT

Check out the following activities (Rags to Riches) that test the students’ comprehension of the listening tasks from Units 1 through 6. Feel free to try them out beforehand and please let me know if you find any errors. The links will be available for students, also. They can either be recommended to the students to do as homework or be assigned as required work.

UNIT 1 A

UNIT 1 B

UNIT 2 A

UNIT 2 B

UNIT 3 A

UNIT 3 B

UNIT 4 A

UNIT 4 B

UNIT 5 A

UNIT 5 B

UNIT 6 A

UNIT 6 B

Here is a variant on a perennial favorite from Talk A Lot, the “Why were you…?”. Rather than simply recount their own summer vacations, students use the prompts on this worksheet to ask and answer about some bizarre holidays.

Click to download the Weird Summer conversation starter, print it out, and see if your students can lie convincingly. Appropriate for active pre-intermediate classes and up.

You may need a picture of Vin Diesel to complete this class activity. And, for your own amusement, try the Random Vin Diesel Fact Generator