Warm-up Activities for an English Club

20 Questions
One person thinks of an object (person, place, or thing). Everyone takes turns asking yes/no questions until someone can guess correctly (or until 20 questions are asked). The difficult part is that you cannot ask "wh" questions!
Example: PINEAPPLE. Does it talk? No. Does it make life easier? No. Do you eat it? Yes. Is it something you would eat for dinner? No. Etc...
If someone makes a mistake in forming the question, other club members can help turn it into a proper question.

Can't Say Yes or No
In this game everyone is given a certain number of coins or squares of paper (about 10). Everyone moves around the room starting conversations and asking each other questions. The only rule is that you cannot say the words YES or NO. If you accidentally say one of these words, you have to give a coin or square to the person who you said it to. Try to trick each other by asking questions that you would almost always answer with a yes or no. Think of other ways to trick your friends. Sometimes asking two quick questions in a row works well. (Especially tag questions: Are you new here? This is your first time in America, isn't it?). This game is a great way to practise using small talk and to add variety to your vocabulary. It also makes everyone laugh.

Fact or Fiction
In this game, one person tells a short story about themselves or someone they know or heard about. Usually it is something funny or crazy. It can be a true story, or something made up.
Example: Josh tells a story about his Uncle Leo who sleeps in the nude. One day Uncle Leo was sleepwalking and he went outside and took his dog for a walk. The next door neighbour was coming home late from work and saw him! She called the police and he got arrested for being naked in public.
Everyone around the room has to say whether they think Josh's story is fact (true) or fiction (made up). Josh reveals the truth when everyone has guessed. Members can take turns telling a story.

Chain Fairytale
This is a fun writing warm-up. Everyone has a piece of paper and writes the first sentence or two to start a fairytale (not one that already exists).
Example: Once upon a time there was a frog that had no legs. He wanted to get married, but there were no female legless frogs in the land.
After one minute the leader will say "SWITCH". At this time the writers have to put down their pens and pass the papers. They cannot finish their sentences. Then, the next writers will continue the story. After about ten minutes you will have as many silly stories to read as you have club members. The leader should warn the writers that they will soon have to wrap-up the story during the last two minutes so that each story has a conclusion. Read all of the stories out loud for a good laugh. You can extend this activity by trying to edit each other's writing and spelling errors.

Draw the Picture
In this activity members split up into pairs or small groups. One person looks at a scene from a magazine or book (the leader should cut out enough pictures, or bring in enough magazines for the club). The other person has a pencil and a blank piece of paper. The person with the picture will try to describe everything he sees to the drawer. This is good practice for using prepositions of place. When the describer is finished, compare the drawings to the real thing! Whose is the closest to the original?

Categories
For this game, one person thinks of a category, such as MOVIES. In a circle, everyone must take a turn thinking of a Movie title (in English of course). If someone takes too long to give an answer (the leader should count to five) then that person is out and a new category begins. If someone gives an answer that doesn't make sense or is incorrect, he is also out of the game. For example, if the category is VEGETABLES and someone says "banana" that person is out. The game continues until only one person is left!

Who am I?
In this game, the leader prepares cards with famous people's names on them. The leader tapes one card on the back of each member. Then everyone pretends they are at a party and asks each other questions to find out their own identities. When someone guesses their own name correctly, the name-tag gets taped to their front and they continue to chat with the party guests until everyone is wearing the nametag on the front.

Jeopardy
In this game, which is based on the famous gameshow Jeopardy, everyone writes down ten answers to questions about themselves. After writing down the answers, people have to form pairs or small groups and try to find out what the questions are.
Example: (answer = purple) "What is your favorite colour?" "Blue." "What colour do you hate?" "Green." "What colour is your underwear?" "Purple!" You can stop at three guesses if you want, or keep going until someone in the club can guess the question.

Hot Seat
In this game, the club is split up into two teams. One member from each team sits facing the group. The leader holds up a word (or writes it on the board if you are in a classroom) for all of the team members to see except for the two players in the hot seats. The teams must try to get the person in the hot seat to guess the word or phrase. The first person to guess correctly gets to stand up and a new member from their team takes the hot seat. The person on the other team has to remain in the hot seat until she gets an answer first. You can keep score or just play for fun. This game can also be played in pairs. One pair member closes their eyes while the leader shows the word to the other pair members. The first pair to get the word right gets a point. Warning! This is a loud game because people tend to get excited and yell!

