Activities for the first day of classes

1. About Me: This activity consists of open-ended sentences which the students
fill in with their own thoughts and experiences. Working in pairs, students read
aloud their statement, and in response their partner reads his or her statement,
resulting in an amazing constellation of two voices. Examples of open-ended
sentences are:
Student A: Student B:
It makes me happy ________ It makes me happy _______
It makes me sad __________ It makes me sad__________
I get nervous ____________ I get nervous ____________
It makes me angry ________ It makes me angry ________
I enjoy _________________ I enjoy _________________

2. Acrostic: Use the first letters of the person’s name to describe the characteristics of
that person:
C a charming girl I’d like to get to know better.
H happy-go-lucky personality from the first impression.
E eager to learn all about this class.
R really likes to read, but only romance novels.
I is involved in many activities including Student Gov’t.
E eyes of blue that sparkle in the sun.

M music has always been my passion

I I have a free-spirited mind
L love getting to know new cultures
L lies are what I can’t stand
Y your secrets will be safe with me.

3. True or False?
Write 3 statements about yourself on the board, 2 true ones and 1 false one. Grade the
statements depending on the level of the class. For beginners I put:
o I practice yoga three times a week
o I have two sisters
o My favourite singer is Dido
(all in present simple)
o For a more advanced level you may put:
o I have ridden an elephant
o I once did a bungee jump
o I hate waiting in queues
(a mixture of tenses)
Ask students to guess which one is false. They could have a class vote to see if they can guess.
They will then probably ask you to elaborate on the information received. Then, ask the students
to do the same and write 3 sentences about themselves. In small groups or as a whole group
students read out their sentences and the others guess the false one.
By this stage in the class you may have some sort of idea of the level of the group. It can be a good
idea to ask the students to do a piece of writing for you early on in the course so you can find
common mistakes to work on in future classes. One way to do this is to write a letter (or postcard,
or e-mail) to your class introducing yourself. Then, ask them to reply to you with information
about themselves. You will be able to find out more about the individual students. You could ask
them to include information about the areas they find easy or difficult in English and the areas
they would like to try to improve in your classes.

4. Tell me about me
Bring in some things to class that have information about you (your passport, your latest plane or
train ticket if you have one, a book that you like, pictures of your loved ones etc.) Give students
different things of yours and tell them to work together to build an idea of what you are like as a
person. They must do this orally. Get them to tell you about you after five minutes. Then they do
the same activity with each other (they can use the contents of their wallet or purse).

5. Make the Rules

There are two ways of doing this well-known activity.
1. Conduct a whole-class discussion on what the rules of classroom behaviour should be for both
the teacher and the students. When you are finished, write the rules on a large piece of paper and
display it in the classroom.
2. Divide the students into two groups. Have one group draft rules for students, and the other
group draft rules for teachers. When they are finished, have students from each group pair up
with someone from the other group to tell them their rules and make suggestions. Re-form the
original groups to write a final draft based on the suggestions. Suggest some rules yourself. Post
the rules in the classroom.

6. A good way to learn English is…

Give students the following sentences on the whiteboard or on an overhead projector. Tell them
they can agree, disagree or change the sentences. Below are some examples. You can add your
own. This can lead into a class discussion about how to learn a language, as well as past
experiences learning a language.
A good way to learn English is…
1. In class with a professional English teacher.
2. In a café with a native speaker of English (not necessarily a teacher)
3. Living in a country where people speak English.
4. Doing business in English.
5. Watching films and TV in English.
6. Repeating what the teacher says in class.
7. Keeping a notebook of new words.
8. Doing some English homework (writing or reading) very often.
9. Having lots of tests in class to help us remember.
10. Using a bilingual dictionary all the time.
11. Reading in English.
12. Speaking English with other students in the class.
7. Variations on the Name Whip
The Name Whip is a quick activity for everyone to get to know each other’s names.
One person starts by saying “My name is…”. The next person continues, naming
the first person and then themselves, “His name is …, my name is …” and so on
until the last person has to name everybody. You can vary this by adding more
information at the end. Here are some ideas.
1. My name is Maria and I like…
2. My name is Carlos, when I was a child they called me Carlitos (nicknames)
3. My name is James and I am … (job)
4. My name is Pavel and I am … (dream job)*
* When you finish this name whip get students in pairs to find out from each other
what their real jobs are and why they would like that dream job.

