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OPPORTUNITIES TEACHERS’ ROOM

Warmers

by

David Mower

Synopsis
A series of warmers/short practice activities for teachers of
Opportunities from Beginner to Upper-Intermediate level. Each
activity has full instructions and lasts between 15 and 30 minutes.

Contents
Warmer 1 - Beginner Module 1: Hello! p. 2
Warmer 2 - Elementary Module 1: Friends p.3
Warmer 3 - Elementary Module 1: Friends p.4
Warmer 4 - Intermediate Module 4: The Media p.5
Warmer 5 - Upper-Intermediate Module 4: Beauty p.6
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Beginner Module 1: Hello!

Aim: To practise new vocabulary (names, countries, cities)

Time: 15 minutes
Materials: None

You can play this game after Module 1.

Stage 1
Draw this grid on the board for students to copy.

Boy’s name Girl’s name Country City

Stage 2
Explain that you are going to say a letter of the alphabet. Students
then have to complete their grid as quickly as they can writing
words beginning with that letter. When a student competes the
grid, he/she calls out ‘Stop!’

Example (for the letter ‘S’):

Boy’s name Girl’s name Country City

Steven Sandra Sweden St Petersburg

Stage 3
Elicit answers for each category from around the class and award
points:

10 points – if no other student has that word

5 points – if other students have the same word

The winner is the student with the most points.

Note: As students increase their vocabulary areas, you can play the
game with different categories throughout the year as a ‘filler’ from
time to time. Other categories might be ‘animals’, ‘clothes’,
‘furniture’, ‘sports’, ‘transport’, etc.

Elementary Module 1: Friends

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Aim: To practise using ‘can’, ‘have got’ and the present simple tense
in affirmative and negative forms.
Time: Thirty minutes
Materials: small pieces of rough paper (one for each student).

This activity can be done after Module 1. Students write and read
personal profiles. They have to guess who is the subject of the
profile.

Stage 1
Divide the class into groups of five or six.

Stage 2
Each student writes sentences about himself/herself on a piece of
paper. The information should follow this format, which you can
write on the board:

• A sentence using ‘can’ and ‘can’t’.

• A sentence or two using ‘have got’ and ‘haven’t got’.
• Two sentences using present simple affirmative.
• Two sentences using present simple negative.

You may wish to read out an example about yourself:

I can play the guitar but I can’t sing very well.

I’ve got a computer. I haven’t got a pet.
I play hockey on Saturdays. I listen to classical music on
my walkman in bed.
I don’t have a big breakfast. I don’t watch TV.

You may wish to write some verbs on the board to give students ideas:

collect, dance, get up, go, have, like, listen to, love, make, play,
read, speak, watch

Note: if your students know each other well, they should try to
disguise their handwriting!

Stage 3
Students fold the pieces of paper and mix them up. They then take
turns to take a piece of paper and read out the information. They
have to guess who the information is about.

Elementary Module 1: Friends

Aim: To practise asking questions using the present simple tense.

Time: 15 minutes.
Materials: None
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This is a guessing game you can play after doing the Warm-up
activities for Module 1 (page 7).

Stage 1
Elicit the names of jobs and occupations from the whole class.
Write them on the board if you wish.

architect, dancer, dentist, financial dealer, gardener, housewife,

journalist, nurse, pilot, plumber, police officer, politician, rock star,
scientist, secretary, shepherd, teacher, translator, vet, waiter

Stage 2
Divide the class into groups of four or five students.

Stage 3
Explain the game. One student imagines he/she does a particular
job. The other students take turns to ask questions to try and
guess the job. They can ask up to ten questions.

Examples:
Do you work outdoors?
Do you work with animals?
Do you have to get a university degree?
Do you get dirty?
Do you use computers?

Walk around the groups and note down any mistakes you hear with
question forms. You can ask students to correct these at a later
stage.

Note: If you prefer, you can play the game with the whole class.
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Intermediate Module 4: The Media

Aim: To write a short news item to be read aloud and perhaps

recorded.
Time: 30 minutes.
Materials: A cassette recorder if you wish to record the students;
otherwise none.

Stage 1
Divide the class into groups of five or six.

Stage 2
Explain that Student 1 is going to write an imaginary news item
about Student 2, Student 2 is going to write about Student 3, and
so on, until the last student in the group writes about Student 1.

Stage 3
Demonstrate the kind of thing you expect by reading out the
following news items, inserting the name of a student in the class
in each item.

(Name of male student), lead guitarist with The Motels rock group,
has revealed in an interview with ‘Hello!’ magazine that he and Julia
Roberts were secretly married in New York last month. At present
they are on honeymoon in the Bahamas and later in the year they
plan to make a movie together.

(Name of female student), the 18-year-old tennis star, won the

final of the Wimbledon championships in London today. She beat
Venus Williams, the favourite, by two sets to one: 6-3, 4-6, 6-1.
After the thrilling match, (name of student) said she was going to
spend a few weeks at home with her family before beginning
training for the US Open.

Stage 4
Students write their news items.

Stage 5
Students read out their news items to the group. When they finish
reading their item, they should say ‘And now over to …’, naming the
next student or ‘newsreader’ in the group. The final student should
say ‘And that’s the end of today’s news’.

Follow-up
You can record each group’s news and then analyse their
performance, e.g. for pronunciation practice.
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Upper-Intermediate Module 4: Beauty

Aim: To demonstrate how to write a simple poem based on a list of

images.
Time: 20 minutes
Materials: None.

Here is an idea for a creative poetry writing class which can be done
after Lesson 10 or after Literature Spot 2.

Stage 1
Write a key word on the left of the board.

Red

Stage 2
Brainstorm words the class associates with the key word and build
up a network on the board. Accept all suggestions and write as
many words as you want.

blood danger fire

passion roses
Red

stop heart lips

Stage 3
On the right of the board write some definitions using the students’
word associations. This is the teacher’s chance to have a say in the
content of the poem – you can leave out words you think will not be
very productive. Make sure you leave some space to write between
the lines later.

Red is blood

Red is fire

Red is lips

Red is a heart

Stage 4
Guide the students to suggest possible images to go with each
definition. Encourage them to experiment with techniques they have
seen in Lesson 10 and/or Literature Spot 4.
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Red is blood
like a red flower on the road after an accident
Red is fire
shooting out of an angry volcano
Red is lips
kissing a mirror
Red is a heart
broken after a love affair.

Stage 5
Erase the words ‘Red is’ from all of the definitions, so you are left
with this:

Blood
like a red flower on the road after an accident
Fire
shooting out of an angry volcano
Lips
kissing a mirror
A heart
broken after a love affair.

Stage 6
Admire your class poem!
Summarise the writing process (Stages 1-5 above) and ask students
to choose their own ‘key word’. This can be another colour, but it
doesn’t have to be. Abstract nouns are usually more productive, e.g.
love, hate, jealousy, power, sadness, loneliness, boredom.
Students can begin their poem in class and finish it for homework.