Picnic time

A role-play activity where the students use the target language to ask questions about a fictional picnic.

First, the students make a list of six kinds of food or drink that they are going to bring on a picnic. When they have finished, divide them into groups of three or four and have them ask each other questions.

They should use their list of items to make the questions:

Student A: Have you got any water?
Student B: Yes, I've got some water?

Eating habits

For this speaking activity, the students will quiz each other about their eating habits.

Start by eliciting different types of food and adding them to a list on the right-hand side of the board. Then draw a table on the board with the columns food/drink, me and John (A student in the class). Inform the students that they are going to ask each other questions about their eating habits. Demo this three times with a student before they start, encourage the use of frequency adverbs and write the questions and answers on the board for the students to copy:

Teacher: Did you eat any chocolate today?
Student: Yes, I ate some chocolate after lunch. I always have chocolate after lunch (Put a tick)

Teacher: Did you have any eggs for breakfast?
Student: No, I didn't have any eggs. I never eat eggs. (Put a cross)

Then have the students interview each other and record the results with ticks and crosses. Five to eight questions should be enough.

Spill the beans

A follow-on speaking activity where the students report what they learned during the previous task:

Go round the class and ask each student a few questions about their partner's answers during the last task. Depending on the size of the class, 3-6 should be enough.

Teacher: So what did you learn?
Student: He ate a lot of eggs for breakfast yesterday, he didn't eat any fruit or vegetables today...

Stop the bus 

Two teams of students race to think of different food types that begin with a randomly allocated letter. 

Start by dividing the class into pairs or teams of three to four. Draw a table on the board with the headings meat, fish, fruit, veg, drink and other. Each group creates a copy. In every round, students must find a word to go in each category that begins with a randomly chosen letter. The first team to finish, shouts "Stop the bus!" and the round is over. 

Since your students' vocabulary might be limited in this area, you might want to consider setting a time limit. 

When the round is over, count up the scores like so: 

20 points: Correctly spelt a word that the other team doesn't have. 
15 points: Correctly spelt a word that the other team also has. 
10 points: Incorrectly spelt a word that the other team doesn't have. 
5 points: Incorrectly spelt a word that the other team has.