Broken Telephone
This is a listening and pronunciation activity that always gets people laughing. The leader first must think of a sentence or phrase and whisper it to the person beside her. That person will then whisper what she heard to the next person. Each person can only say, "Can you please repeat that?" one time. When the message reaches the end of the chain that person must speak out loud. Oftentimes the message will be completely different when it reaches the end. Try to find out where the chain broke! In a big group you can send the message two ways and find out which team comes closest to the real message. (A famous example is the army message that started as "Send reinforcements, we're going to advance" and ended as "Send three and fourpence, we're going to a dance.")

Categories

A basic game but lots of fun for students and good workout for vocabulary.

The students write 6 or 7 different categories, for example Country, Adjective, Irregular Verb, Profession etc. The trainer then gives them a letter and the students have to fill the categories with words beginning with this letter.

Example B: Brazil, Big, Be, Baker etc.

If they all have the same word for each category: 5 points each; different words 10 points; and if only one person can get a word 20 points.

Lots of fun.

Controversial Statements

Here are some great controversial statements to get the conversation going. Use them in various ways. Give one or a few to students for pair/group discussion. Or casually toss one of these statements yourself into the conversation at an appropriate moment. Or organize a debate.

• A woman's place is in the home.
• Fare-dodging on a train or bus is ok if you can get away with it.
• Boys and girls should not have equal education.
• A foreign language cannot be taught. It must be learned.
• A country gets the government it deserves.
• A man should have a wife for the family and a mistress for pleasure.
• All property should be owned by the state.
• Murderers should be executed.
• Soft drugs like marijuana should be legalized.
• Beauty is only a matter of taste.
• Riches are for spending.
• We are all basically selfish.
• Punishment never has any good effect.
• Those who can do, those who can't teach.
• You will be happier if you stay unmarried.
• People work better if they are paid more.
• Committing suicide should be made legal.
• Royalty and democracy are incompatible.

Make the most words

Write a topical vocabulary item on the board. In twos or threes students make as many new words from it as they can. Use longish seed words such as,apologise, dictionary or september. Score teams a point per word and award a bonus point for the longest.

Make the longest words

Write a topical target word vertically down the board, for example, WINTER. In twos or threes students attempt to come up with the longest word that begins with each letter. Give teams a point per word and a bonus point for the longest.

Waterfall
Industrious
Nausea
Terrified
Empty
Retailer

What does your name mean?

Using a dictionary, google or any other resource, students find and write down an appropriate adjective that begins with each letter of their first name. For example:

Flirtatious, Relaxed, Extrovert, Desirable

Mixed up sentence

Write a sentence on the board but mix up the word order, then challenge students to reconstruct the original sentence. For example:

morning hadn’t eaten wish that döner kebab I at this 5am

Mixed up sentence (anagram variation)

Write a sentence on the board but this time scramble the letters of each word. For example:

hwy ddint’ I dusty draher ta vieyunrsit?

Odd one out

Give the students a couple of examples to guess, then get students to come up with their own ideas. Some examples: (there can be more than one correct answer)

apple, peach, banana, tomato – a banana doesn’t have seeds
strawberry, branch, bowling ball, boat, iceberg – bowling balls don’t float
window, river, envelope, client, oregano – client doesn’t begin and end with the same letter
comb, champagne, knife, plum – the word plum doesn’t contain any silent letters

Name ten

Have students think of 10 items that fit a certain criteria. For example:

· Jobs where you have to wear a uniform

· English football clubs

· Sports that are played with a ball

· Foods that contain egg

· Animals that lay eggs

· Three letter parts of the body – eye, arm, leg, hip, ear, toe jaw, rib, lip, gum

Feelings definitions game
The person with the flashcard describes what it is for their classmates to guess the feeling, e.g. “It is how an elephant feels when it sees a mouse” for “scared” and “It is how I feel in maths class” for “confused”. They cannot say the word on the card or other parts of speech of the same word (e.g. “anger” for “angry”).