CREATIVITYThe key to success in the English class

Carlos Gontow

This is a summary of the activities presented in the workshop. You can adapt these activities to any lesson. Just use your imagination and creativity. Good luck!

- Information Questions

Students ask each other three questions:

What’s your name?What’s your address?What’s your phone number?

They role-play the conversation using different situations:

a receptionist at a gym and a studenta receptionist and a patient at a hospitala doctor and a patienta police officer and a driver who had an accident

- True or False Activities

Instead of answering True or False, have students do something different when the answer is True or False, such as clap hands, snap their fingers, etc.

- Demonstrating the articulation of sounds

Show students the correct articulation of the sounds. You can use pictures, movies, etc. For example, for the “th” sounds show pictures or videos where you can see people sticking their tongues out. This will convince students that they should do the same.

- Birthday / Bird Day / Burst Day

Students sing the songs “Happy Birthday to You,” “Happy Bird Day to You,” and “Happy Burst Day to You.” This is fun and will help them realize what they’re saying.

- Third x turd

Use pictures to show the differences.

- /i:/ x /I/

Show the differences:

- sheep x ship- leave x live

- Feeling / filling

A feeling is an emotion.A filling is what the dentist puts in your teeth when you have a cavity.

Song: “Feelings”

Song: “Fillings”

- Using familiar tunes to teach grammar

For example, use “Happy Birthday to You” to teach the difference between “there is / are” and “has / have.”

MY TOWN HAS MANY DIFFERENT PLACESor

THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT PLACES IN MY TOWN

There's a bakery near hereThey have different kinds of bread

There's a drugstore downtownThey have drugs for your head

There's a hospital on the cornerThey have people who are sickThere's a fire station near hereThey have trucks that are quick

There's a supermarket hereThey have different kinds of food

Feelings, nothing more than feelingsTrying to forget my feelings of love

Fillings, nothing more than fillingsTrying to stop this pain in my teeth

There's a library at my schoolThey have books that are good

There's a video store thereThey have DVDs

There's an appliance store, tooThey have lots of TVs

We use have for possessionAnd there is to describe

- Songs with ordinal numbers

Get songs that mention ordinal numbers for students to listen and try to understand the ordinal number. Then sing along.

SONGS WITH ORDINAL NUMBERS

Fill in the blanks with ordinal numbers. The names in parenthesis are the singers or the bands.

1. (Heartland)

I loved her ________________ and I held her _______________

2. (Valencia)

There’s a place down on _________________ StreetWhere I can go to rest my head

3. (Lindsay Lohan)

I wanna come _____________, I wanna come _____________

4. (Statler Brothers)

They were protected by the ________________ man in the fireThey wouldn't bend, they wouldn't bow, they wouldn't burn

5. (Joe Diffie)

Welcome to Earth, ______________ rock from the sun

6. (Jonas Brothers)

Kissed her for the ______________ time yesterday

7. (Gloria Gaynor)

_____________ I was afraid, I was petrifiedKept thinking I could never live without you by my side

8. (from the musical “Hair”)

When the moon is in the _________________ houseAnd Jupiter aligns with Mars

9. (Mariah Carey)

It was twilight on the ______________ of July

10. (Jonas Brothers)

This is an S.O.SDon’t wanna _________________ guessThis is the bottom line, it’s true

11. (Susanne Vega)

My name is Luka

I live on the _______________ floor

Sugestion: Sing the lines from “My name is Luka” several times, changing the name and the number of the floor.

My name is LukaI live on the second floor.

My name is Brian

I live on the third floor

- What time is it?

Use the song “What Time is it?” from “High School Musical 2” to practice asking and answering questions with “What Time is it?”

The Question Song

Melody: La CucarachaIdea: To work with question formation.Use your imagination and write your own lyrics to teach grammar / vocabulary / pronunciation

THE QUESTION SONG

What's your name?Where do you live?

Where are you from?Are you Brazilian?

Why did you come here?Do you want to sing along?

Are you married?Do you have children?What are their names?Do you speak English?Where did you learn it?

How long have you studied here?

Do you like pizza?Do you like milkshake?

Would you like a piece of cake?Have you had dinner?

Are you hungry?How about some chicken pie?

Are you a lawyer?Are you a doctor?What do you do?

Can you play tennis?Can you play soccer?

Have you seen “Scooby Doo?”

Did you like the workshop?Isn't it wonderful?

Did you have a lot of fun?Did you enjoy yourself?

What was your favorite part?Would you like to say good bye?

carlosgontow@uol.com.brVisit my homepage: http://sites.uol.com.br/ccgontow

Orkut: Carlos Gontowyoutube: carlos gontow

Book: “The Classroom is a Stage – 40 short plays for English Students” – DISAL Editor