Hot Potato

hot potato

When I look to my students and feel that they are very tired, stressed out or just too blasé (when we have all the blank faces) I usually like to shake things up with a very fun and quick game of hot potato. This goes with all levels and it's very easy to be done when you have some object to be used as the hot potato (in my classes I use a very soft ball that is a left over of the last World Cup's decoration) and some device where you can play a song.

I let them choose a song, which is very quick, and let them start passing the ball for some 20 seconds until the game really begins. They have to pass the ball until the music stops. When it does, the person who is holding the ball has to so something. Usually sts start to loosen up after the first round.

This 'something' is always related to class: the person has to give the answer to the next exercise, to spell the word given (when I'm teaching / recycling spelling). I usually do this activity when I'm correcting something or recycling something. It's a way for sts to get unstressed and to make the activity more fun.

Duration of the activity: 2-5 min

Blame it on the Samba

Aim of the activity: talk about emotions (basic students)

Duration of the activity: 05-08 minutes

• Show students the first two minutes of the video (from 0:33' to 02:00').
• Ask the students about Joe Carioca and Donald Duck feeling throughout the video, such as How are they feeling? Are they happy? Are they bored? Are they sad? How does the samba make them feel? What about the waiter? Is he a little mad?

• Ask students about their own experience with music: Does samba make you feel happy? What kind of music makes you feel happy? How do you feel when you listen to The Smiths?
• Recycling: ask students about the scenery. Are they in New York? Are they in Rio de Janeiro?
• Recycling: ask students about the actions of the characters (for this you either have to play the video twice, or you play the video stopping at each action). They will probably come up with: walk(ing) / go(ing) to a restaurant / sit / bring the menu /smoke /  play an instrument or play the guitar / sing / dance
• they'll probably ask you about tear (01:20')