This document provides descriptions of several warm-up activities and games that can be used in an English language classroom. Some of the activities described include having students write facts about a topic in groups, finding adjectives that correspond to the letters in their name, listing unconventional uses for a potato, guessing examples that are the "odd one out", naming items that meet certain criteria, and playing review games like SOS and vocabulary bingo using student teams. The activities are meant to be engaging ways to start class, review material, and get students interacting with each other in English.

1. MY FAVORITE WARM UPS
What do you know about bananas?
In groups students think of and write down as many facts as they can about
bananas (or cats, Belgium, David Beckham, etc.). One point is given for each true
sentence.
What does your name mean?
Using whatever resources they have at hand, students find and write down an
appropriate adjective that begins with each letter of their first name.
For example: Flirtatious, Relaxed, Extrovert, Desirable
Things to do with a potato
Produce a potato (if that’s not possible, the concept of a potato).
Ask students to list as many unconventional uses for it as they can.
For example: paperweight, weapon, pen holder, iPhone dock. The longest list wins
the potato.
Odd one out
Give the students a couple of examples to guess (there are no right or wrong
answers), then get students to think up their own ideas.
Examples:
apple, peach, banana, tomato (a banana doesn’t have seeds)
window, river, envelope, client, oregano (client doesn’t begin and end with the
same letter)
Name ten
Get students to think of ten items that fit a certain criteria.
For example, name ten:
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)
The Toilet Paper Game: an ESL Introduction Activity for the First Class
This is the perfect way to start your first class, if
there are less than 15 students. Bring in a roll of
toilet paper. Tell students they can choose between 2
and 6 pieces. It’s up to them how many they take.
Tell them no other details. When everyone has some
paper, tell the students that they have to say one
sentence about themselves for each piece that they
have. Example: name/favorite food/ hobby/
members of their family.
The Alphabet ESL Game:
This is a simple game you can play for a warm-up when your students already
know a lot of the vocabulary about the topic. I put them in teams of 2 and they
have to write the alphabet on a piece of paper. Then you can give them a topic.
Today, mine was “Words to describe a city.” Examples: B-Busy, E-Exciting.
Give them 3 or 4 minutes, collect the papers, check for the inappropriate answers,
add up the points and you have a winner!

2. SOS Review Game
I’m sure you know the game S-O-S. If you get three “S’s” in a
row or three “O’s” in a row you draw a line through it and get a
point. I’ve adapted this game for my purposes.
I draw a grid on the board, usually 6×6. I give them numbers
and letters to make it easier for the students to pick what box
they want. Then, I divide the students up into teams of 4 or 5
and give them each a symbol (triangle, square, star, heart,
etc). Then, I ask review questions, going from team to team.
Simple, easy questions with a definite right or wrong answer are best to keep this
game moving quickly. A correct answer gets them a square on the board. I do 6 or
7 rounds, and by this time the good teams will have 2 or 3 points. The top team
gets a prize.
As a final note: this game gets boring after 20 minutes or so, so don’t plan on
playing this for an entire class. It works best as a warm-up review kind of game.
Comic Strip Challenge
There are lots of simple comic strips that you can find
on the internet to use for this activity. Post it up on
your powerpoint and there are 2 different things you
can do:
1. Blank out the dialogue and have students make up
their own. Put them in groups of 2-4, depending on
the size of the class. Award a small prize for the most
interesting one.
2. Leave the dialogue, and give the students a few minutes to read and try to
understand what is happening. Then, take the comic off the screen and ask a few
understanding questions.
A Vocab Review Game:
Write the vocab words on a flip chart of some sort. I use an old notebook and write
one word/page. Divide the class up into teams. I find that 5-8 people/team works
well. One student from the team comes and sits at the front of the class facing his
or her teammates. I show one word at a time to the team but not the person sitting
at the front. The team has to give hints about the word, in English only, using no
body language. An example: EYE. Hints students give: 2, on face, I can see.
I do 2 or 3 rounds of 1 minute each and the goal is to get as many words as
possible in that 1 minute. If the team uses body language or their native language,
I discount that point. This game is very, very fun.