Moving in the classroom

Getting students out of their seats in the classroom can be good for them – but it’s sometimes difficult to think of useful activities. Why not try these?

All change

• On the board write: I want to change ______ for _______.
• Students sit in a circle; there should be one less chair than the number of students.
• Give each student a prepared word. If you are revising clothes vocabulary you could use: a pair of tights, a sweater, a pair of trousers, a dress, a shirt, a tie, a skirt, a jacket, a coat, a hat, a scarf, a pair of boots. Everyone reads their word out loud. The person in the middle then says, for example: I want to change a pair of trousers for a scarf. The two students who have the words a pair of trousers and a scarf have to change places. While they are changing places, the person in the middle tries to take one of the seats. The person who is left in the middle, starts again with I want to change…
• Check that all students are being asked to change. You may need to ask students to repeat their words. Every now and again you can shout: All change! Then everyone has to get up and change seats, and of course the person in the middle has the chance to find a seat.
• You can adapt this to numbers, countries, food items, sports – anything!

What are you doing?

• Prepare some slips of paper before the lesson using the present participle: singing, dancing, ice-skating, cooking spaghetti, baking a cake, laughing, skiing, playing football, and so on.
• In turn, students take a slip of paper and go to the front of the class. One student asks: What are you doing? The student should mime their activity. The other students guess and shout out the activity (make sure they all use they ‘ing’ form of the verb!)