Ransom letter note

Word order is important and here is a fun activity to sensitize students to word order and sentence structure of the English language. 

1. Prepare banks with a large number of words. To make the activity more interesting and fun, you can type words with different fonts and sizes on different colour paper or cut them from magazines and newspapers.
2. Divide the students into groups and give each group a word bank, a sheet of paper and a glue stick.
3. The students work together and make sentences from the words in the bank and stick them to the sheet of paper so that it looks like a ransom letter note.
4. Stick the sheets on the wall.

For more information on word order, go to: http://linguapress.com/grammar/word-order.htm

Describing shapes

Here's another activity to eliminate boredom in the classroom and enhance speaking and listening comprehension.

1.Prepare a sheet of paper with different shapes on it (like the one shown above).
2. Make several copies ( the number will depend on the number of students in class - the students may work in groups or in pairs)
3. Cut the sheets of paper along the lines so you now have sets of shape cards.
4. Divide the students into groups or pairs and give each group/pair a set of shape cards, which they spread on the desks.
5. Ask a volunteer student to be the speaker and give him/her a sheet of paper with the original arrangement of the shapes.
6. The speaker then describes each shape so that all other students can arrange the shapes in their original order.
7. At the end of the activity the students compare their arrangements with the original one.

Can you spell correctly?

Every line contains one word which is not spelled correctly. Which is it?

1. ceiling, deceive, recieve, correspondence, clique
2. bravado, chasm, ambassador, feign, acquital
3. malicious, irelevant, interrogative, martyr, indisputable
4. hindrance, gruesome, etiqette, expedient, curriculum
5. embroidery, benevolent, elimination, primitive, vulnarable
6. undoutedly, versatile, unanimous, respite, retrieve
7. prejudice, poignancy, mallicious, monotony, maintenance
8. apology, applicant, arrangement, astma, apostrophe
9. chaufeur, consequence, aerial, adolescence, abstain
10. colonel, envious, existance, legitimate, fashionable
11. insufficient, internally, inept, forgery, headquaters 
12. dilema, frivolous, council, bachelor, asphalt
13. dialogue, hospitality, crypt, coleague, dominance
14. melodious, obsolete,  prefarably, perceive, sophomore
15. predecessor, sieve, rehearsal, genious, suburban

You will find the Key in the first comment.

Test your vocabulary skills

Choose the best adjective out of the two given in each question below:

1.    Sammi didn’t have time to finish the whole exam, so some of her answers were incomplete/deficient.

2.    My father’s new car is really rapid/fast.

3.    The weather forecast wasn’t very accurate/truthful, because they said it would rain and it’s been fine all day.

4.    The noticeable dearth of goal-scoring opportunities means that these are annoying/worrying times indeed for Danby United.

5.    My little brother is so greedy/eager. He’s just finished his fourth banana!

6.    We gave a donation to the charity, partly because the children on their poster looked     so precious/vulnerable.

7.    When we got married my husband promised that he would always be dependable/faithful to me.

8.    I like the new cushions on your sofa, they’re lovely/lovable.

9.    I believe if you want something in life badly enough you should be powerful/persistent and never give up until you’ve reached your goal.

10.  This isn’t the finished version of my essay. I always write a rough/clean draft first.

11.  Some critics haven’t enjoyed Spielberg’s later films, such as The Terminal and AI, finding them a little too sentimental/extreme.

12.  James proposed to Maria at Gina’s party on Saturday. He got down on one knee and everything! It certainly made for a spectacular/memorable evening.

13.  When I told my boss that I needed two weeks off to visit my sick grandmother in Mexico, she wasn’t very sympathetic/acceptable. Probably because she knows I don’t have any relatives in Mexico.

14.  Jenna doesn’t like her curly/floppy hair, but she’s too lazy to straighten it.

15.  “Jas, that skirt is horrendous! No one will ever find you remotely pleasant/attractive if you go outside wearing that!” counselled Jas’s best friend, Mandy.

You will find the answers in the first comment.

 For more activities on English check this site:

http://www.englishbanana.com/