Warm ups

Here are some warm ups that have been proven to work in the Albanian classroom.
Some of these are good to use at the beginning of class (no more than 5 minutes), but
others can be expanded into longer exercises.

Word jumble
Write 5-8 words on the board but scramble the letters. These words can be new
vocabulary that the students learned the last class or a specific category/theme that
will be taught that day.
Example: The students will be learning about daily activities so the jumbled
words could be days of the week and today/tomorrow/yesterday.
dyuaest =
Tuesday
yrdiaf=Friday
Fill a place
Choose a place (a school, a kitchen) and have the students list all of the things that
can be found in this place.

Describe an object
Put a word on the board and the students have to use words and phrases to
describe it.
Example: cat=black, gray, white, etc., 4 legs, tail, whiskers, drinks milk, has
fur, 9 lives

What do you see?

Put a picture on the board and the students describe what they see (orally or
written).

Irregular verbs
Put 10 irregular verbs on the board and have students write their simple past
tenses or past participles.

What was he/she wearing?

Ask for a volunteer to come to the front of the room and tell the rest of the class to
observe the student. Then ask the student to go outside the classroom (only
outside the door) until you tell him/her to come back in (reassure them that it's for
no more than 5 minutes). After they leave have the students write down what
he/she was wearing.

Word find
Write a big word on the board such as INTERNATIONAL OR
OVERCONFIDENT and have the students make words from the letters.

Create-a-word
Write 6-8 letters on the board (A,P,T,E,L,S,M) and the students make words with
these.

Antonyms/synonyms

Put 7-10 adjectives on the board and have the students write the antonyms and/or
synonyms for each.

Word circle
Put a word on the board such as CLOTHES, COLORS, FRUIT and have the
students write things that go under the category (nouns and verbs).

How many things can you think of that...

are bigger/smaller than you.
are older/younger than you.
are square/circular/rectangular
make noise
are made of paper/wood/wood
live on a farm

Description of an alien
Read the following paragraph to the students and have them draw the alien you
are describing.
I was walking down the street when I saw something walking towards me. It
had a square body, four legs and three arms. Each arm had a hand with 4 fingers.
It also had three heads. One of the heads was circular with curly, short hair. It
had one eye in the middle of its head and it was smiling. Another head was big
and square with 3 eyes. It had big ears like an elephant and only two teeth in its
mouth. The last head was triangular with one hair on the top of its head. It had
one big eye and one small eye and its mouth was frowning. It was frightening!

Vocabulary dictation
Say 7-10 words and have the students write them down. Then go to the board and
ask the students to spell the words. This is good practice for spelling and saying
the alphabet.

Country, Nationality, Language

Put this table on the board. Have the students copy it and fill it in.

Country

Nationality

Language

Russia

Russian
French

China
Canadian
German
the United States
Irish
Brazilian
Japanese
India

Discussion questions
Any of the discussion questions found in this book can be used as 5 minute
writing exercises.

Riddles
These riddles are good as fillers or warm-ups. They are best for beginner and
intermediate classes because of their simplicity.
Im not a bird, but I can fly.
I eat insects and fruit.
Im dark.
me.
I sleep upside down.
(bat)

Im brown on the outside.

Im white on the inside.
Im hard and you can eat or drink
Im hairy.
I grow in hot countries.
(coconut)
Im usually made of paper.
I have lots of colors.
I have pictures and numbers on

Im yellow and round.

Im the same size as an apple.
You cant eat me.
me.
You hit me with a racquet.
(tennis ball)

You use me to buy things.

(money)

Every country has one.

I have different colors.
I need wind to fly.
The British one is red, white and blue.
(flag)

Im a special day.
People buy each other presents.
Im romantic.
Im in February.
(Valentines Day)

Im something you do everyday.

breakfast.
Im an Olympic sport.

Im something people eat for

Im hot.

You use your legs to do this.

me.
Its slower than running.
(walking)

You can put butter and jam on

Im a sport.
Im usually done by men.
You need to be powerful and quick.
the
Muhammad Ali is the most powerful man
who has played this sport.
You wear shorts and gloves.
(boxing)

Im a beautiful animal.
Im found in Africa.
I have the first and last letters of

Im cooked bread.
(toast)

alphabet in my name.
Im like a horse.
Im striped.
(zebra)

The ABCs
The students write the ABCs vertically in their notebooks. Choose a categoryadjectives/verbs/animals/food (whatever you want)- and have the students write
one word in that category that begins with the particular letter.

Odd one out

Put lists of words on the board (or you can do this orally) and have the students
chose which one is the odd one out. Here are some examples:
table
earth
run
beans

chair
lake
late
onions

coffee
sun
tired
bread

rug
moon
nervous
soap

Number dictation
Read a list of numbers to the class and have them write them in their notebooks.
At the end, have the students come up to the board and write the numbers that
were read.
OR
Write a list of numbers on the board and have the students say them out loud.