Fun+and+Games

=Fun and Games= On this page you can find some fun activities to do, which are sometimes related to themes, such as Halloween etc. or are sometimes just for fun:

Close Up
Here's a general one: stop the picture, explore it with the torch and as you go guess what the picture actually is: media type="custom" key="26744708"

Activity One
Look at the picture below and put the text in the correct order. Then you can check your ANSWERS ANSWERS

Activity Two: Halloween Compounds
The word "Halloween" itself is a compound: Do you know what the two parts are? It is made up of the adjective "hallow" which means "holy" and the old noun form " e'en " which was a short form of evening. Do the matching game below to find other Halloween-related compounds:

Activity Three: Test yourself
Now do this little test to see if you remember what the compounds mean:

Halloween 2011: Meet the Pumpkins
Use this to practice speaking or writing. You can choose.

ACTIVITY ONE: Writing Descriptions
Go to the [|Voicethread page] and make an account (All you need is an email address and it is free.) Then you can come back here and comment directly on the Voicethread. You can do this by recording your voice if you have a microphone, which is an excellent way to practice speaking, or you can type your comments and ideas. media type="custom" key="10979152"

ACTIVITY TWO: Having fun with Song Lyrics
If you like songs you will know how useful they are for learning new vocabulary and expressions (as well as for your pronunciation). This site **Lyrics Training** is very good for this. You can choose a song or an artist and then listen to the song as well as doing an activity with the lyrics. You can even choose the level you want, and the program me takes more or fewer words out of the text accordingly. So, have a go, here is the [|Aqua song Halloween].

If you want to you can do this vocabulary matching exercise before you listen to the song to make sure you understand the key ideas: You can listen to the complete song without doing the exercise directly on YouTube, of course.

ACTIVITY THREE: Follow up Work
When you do this, remember that you can pause the text and you can check the vocabulary you want to remember. There are some interesting words, phrasal verbs and verb patterns in this song:

Examples
1. "I've got your number" (This can mean literally that you know someone's telephone number but it can have other meanings too. Check it in a monolingual dictionary to see what else it can mean.) 2. "I'm back" (Notice that we use "to be" + "back" to say "I have come back/returned") 3. "I'm back to haunt you" (An interesting verb pattern here: I'm back + to + "Haunt") "To + infinitive" in this case shows an intention. Check "haunt" in the dictionary for more meanings but in this case it means to frighten someone repeatedly. 4. "Keep running" Notice the verb pattern "keep" + "ing" (In this case it means CONTINUE)

These are just a few examples of interesting uses of languages in this text. Remember that the best way to remember vocabulary is to use it, so you could then write examples for yourself.

STUDY TIP
If you like songs use Lyrics Trainer to do this type of activity with one song a week. You will soon see how your vocabulary grows, and have fun at the same time. :-)

Halloween 2012
An eerie song for you this year and some lovely materials to follow it, all courtesy of YouTube and also [|ESOLcourses.com]_ media type="youtube" key="AxcM3nCsglA" height="315" width="420"

For more fun activities on the Halloween theme, including the fantastic "Monster Mash" song and worksheet, follow the link below to the Esolcourses Halloween activities on Facebook. The esolcourses page always has excellent activities at any time of year :-)

[|Esolcourses][| Halloween Activities] [|The song and past tenses worksheet]

Christmas 2010
There are Christmas activities on B1 Week Ten and C1 Week Ten pages and here is a worksheeet to do with three pieces of music. You can do this with any short piece of music which has an atmospheric feel to it. If you missed the lesson you might like to try answering the questions yourself with an English speaking friend:

Christmas 2011
This year I've decided to celebrate the run up to Christmas, which is "Advent": that time of year which is full of the expectation of good things to come. So, just for you, here is my Advent Calendar. Open it like any other Powerpoint Presentation and use the numbers on the first page (the calendar) to navigate to that day's activities. Then simply navigate back again by clicking on the star in the bottom righthand corner of each page: (On some vesions of Powerpoint not all the pictures load, in which case use this PDF version:

Advent 2012: here is a new advent calendar for 2012
Click on each day to see the animation: you could even predict it first, and then go to 24 and look for the photo that corresponds to each date. There is a new question for discussion on each one. media type="custom" key="21650930"

Try this simple quiz for starters:
If you want to try some Christmas fun follow [|this link].


 * Christmas Trees**
 * Do this little quiz and then go to the [|history.com site] to check your answers and watch the YouTube video:**

media type="youtube" key="zw1TZDfykvw" height="315" width="560"

Christmas 2013
This year we looked at the houseblinging lesson on Esolcourses.com This is [|the link].

1) [|John Lewis Ad and article] 2) [|Second video] 3) [|Facebook Discussion]
 * Christmas 2016**

New Year 2011
1) Look at this activity to see some of the things I did over the Christmas holidays, but beware because some things are true and some are false- Can you guess which are which?

Now it's your turn: write five things that are true about your holday and five that are false and ask a partner to guess which are which (in English, of course )

The Flatmates Episode 74: Alone at New Year (based on the BBC series: [|The Flatmates]) 1) Look at the initial picture and press the pause button: who is this? What is happening? Why are Alice and Kitty alone at New Year? 2) Now watch the episode to see if you were right; 3) Look at the activity below to see if you can put the monologue into the correct order. The parts on the left are in the correct order but those on the right are mixed.) 4) What can you tell about Alice from this dialogue? What type of person is she? What is her background? What is her job etc? 5) Look at the [|background tab on The Flatmates page]of the BBC site, and read about Alice. Were you right? 6) Now can you imagine a New Year scene with different characters. Write a short dialogue between them and act out the scene. Your classmates guess who they are and what is happening.

Vocabulary Revision Test
If you did the last two exercises ("trueorfalse" and "aloneatnewyear") you might like to do this vocabulary test based on lexis in those activities to see how much you have noticed:

New Year's Maze
You may like to try this activity to decide what is in store for you this year:

Intermediate (B1) listening practice
Listen to [|this podcast about New Year around the world], and note what people do in different countries. Why is fire often connected to New Year celebrations? If you like this podcast, you can find more at this site, which are well done and at a B1 level. Happy listening

Family and Relationships
Look at this image which contains some proverbs or sayings about family and relationships. See if you can put the words in order and then check the solution below.

2. Can you think of any similar sayings in your language?
=Easter is on its way=

1) Look at the first file below and make sure you understand the vocabulary which you will need to be able to do the class activities this week: 2) **Jumbled Text** Download this document and you will see three texts adapted from an article in "The Independent". 1) Look at version a) and decide what you think //might have been// changed. Version a) starts by saying: "Airplanes, of course, are modern symbols of fertility..." You will probably see that something is wrong here. Are airplanes symbols of fertility? No... so either "airplanes" or "fertility" must have been changed. You need to read carefully through the text to see where things do not make sense, and, therefore, have probably been changed.
 * For example**

2) Look at version b) and do the same. 3) Check your ideas on the original version (DO THIS NOW: **NOT** BEFORE YOU DO1) and 2))

3) Easter Quiz from the BBC. Follow this link to do a fun Easter Quiz produced by the BBC: []