SPEC 1 Unit 5
Instructions for teachers
Warmers
All but one student closes their eyes. One student knocks on something such as the whiteboard or the teacher’s desk, perhaps after noisily walking towards it. The other students try to guess the object with “Is it a…?”, with hints like “It’s big” and “It’s brown” if they can’t guess.
| Useful language for doing the activity
Is it a(n)…? Yes, it is./ No, it isn’t. Is it wood/ black/ little/…?/ What colour is it? It’s big/ small/ tall/ metal/ dark blue/ plastic/… |
Is it a/ Is it drawing games
One student slowly draws something while the other students guess with “Is it a…?”, perhaps starting with things in the classroom to link with the warmer.
One student asks about something that they’d like to draw with “Is it a…?”, e.g. “Is it a banana?” If their partner answers “Yes, it is”, they can draw that thing. If their partner says “No, it isn’t”, they have to draw something else instead, but anything else is okay at this stage.
The same game can then be played with the student who asked trying to draw something similar to (but not the same as) the original question if they get a no answer, e.g. drawing a cheetah if they asked “Is it a lion?” and the other student said “No, it isn’t”. This can also be done as a competition, with everyone but the person who answered the question racing to draw the thing in the question if they get a “Yes” answer or to draw something close but not the same if they get a “No” answer.
After some practice with just one question, move onto students asking first about the object and then about adjectives, e.g. drawing a black melon if they ask “Is it a melon?” and “Is it green?” and the answers are first “Yes, it is” and then “No, it isn’t”. The same thing can also be done with a coin, flicking to see if the answer to each question should be “Yes” (heads) or “No” (tails).
Perhaps after the brainstorming tasks, students can test each other on their memories by hiding one thing in the pictures and asking questions about it.
Other games
Probably after doing the brainstorming task, you can play the simplest responses game/ stations by reading out one phrase and getting students to show if it should go with “Is it a…?” or “Is it…?” by holding up cards, holding up their hands, touching one of two walls, etc.
You can also add more speaking by a student choosing one thing such as a classroom object and answering yes/ no questions like “It is big?” until the other people guess what it is.
| Is it a | banana
bat bird book bus chair clock comb cow crocodile cup dog dolphin dragon fan fish giraffe guitar hat hippo horse house jacket key lemon lion mirror monkey peach pen piano pig pineapple rabbit robot ruler sheep snake spider strawberry tiger toothbrush towel tree watermelon whiteboard zebra |
? |
| Is it | big/ large
black blue brown dark blue green grey happy light green little/ small old orange pink pretty/ cute purple red sad short tall thin ugly yellow |
? |
—————————
Brainstorming stage
Write as many suitable words as you can in each space below, making sure you choose the right space for each word but looking at the words in the other boxes. You can ask your teacher about spelling if you like.
| Is it a
|
? | |
| Is it
|
? |
————————-
Mixed answers
Use these mixed words to add at least three more things to each box above.
banana big/ large
bird black
book brown
clock cow
crocodile cup
dark blue dog
dolphin fan
fish giraffe
grey guitar
happy hat
hippo horse
house jacket
key lemon
light green lion
little/ small mirror
monkey old
orange peach
pen pig
pineapple pink
pretty/ cute purple
rabbit red
robot ruler
sad sheep
short snake
spider strawberry
tall thin
toothbrush towel
tree ugly
yellow zebra
———————
PDF for easy saving and printing: is it is it a be with nouns and adjectives games
TEFLtastic 