In this two-part lesson, students first work in pairs to complete a "Gap Exercise" in order to acquire all of the ingredients needed to make four popular cocktails. When finished, they will have the recipes for a:
       Pina Colada, Martini
       Bloody Mary and Margarita.
    After students have the recipes, they work together as a team of four to collect the ingredients from other students in class. They have to mill around the classroom and ask their classmates for items such as:

       2 shots of Tequila
       a cherry
       some Worcestershire sauce
       an olive
       2 shots of Gin, etc.

    Students race against each other to be the first to collect all 20 of the ingredients. During that time, the whole class is very busy collecting things they need to make the cocktails. This lesson is not recommended for teachers who prefer a quiet class!

    For similar style lesson, see Lesson Collection Set #1 - Lesson #20 Cookie Recipes.

    When you really need something to get your students talking, try using 'The Trainee Psychologist." This is a small group activity where students work with adjectives of personality - but the real fun of this lesson is learning about students "real psychological" secrets.
    Although the focus of this lesson is on descriptive adjectives - there is an underlying "psychological interpretation" of their answers, and that's what is so fun about this lesson.

    Caution: This is only a game and not meant to serve as a realistic measure of oneıs psychology. Nevertheless, students are guaranteed to get quite vocal in defending or countering their "psychological interpretations." Use this lesson with new classes an ice-breaker, or when a class just needs an energy boost.

    For similar style lessons, see:
       All At The Same Time (Lesson Collection Set #2 - Lesson 4) -and-
       Amateur Psychologist (Lesson Collection Set #4 - Lesson 15).

    This is a very short and sweet lesson that is always popular with students of almost every English ability. There are 20 common expressions on this worksheet, each presented as a puzzle such as generation gap, Railroad Crossing and Fall In Love.
    To decipher these puzzles, pairs or groups of students have to look at the placement, size and position of the letters and/or words. For example, here's the puzzle for Fall In Love.

                         

    Notice how the word Fall is set directly in the middle of the word Lo ve? Fall is in the middle of Love so the answer to this puzzle is: Fall In Love.
    Here's a tricky one:

                         

    The letter L is ON the letter D and the letter D is ON the word BRIDGE thus L on D on BRIDGE which comes to: LONDON BRIDGE. Cute, huh?

    This fantastic pair-work lesson is guaranteed to bring any class to life. And it's really short (about 15 minutes) so it's a perfect ice-breaker or an even better send off activity.
    While having a lot of fun, students will be working with sentence parts (verbs, adjectives, etc.), building vocabulary and practicing singular vs. plural nouns.
    This lesson begins as a 'cloze' activity (fill in the gaps, information gathering), but when students begin reading their scripts, no one will be able to keep a straight face.
    There are several of these types of exercises in the EFL4U lessons, they're all fun and wacky.
    Worksheet is for the Patient, (Worksheet A is for the Doctor). Together, students will add the missing elements of the dialogue by providing their partner's with names of flowers, adjectives, carpenter's tools, sports verbs, etc.
    When finished, they will read their dialogues. A typical conversation could look like the following:
    Doctor: Hello. I'm Dr. Oink Oink Kevin.
    Patient: Hi, my name is Hibiscus but everyone calls me banana head."
    Doctor: Wow! That's a wonderful nickname.
    Patient: Thanks."
    Doctor: Can I help you?
    Patient: Yesterday, I crashed into a leaf.
    Doctor: Well, I'm afraid I have to cut off your foot....

    And it just gets sillier and sillier.
    There are several of these types of exercises in the EFL4U lessons, they're all fun and wacky.

    This is the follow-up lesson to Synonyms 2 (see Lesson #1 above). It works best if students have already completed Synonyms 2 because the answers to the synonyms on this worksheet are the same.
    On Synonyms 2 above, students try to think of at least two synonyms for simple adjectives; with this lesson, students are given three synonyms for a simple adjective. For example, on the worksheet, the following three synonyms appear:
      immense
      spacious
      roomy
    A simple synonym for these three words is big or large.

    Another example is:
      hazardous
      risky
      unsafe
    A simple synonym for these three words is dangerous. Synonyms 2 (Continued) is a wonderful and fun way to improve vocabulary!