8. Funny Holidays
Use the cards. Make enough copies so that each group of 12 students have a set of cards. Students
take a card in turn. If it says truth then they must tell a true story about a past holiday. If they
choose a card with a destination or holiday already on it, they must talk about an imaginary
holiday they took there. Encourage them to make it as fanciful and detailed as possible.
The group must guess which is true and which is false
PASAPALABRA
A-
1. To get to a place, to a destination: ARRIVE
2. Name of a fruit that can be red or green: APPLE
3. Part of the body between the shoulder and the hand: ARM

B-
1. Color completely opposite to white: BLACK
2. Member of a family, if he is a boy: BROTHER
3. A boy or girl that is very young, and the mother takes care of it: BABY

C-
1. A means of transport for 1 or 5 people that is driven on roads CAR
2. Animal that a lot of people have at home as a pet CAT
3. Place in a town or city where you go to watch a film CINEMA

D-
1. Person that works in a hospital and heals people DOCTOR
2. Animal that lives at home and it is considered to be man’s best friend DOG
3. Verb that means to move a car from one place to another DRIVE

E-
1. A tropical animal that is very big and has got big ears and a long trunk ELEPHANT
2. Number that comes after ten ELEVEN
3. Part of the face. We have got two of them EYES

F-
1. In spring you can see a lot of them in different colours in the fields FLOWERS
2. Part of the body that you put your shoes on FEET
3. A sport played by two teams of eleven players and a ball FOOTBALL

G
1. Name of the colour of grass and plants GREEN
2. Animal that has a long neck and eats leaves GIRAFFE
3. When it is very cold in winter we put those on our hands GLOVES

H-
1. Part of the body that has a lot of hair HEAD
2. When you go on holidays, you can stay in one HOTEL
3. A building where people normally live HOUSE

I-
1. Preposition of place that is the opposite of out IN
2. You can eat a lot of it in summer when it is very hot ICE CREAM
3. You use it with the computer or mobile phone to look for information or send e-mails
INTERNET

J-
1. Country of Asia whose capital city is Tokyo JAPAN
2. You can drink it, it is the liquid of fruit JUICE
3. Clothes for the top part of the body with buttons or a zip JACKET

K-
1. Typical animal of Australia, with two long legs and a bag on its tummy to carry its baby
KANGAROO
2. The male monarch of a country KING
3. A metallic object to open and lock a door or a car KEY

L-
1. An acid and yellow fruit LEMON
2. Part of the body; people have got two of them and we need them to walk LEGS
3. A wild animal more dangerous than a cat with brown hair around its head LION

M-
1. A very small animal that likes cheese MOUSE
2. Area of land higher than the rest. You can go to the beach or to this place … MOUNTAIN
3. Day of the week between Sunday and Tuesday MONDAY

N-
1. The eleventh month of the year NOVEMBER
2. Symbol that represents a quantity NUMBER
3. A person that takes care of ill people and helps the doctor NURSE

O-
1. The tenth month of the year OCTOBER
2. A sea animal with eight long arms OCTOPUS
3. It can be a fruit or a colour ORANGE

P-
1. A man who is a police officer POLICEMAN
2. A thing to write or draw with PENCIL
3. A person who flies a plane PILOT

Q-
1. A woman who rules a country, the wife of a king QUEEN
2. You ask this to get new information QUESTION
3. The division of an hour into four, each part with fifteen minutes QUARTER

R-
1. A geometrical shape, with four sides, two are longer and the other two shorter
RECTANGLE
2. A small animal with long ears and short back legs that likes carrots RABBIT
3. Water that falls from the clouds RAIN

S-
1. A sweet and white substance that we put into coffee SUGAR
2. The season of the year between Summer and Winter SPRING
3. The name of a colour similar to gold SILVER

T-
1. Clothes to cover our legs TROUSERS
2. Something we use to call and speak to another person TELEPHONE
3. Means of transport that arrives at the railway station TRAIN

U-
1. You use it to protect yourself from the rain UMBRELLA
2. Opposite of down UP
3. Opposite of pretty or beautiful UGLY

V-
1. Musical instrument used a lot in classical music VIOLIN
2. We celebrate this festival on 14th February VALENTINE
3. To go to somebody’s house to be with him/her VISIT

W-
1. It is the colour of milk WHITE
2. We have them at home to look out of from the inside WINDOW
3. Season of the year when it is very cold WINTER

X-
1. (Contains x) This is what we call the verb that helps us to form the negative or the
interrogative form of a tense AUXILIARY
2. Musical instrument with bars of different lengths XYLOPHONE
3. (Contains x) Very afraid or nervous ANXIOUS

Y-
1. The opposite of old YOUNG
2. The colour of the sun YELLOW
3. It has 365 days and 12 months YEAR

Z-
1. The number previous to one ZERO
2. A place where many different animals live in a city ZOO
3. An African animal like a horse that has black and white stripes ZEBRA