My Favourite EFL Classroom Warmers

By: Nadia Zehni
Submitted: 2007-01-17 10:58:53
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I always find the first ten minutes of a lesson the most difficult - it’s vital to capture students’ interest and involve them from the start. An effective warmer could make the difference between an alert and participating class, and a group of zombies who decide to catch up on the sleep they missed out on from partying the night before... (This comes from my experience of teaching teenagers on the holiday island of Malta!)

1. True / False
For a first lesson with a new group of students I usually use the True or False warmer. First I make sure the class know the difference between true and false, and can give me some examples of true and false statements. I then ask the class to write three interesting sentences about themselves on a new sheet of paper. Two sentences must be true and one must be false.

When they have finished writing their sentences, I ask the class to stand up and move the desks out the way so that they can mingle. Each student must find a partner, greet them and introduces themselves, say what country they are from, and listen to their partner’s three sentences. They must then guess which is the false statement. Once both students have attempted a guess, they move on to another person in the class and repeat this process.

This works really well to break the ice in a group of students that don’t know each other. It gives them an opportunity to introduce themselves, say what country they are from, and share some interesting information about themselves. I always participate in this warmer so that the students feel that they know something about the teacher too. You can follow this activity by discussing which sentences were the most original and which was the most interesting topic that was brought up.

2. Guess the Famous Person
The following warm up works well to lead into a topic on celebrity or fame and fortune. This exercise will require pictures of famous and recognisable celebrities (one for each student). Make the students stand in a line with their backs to you and stick a picture on their backs with some sticky tape. The aim of this warmer is to ask people questions about their celebrity and help others find out about theirs. The students will need to keep circling round, looking at the pictures on each others backs and helping out until everyone has found out who they’re mystery celebrity is. This works as particularly good practice for forming yes / no questions, or as a follow on from a lesson learning how to describe people.

3. Where in the world
This warmer works really well with an international group of students as they will be able to contribute more varied information and will spark discussion amongst themselves. Before students arrive I place a piece of paper with a name of a continent on each table. When the students arrive I let them deliberate and wonder about the continent. I then put the following headings up on the board: food, clothes, famous people, drink, animals (and any others you may want to add) I give them some time to brainstorm items to put under each heading for their continent. This leads into some good discussion about differences between countries, and stereotypes about countries within them.

These warmers should get the students to participate and lead in nicely from a previous lesson or into the coming one. If they are successful it will set the tone for the lesson and keep the students interest more effectively.

About the Author: Nadia Zehni has extensive experience teaching English as a Foreign Language in England, Malta and France. She is a regular contributor to EnglishForums.com, the world’s busiest EFL community, which receives over 30,000 visits a day. It’s an excellent resource for EFL teachers looking for information about grammar, phonetics, EFL jobs and teaching tips. English students on the other hand can learn English by posting questions and getting help from volunteer EFL teachers, as well as speaking with other learners. To benefit from this fantastic resource sign up for free at http://www.englishforums.com!

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