    For similar style lessons, see:
      Synonyms 1 Lesson Collection Set #4 - Lesson 4
      Synonyms 1 (Continued) Lesson Collection Set #4 - Lesson 28
       Synonyms 2 see #1 above;      -and-
       Synonyms 3 see #15 below.

    This is a high-energy activity in which students need to lend and borrow items in order to do a weekend project. There are four Weekend Project worksheets included with this lesson as well as an additional worksheet which has all 24 items which students will need to complete their projects.

    The four Weekend Projects are:

    Building a birdhouse
    Doing yard work
    Wallpapering the bedroom -and-
    Washing the car.

    In groups of four, students have to ask each other if they have the things they need to do their weekend project. Since everyone is trying to borrow six items as fast as they can AND since everyone needs to lend six items out, the classroom will erupt in excitement.

    But that's only half the lesson. Once students have borrowed everything they need to do their weekend project, they must then ask to get the items back which they had lent out. This lesson is guaranteed to make the class bristle with animated conversation.

    Students of any age and ability will enjoy these common English Tongue Twisters - and while they practice, they'll unconsciously be building fluency through pronunciation, intonation, rhyme and rhythm.
    Imagine your students trying to say the following three times:
        This thick thistle thrived in that thicket.   OR
        The Sheik's sixth sheep is sick.
    The Teachers' Instructions include several famous and not so famous Tongue Twisters and it's guaranteed that students will naturally begin sharing common Tongue Twisters from their own language!

    Your students will learn and have fun with the basic English alphabet (A~Z) using sign language. I personally love this lesson because it brings a little physical activity to their learning which, I'm convinced, helps students learn faster.
    The worksheet has three parts; 1] pictures of the alphabet, 2] a message written in sign language (for students to decipher) and 3] a place for students to write their own message which they can 'sign' to another student.

                   Can you read this sentence?
        

    This is also an amazing simple yet effective way to practice spelling - when students spell out words with their hands, they reinforce their learning physically as well.

    One of the best ways to get a class enthused is to encourage them to add a little emotion to their speaking and/or reading. If a student starts relaying a travel experience, or an important memory or a plan fo the future, the emotion they use to express their English completely changes the narrative.
    The Teachers' Instructions offer three very different activities as to how to use these cards, as well as several variations per activity. But imagination allows for dozens of fun and interesting way to bring your classes alive with these 62 Feelings & Moods Cards.
    These cards go hand in hand with the Verb Cards Lesson Collection Set #4 - Lesson 17 and Time Cards see Lesson 3 above. These three sets of cards will bring any class to life - and - the cards are printed in color on cardboard with the Prism books!
    There are 64 Mood and Feeling Cards in total, 32 of them are not so difficult adjectives, the other 32 are more difficult. And you can download the Mini Mood Cards.

    The easier cards include moods and feelings such as:
        happy
        worried
        sleepy -and-
        excited
    The other set includes more difficult adjectives such as:
        mysterious
        flirtatious
        snobbish -and-
        grumpy
    There are endless ways to use these practical Mood Cards and the Teachers' instructions offer several suggestions.

    This lesson is another active, interesting and useful form of non-verbal communication. Learning Morse Code can be useful (in case you're ever in a sunken submarine) and it can be a fun and unique way of practicing English, especially spelling, punctuation, simple grammar and word order.

    Begin class by tapping out a simple message in Morse Code (for example SOS, Hello, My name is. . . ). The students, of course, probably wonıt know what youıre tapping out ­ but this will ensure their complete attention.

    In groups of three, students are given a worksheet, (Worksheet A, B or C) where they can study the Morse Code symbols at the top.

    Once students have the ³hang of² Morse Code, one student in each group ³sends² the message (as printed on the worksheet) to the other two partners.

    Once done, another student in the group begins tapping out the message printed on the worksheet and finally the third student taps out the message.

