Ice-breakers, warmers and fillers
материал по английскому языку

ICE-BREAKERS, WARMERS AND FILLERS     

Sometimes it’s difficult to get students to wake up, let alone motivated to learn English at the beginning of the week. You may use warmers, ice-breakers or fillers.

Warm-ups are activities that set the pace for the rest of the lesson, gradually ease students into using the target language in class, and review or preview lesson content. While ice-breakers are usually meant to help students get to know each other better, the objective of warmers is to get them ready for a certain topic or task.  Fillers, on the other hand, are activities that don´t require much time or preparation, and are designed to finish a topic or a class on a lighter note, or to review vocabulary before the next part of the lesson.  But warmers, ice-breakers and fillers should have at least one ingredient in common: fun. 

Here are some examples of activities:

SIMILARITIES

This activity requires no preparation. The students must ask each other questions until they find three things that they have in common. They must be things that are not obvious. For example, they can’t say “we both have black hair”. It is easy to model the activity interviewing a student until you find three things that they have in common with you.

GOODBYE

Tell them to imagine that this is the last class period, and they should stand up and pretend that they are saying farewell. If the students seem reluctant, help them a few useful phrases such as “I’m going to miss you!” or “Promise me you’ll stay in touch.” Then have them mingle and say goodbye to at least three people.

DICTATION RACE

Small groups – choose Runner, Secretary, Correctors  – 4 copies of a Dictation Text – around classroom. When you clap secretary and runners must change. Points for finishing first, points for mistakes. Least points is a winner.

BACK TO THE BOARD

Write a word on a  note and stick it to the back of one of the students, have him/her come to the blackboard. Class gives clues in English and volunteer guesses.

ALPHABET GAME

Round class. Give a word beginning with last word mentioned. Apple – Egg – Gun – Nose etc

PERSUADE SOMEONE

Begin the class by having students choose a side on some “issue”, like “Which is better, cats or dogs?” Then teach them some language of persuasion, as necessary: “I think cats are better because …” or “in my opinion, dogs are a better choice for pets because…”. Students should then go around the room and attempt to persuade someone to their own point of view. They must also listen to other’s arguments. When a student has persuaded someone, he or she may sit down.

OPTIMIST AND PESSIMIST

The teacher should begin by explaining the terms “optimist” and “pessimist”, perhaps using the “glass-half-full-half-empty” analogy. Then in pairs, have students take opposite perspectives, one of an optimist or pessimist, on an issue that can be as easy as “Will it rain tomorrow?” to the more complex, “When will the economy improve?” Have them talk for about five to ten minutes then switch topics, and have students switch roles as well. Besides providing vocabulary development and conversation practice, this exercise develops thinking skills as students discuss from a variety of perspectives.

WORD ASSOCIATION

Give 2 words, for example, “bread” and “baby”. Students have to link the two words through a progression of words associations, such as “bread – food – drink – milk – baby”. You can either determine the number of words used to link, or have a contest to see which pair can do it in the fewest steps.

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