    There are two additional worksheets (available to VIP Members) which can be used with this lesson. They are:

      Morse Code Generic Worksheet -and-
      Morse Code Quotations Worksheet

    Motivating students is one of the hardest techniques for any teacher to learn. Occasionally though, a lesson itself is so fun and engaging that motivation is not a problem. This lesson is just one of those. The key to the success of this lesson is adding emotion to the activity. On the Worksheet, there are six Mini Movie Clips. In pairs, students read their lines with a selected emotion. What is normally a perfectly natural dialogue becomes very strange and humorous when students read their lines with one of the 62 Feelings & Moods Cards which they select.
    Imagine this scene from a Movie Clip entitled "Spies on the Radio":

      Old Spy (reading tearfully): Pssst! Redbird to Papabear. Come in. (Sniffle)
      New Spy (reading loudly): Papabear here.
      Old Spy (reading tearfully): 12:00 at our secret meeting place.
      New Spy (reading loudly): OK, Redbird. Is that 12:00 noon?
      Old Spy (reading tearfully): Midnight, Redbird (Sniffle) midnight!
      New Spy (reading loudly): Oh. Meet on the old bridge?
      Old Spy (reading tearfully): No, Redbird. That was last month.
      New Spy (reading loudly): So where is it this month?. . . . . .

    All six of these Mini Movie Clips will sound very different, depending on the emotions that students use. Not only will your students laugh a lot with this exercise, they'll actually be reading with feeling!

    For a similar style lesson, see Movie Auditions Lesson 4 above.

    A fun (and quiet) activity for students to practice Alphabet Sign Language. Sometimes, non-verbal communication can be as effective if not more effective in encouraging students to pay close attention to each other in terms of grammar, spelling and thinking.
    This is a great review lesson after students have finished the sign language lesson Flag Speak.
    With this worksheet, students ask each other questions using Alphabet Sign Language. They also give the answers (in case they are not known) and assist with the spelling of the names of eight famous people.
    This is also an amazingly simple yet effective way to practice spelling, the use of articles, prepositions, plural nouns and any number of other elements of the English language. When students spell out words with their hands, they reinforce their learning physically as well.

    For similar a style lesson, see:
      Flag Speak (Lesson Collection Set #1 - Lesson 29).

    Remember the old Tarzan movies? Tarzan, the Ape Man, was raised in the jungles of Africa by apes. He never really learned how to speak English very well, although he could converse with the animals.
    One day he met Jane, a beautiful British lass, and they fell madly in love (and eventually marry). But even in this romantic story, Tarzan can not use pronouns very well Me Tarzan, he's terrible with verbs, often simply omitting them altogether You Jane, and forget about articles, prepositions, indefinite pronouns, plural nouns, relative clauses, well... just about every other element of correct English.
    These worksheets have the students assisting Tarzan with his photo album - and the students help Tarzan with his English!
    Beginning with Me Tarzan, students write I am Tarzan in the photo album. Each of the pictures in this two page lesson becomes increasingly more difficult.
    This is a marvelous lesson for students to review all of the basic structures of simple English grammar, and they will have a lot of fun doing it, too!
    Too easy for higher ability students? No! Encourage the students to do a little research about the history of Tarzan then write the captions using relative clauses. For example:
      This is Tarzan, the man whose parents were killed when he was a baby and who was raised by the apes in Africa.

    This multi-purpose lesson is a really fun yet practical way to review parts of speech, plural vs. singular nouns, articles and sentence construction. Furthermore, students will gain practice in reading a short story naturally - including conversations where intonation is important.
    Students work in pairs, one asking for items and the other supplying the answers. For example:
      Student A: Tell me a month.
      Student B: February.
      Student A: Tell me a Boy's name.
      Student B: Ted.
      Student A: Tell me a male relative.
      Student B: Uncle.
    After all of the answers have been written on the worksheet, the student reads the short story. It might sound like this: (The underlined words are sample words supplied by the students.)

       One day last February, Ted decided to visit his uncle who lived in Lisbon. He hopped 752 kilometers and arrived at 5:39 pm the next day.
       Before going to his uncle's house, he stopped at a bus station to by 88 chipmunks. He cautiously put them into his briefs and took a taxi to his uncle's place.
      When he knocked on the door. . . etc.

    The story will be so odd that students won't be able to help themselves from laughing!

    For similar style lessons, see:
       A Call to Santa (Lesson Collection Set #2 - Lesson 19)
       Cupid's Solution (Lesson Collection Set #3 - Lesson 2)
       The Lost City of Ohmygosh (Lesson Collection Set #3 - Lesson 11) -and-
       The Doctor's Office (Lesson Collection Set #5 - Lesson 13)